The volcanic eruption that strongly reshaped the island of La Palma since it began in September 2021 seems to have ended during the last days of the last year. Here is a before-after comparison based on Sentinel-2 image data comparing an image taken on December 29, 2021 with one from January – so approximately a year ago with similar lighting conditions and seasonal appearance.

Apart from the area directly affected by the lava flow you can see changes in color over a larger area affected by the fall of volcanic ash. In particular large parts of the pine forest in the mountains close to the eruption have changed in color from green to yellow.

Here for reference a ground picture i took in 2011 from the area just above the site of the new eruption.

The ground in this image is formed by volcanic ash probably quite similar in color and structure to many areas newly covered by ashfall from the recent eruption now so it could be indicative of how the wider area in parts might develop over the next decades.