Hundreds of earthquakes struck Cumbre Vieja volcano over the weekend with 44 earthquakes reaching magnitude 2.1 on the Richter Scale.
A shock map released by National Geographic Institute shows that 352 earthquakes hit the volcano between Friday at 1.52pm and Saturday at 4.17am.
The dramatic increase in seismic activity has sparked fears that Cumbre Vieja could be about to erupt.
Will the La Palma volcano erupt?
The Institute of Volcanology in the Canary Islands (Involcan) has set up 21 observation stations on Cumbre Vieja this week to monitor the flow of carbon dioxide leaking coming out of the crater.
Volcanic eruptions are notoriously difficult to predict but experts have said the recent seismic activity underneath Cumbre Vieja is nothing out of the ordinary.
Dr Rebecca Williams, head of geology at the University of Hull, told Express.co.uk: “Earthquake swarms are relatively common at active volcanoes and may or may not precede a volcanic eruption.
“Involcan has sent a team to La Palma to investigate further – they would be looking for other signals of magma movement such as changes in the gases released by the volcano.
“As far as I am aware, there is no evidence that an eruption is imminent.”
Is the La Palma volcano a threat?
Despite the threat of eruption, no official volcano warnings have been issued on La Palma or the neighbouring islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
If Cumbre Vieja does erupt the Spanish Islands could be hit by clouds of volcanic ash, similar to when Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull spewed ash over the rest of Europe in 2010.
Some scientists believe that a Cumbre Vieja eruption might cause a “mega-tsunami” powerful enough to submerge the Canary Islands, Portugal, Spain and the UK.
In 2000, the BBC released an episode of Horizon that explored what would happen if the fragile western flank of Cumbre Vieja collapsed into the Atlantic.
The documentary suggested that such a landslide would create a 600 metre tidal wave that could reach the British Isles in about 3.5 hours.
But this theory has been criticised by a number of academics and Dr Williams has assured that Britain faces no direct threat from the La Palma volcano.
“If Cumbre Vieja were to erupt, there would not be an impact to the UK,” she said.
“Any impact would likely be very local to the volcano, and would therefore only really affect local residents and holidaymakers. There is no cause for concern at this point in time.”