The Canary Islands, showing La Palma
'La Palma', a
Spanish island, is one of the
Canary Islands in the
Atlantic Ocean off
Africa. It is located at .
Description
La Palma has an area of 706
km² making it the fifth largest of the seven main canary islands. The total population is about 85,000, of which 18,000 (2003 data) live in the capital,
Santa Cruz de la Palma and about 20,000 (2004 data) in
Los Llanos de Aridane.
La Palma's geography is a result of the
volcanic formation of the island. The highest peaks reach about 2400 m above sea level, and the foundation of the island reaches more than 3000 m below sea level. The northern part of La Palma is dominated by the
Caldera de Taburiente, the largest erosion crater in the world, with a width of 9 km and a depth of 1500 m. It is surrounded by a ring of mountains ranging from 1600 m to 2400 m in height. Only the deep Barranco de las Angustias canyon leads into the inner area of the caldera which is a national park. It can be reached only by hiking. The outer slopes are cut by numerous gorges which run from 2000 m down to the sea. Today, only few of these carry water due to the water tunnels.
From the caldera to the south runs the ridge
Cumbre Nueva. The southern part of La Palma is dominated by the
Cumbre Vieja, a ridge formed by numerous volcanic cones built of ashes, providing a rather bizarre landscape. Several of these volcanoes are still active. The southern cape
Punta de Fuencaliente, where the most recent volcanic activities took place, consists of lava and ashes.
La Palma is dominated by the colors blue, green and black. Blue is the surrounding ubiquitous sea. Green comes from the abundant plant life which is the most diverse in the Canary Islands. Black comes from the volcanic rocks that still fill the landscape, and from the numerous small beaches made of black
sand.
Government
The island is part of the
province of
Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The other major city on the island is
Los Llanos.
The island is divided into 14 municipalities:
Volcano
A view of La Palma from its highest point.
The island was formed as a
seamount by volcanic activities like all of the
Canary Islands. La Palma is the most active volcano of the Canary Islands and was formed 3-4 million years ago. It rises 3500 m from the seafloor to the sea surface and reaches a height of 2426 m above sea level. 500,000 years ago the primary volcano Taburiente collapsed with a giant landslide which formed the Caldera de Taburiente. The known historic eruptions are:
★ 1470-1492 Montaña Quemada
★ 1585 Tajuya near El Paso
★ 1646 Volcán San Martin
★ 1677 Volcán San Antonio
★ 1712 El Charco
★ 1949 Volcán San Juan, Duraznero, Hoyo Negro
★ 1971 Volcán
Teneguía
During the 1949 eruption of the
Cumbre Vieja a small amount of surface subsidence occurred close to the small volcano vent. In a
BBC Horizon program broadcast on
October 12 2000, two scientists used this surface anomaly to claim that half of La Palma slipped four meters downwards into the
Atlantic Ocean.
[1][2] They believe that this process was driven by the pressure caused by the rising
magma heating and vaporizing water trapped within the structure of the island. They projected that during a future eruption, the western half of the island, weighing perhaps 500 billion tonnes, could slide into the ocean. This could generate a giant wave known as a
megatsunami around 900 m high in the region of the islands. The wave would fan out across the Atlantic and strike the
Caribbean and the eastern
American seaboard some eight hours later with a wave possibly 90
m or more high causing massive devastation along the coastlines. The incident was further explored in a BBC docu-drama called ''
End Day'' which went through several hypothetical events of disastrous proportions.
There have been a number of reports disputing these claims.
The Tsunami Society published a statement in 2003 stating that they "would like to halt the scaremongering from these unfounded reports."
[3] Another Web site by a resident of La Palma gives a point-by-point rebuttal of the major points raised by the BBC program.
[4] The major points raised in these reports include:
★ The conclusion that half of
Cumbre Vieja dropped 4 m during the
1949 eruption is erroneous, and contradicted by physical evidence.
★ No evidence was sought or shown that there is a fault line separating a "block" of La Palma from the other half.
★ Physical evidence shows a 4 km long line in the rock, but the models assumed a 25 km line, for which no physical evidence was given. Further, there is no evidence shown that the 4 km long line extends beyond the surface.
★ There has never been an
Atlantic megatsunami in recorded history.
However, there is now a growing consensus within the scientific community that large-scale collapses of volcanic islands do occur and that large tsunamis have occurred in the Atlantic in the geological past. Despite this there is still no evidence reliably proving a cause and effect. All the documented large scale tsunamis in the Atlantic have been verifiably attributed to underwater earthquakes and not island collapses. Evidence of Tsunami deposits has been reported from the Caribbean and the Canary Islands. A ground survey of the Island conducted in the 1990s found a small (but within error) movement of the supposedly detached block away from the rest of the Island. Since the 1990s the area has been, and continues to be, continually monitored and no movement has been detected.
Fauna
The following animals live on La Palma :
★ The
graja, an
endemic form of
chough which only lives here
★ Nocturnal an harmless
geckos
★
Jellyfish and
sea urchins
★
Centipedes
History
The Canary Islands had been settled by the native Canarians called
Guanches whose origin is still controversial. They had a Neolithic culture divided into several clans led by chiefs. Their name for La Palma was
Benahoare. The main remnants of this culture are their cave dwellings, enigmatic
petroglyphs and paved stone paths through the mountains. After the Spanish occupation of La Palma, the native Canarians vanished by either being killed, sold into slavery or by assimilating into the Spanish population.
It is probable that the
Canary Islands were known to the
Phoenicians and the
Greeks. The
Genoese navigator
Lancelotto Malocello reached the archipelago in
1312 and remained for two decades until expelled by a native uprising. In
1404 the Spaniards began the conquest of the islands. Though the first landing on La Palma was in
1405, it took until
1493 and several bloody battles until the last resistance of the natives was broken. The conqueror of La Palma was
Alonso Fernández de Lugo, who defeated
Tanausu, the last king on the island. He ruled the area known as Acero (Caldera de Taburiente). Tanausu was ambushed after agreeing to a truce arranged by Fernández de Lugo and Juan de Palma, a Guanche who had converted to
Christianity and who was a relative of Tanausu.
For the next two centuries, settlements on La Palma became rich as the island served as a trading post on the way to the
New World. La Palma received immigrants from
Castile,
Portugal,
Majorca,
Flanders, and
Catalonia.
Water tunnels
The most famous structures of La Palma are the water tunnels which carry the water from sources in the mountains to cities, villages and farms (mainly banana plantations). La Palma receives plenty of water due to the
clouds brought by the
Trade Winds. The tunnels were carved into the rocks over centuries. One can follow some of the tunnels by hiking, a popular activity for tourists (Compare to the ''
levadas'' of
Madeira). The tour to the
Marcos y Corderos waterfall and springs is also popular.
Observatories
Main articles: Roque de los Muchachos Observatory
Due to the location of the island and the height of its mountains, some 2400 m above sea level, a number of international
observatories have been built on the
Roque de los Muchachos. The particular geographical position and climate cause
clouds to form between 1000 m and 2000 m, usually leaving the observatories with a clear sky. Often, the view from the top of the volcano is a sea of clouds covering the eastern part of the island. Telescopes at the observatory include:
★ The
Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) operates three telescopes: the 4.2 m
William Herschel Telescope, the 2.5 m
Isaac Newton Telescope and the 1 m
Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope.
★ The 2.5 m
Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT).
★ The 1 m
Swedish Solar Telescope (SST) operated by the
Institute for Solar Physics.
★ The 0.45 m
Dutch Open Telescope (DOT).
★ A 0.6 m optical telescope.
★ The
Carlsberg Meridian Telescope (CMT).
★ The 1.2 m
Mercator Telescope.
★ The 2 m
Liverpool Telescope.
★ The 10.4 m
Gran Telescopio Canarias (Great Canary Telescope, under construction).
★ The 3.6 m
Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG).
★ The 17 m
MAGIC Telescope, an air shower
Cherenkov telescope for observing high energy
gamma rays
The DOT and the SST have been specifically built to study the
Sun.
External links
La Palma island
★
La Palma, Canary Islands - data and lots of pictures
★
Information and 1000+ photographs
★
Slideshow of La Palma
★
The Island of La Palma
★
La Palma Gallery - Diashows, Landscapes, Impressions
★
Watch from above La Palma points of interests and add your preferred ones (map provided by Google)
★
Interactive 360° panoramic photographs of La Palma in QuickTime VR and Java VR
★
Photoblog La Palma
★
La Palma Diashow
Tsunami threat?
★
Scientists warn of massive wave
★
Tidal wave threat 'over-hyped'
★
The Las Palmas threat
★
Contra-evidence
Telescopes
★
Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos
★
Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
★
Nordic Optical Telescope
★
Dutch Open Telescope
★
Carlsberg Meridian Telescope
★
The MAGIC Telescope Home Page
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