La Palma: Encyclopedia II - La Palma - Volcano

La Palma - Volcano

The island was formed as a seamount by the volcanic activities like all of the Canary Islands. La Palma is the most active volcano of the Canary Islands and was formed 3 million years ago. It rises 3.5 km from the seafloor to the sea surface and reaches a height of 2.426 km 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

There are unfounded claims that during the 1949 eruption the western half of the Cumbre Vieja ridge slipped several metres downwards into the Atlantic Ocean. There is no geological evidence for this. There is evidence to suggest that a small superficial crack appeared close to the volcano, but this cannot be described as dangerous and the coastal area did not move. Two publicity-seeking scientists falsley claim 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 also claim that during a future eruption, the western half of the island, weighing perhaps 500 billion tonnes, could slide into the ocean. They claim that this could generate a giant wave known as a megatsunami around 1 km high in the region of the islands. The wave would fan out across the Atlantic and strike the Caribbean and the eastern American seaboard several hours later with a wave possibly 90 m high causing massive devastation along the coastlines. However, independant scientists have historical evidence that the flank of the island would crumble away over a period of millions of years, instead of falling into the ocean in a large mass. The mathematical model used by the 2 hazard industry scientists has been completley discredited as erroneus and their speculations have been labelled as scaremongering.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Volcano", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki