Volcanologists search for answers as the Portuguese island of the Azores continues to rock.

By Catarina Demony

SAO JORGE, Portugal (Reuters) -Fatima Viveiros was a little girl when she decided to become a volcanologist. It was a dream come true and now, aged 44, she is using her skills to protect her home in the Portuguese Azores archipelago.

The lush volcanic mid-Atlantic island of Sao Jorge, where she grew up, has been rocked by more than 14,000 small earthquakes in the past seven days.

Viveiros and other experts fear tremors of up to 3.3 magnitude, which could trigger a volcanic eruption for the first time since 1808, or a strong earthquake.

“My house is on an active volcanic system,” said Viveiros, who works for the region’s CIVISA seismic volcano monitoring center.

“When (something happens) in our home, we have to be a little cold-blooded, so that our emotions don’t influence our thoughts,” she added. “But the emotion is there because it’s my home, my people.”

Viveiros is carrying a yellow instrument on his back that measures the soil gases on Sao Jorge.

Soil gases, such as carbon dioxide and sulfur, are indicators of volcanic activity, and Viveiros and her team battled Sao Jorge’s rain and strong winds for days to find the answer. answer. So far, the level is still normal.

The island’s sudden increase in seismic activity is reminiscent of earthquakes detected before the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted last year on the Spanish island of La Palma, about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the Azores ) to the southeast.

In 85 days, that eruption destroyed thousands of properties and crops.

Viveiros, who went to La Palma at the time to support the Canary Islands Volcanic Institute and monitor soil gases there, said Sao Jorge’s volcanic system was similar to the one on the Spanish island.

“One of the possible scenarios on the table is that we see something similar to what happened in La Palma,” she added.

‘ABNORMAL’

Viveiros said other teams of Spanish and international experts are ready to go to Sao Jorge if needed.

CIVISA raised the volcano alert to Level 4 on Wednesday, meaning there is a “real possibility” the volcano could erupt.

Jose Bolieiro, president of the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal, said the number of earthquakes in Sao Jorge in recent days was twice as high as last year.

“Clearly there is an anomaly,” he told reporters.

Although authorities say an eruption did not occur, about 1,500 people have left the island by air or sea in recent days. Many people do not know when they will be able to return.

Arriving by helicopter, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa visited Sao Jorge on Sunday to attend a news conference on the situation and reassure locals. He also visited a historic tower that survived the 1808 eruption.

Late Sunday, Rebelo de Sousa socialized with locals in Calheta, a town on the east side of the island where people seek safety. Most of the seismic activity takes place west of Sao Jorge.

He drank a glass of traditional Azorean wine, kissed and hugged members of the crowd and took selfies with them.

Dozens of soldiers have been mobilized to Sao Jorge, where they are staying in large tents with beds that can hold 100 people in the event of an evacuation. The municipalities of Sao Jorge have also converted various facilities into temporary reception centers.

As soldiers worked behind him, Major Rodolfo Romeiro told Reuters more resources would be sent to the island next week.

“Our mission is to help the people,” said Romeiro. “In these situations, the momentum (of the armed forces) is even greater.”