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| Visiting Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands |
Today, The Grandma is visiting La Palma with Claire Fontaine, who arrived last night to this beautiful island.
Some years ago, Claire and The Grandma visited this wonderful place and now they have wanted to remember that travel returning to the same places.
Joseph de Ca'th Lon has also arrived to Santa Cruz de la Palma to start this wonderful trip with them. He likes Astronomy and he wants to visit El Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory.
La Palma is an amazing place for The Grandma, who is a great fan of volcanoes. She loves this island, its landscapes and the most incredible, its people.
Before starting their trip around La Palma, The Grandma has been studying a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Grammar 15).
More information: Wishes
La Palma, also San Miguel de La Palma, is the most north-westerly island of the Canary Islands. La Palma has an area of 706 km2 making it the fifth largest of the seven main Canary Islands. Its highest mountain is the Roque de los Muchachos, at 2,426 metres, being second among the peaks of the Canaries only to the peaks of the Teide massif on Tenerife.
In 1815, the German geologist Leopold von Buch visited the Canary Islands. It was as a result of his visit to Tenerife, where he visited the Las Cañadas caldera, and then later to La Palma, where he visited the Taburiente caldera, that the Spanish word for cauldron or large cooking pot -caldera- was introduced into the geological vocabulary. In the center of the island is the Caldera de Taburiente National Park; one of four national parks in the Canary Islands.
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| Volcanic beaches in La Palma |
La Palma, like the other islands of the Canary Island archipelago, is a volcanic ocean island. The volcano rises almost 7 km above the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
There is road access from sea level to the summit at 2,426 m, which is marked by an outcrop of rocks called Los Muchachos. This is the site of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, one of the world's premier astronomical observatories.
There is road access from sea level to the summit at 2,426 m, which is marked by an outcrop of rocks called Los Muchachos. This is the site of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, one of the world's premier astronomical observatories.
La Palma's geography is a result of the volcanic formation of the island. The highest peaks reach over 2,400 m above sea level, and the base of the island is located almost 4,000 m below sea level. The northern part of La Palma is dominated by the Caldera de Taburiente, with a width of 9 km and a depth of 1,500 m. It is surrounded by a ring of mountains ranging from 1,600 m to 2,400 m in height. On its northern side is the exposed remains of the original seamount.
More information: Visit La Palma
Only the deep Barranco de las Angustias, ravine 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 2,000 m down to the sea. Today, only a few of these carry water due to the many water tunnels that have been cut into the island's structure.
From the Caldera de Taburiente to the south runs the ridge Cumbre Nueva -the New Ridge, which despite its name is older than the Cumbre Vieja- Old Ridge. The southern part of La Palma consists of the Cumbre Vieja, a volcanic ridge formed by numerous volcanic cones built of lava and scoria. The Cumbre Vieja is active -but dormant, with the last eruption occurring in 1971 at the Teneguía vent which is located at the southern end of the Cumbre Vieja- Punta de Fuencaliente. Beyond Punta de Fuencaliente, the Cumbre Vieja continues in a southerly direction as a submarine volcano.
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| Enjoying Caldera de Taburiente, La Palma |
Like all of the Canary Islands, La Palma originally formed as a seamount through submarine volcanic activity.
La Palma is currently, along with Tenerife, the most volcanically active of the Canary Islands and was formed three to four million years ago. Its base lies almost 4,000 m below sea level and reaches a height of 2,426 m above sea level. About a half a million years ago, the Taburiente volcano collapsed with a giant landslide, forming the Caldera de Taburiente. Erosion has since exposed part of the seamount in the northern sector of the Caldera.
La Palma is currently, along with Tenerife, the most volcanically active of the Canary Islands and was formed three to four million years ago. Its base lies almost 4,000 m below sea level and reaches a height of 2,426 m above sea level. About a half a million years ago, the Taburiente volcano collapsed with a giant landslide, forming the Caldera de Taburiente. Erosion has since exposed part of the seamount in the northern sector of the Caldera.
More information: About La Palma
Since the Spanish occupation, there have been seven eruptions -all of which have occurred on the Cumbre Vieja:
-1470–1492 Montaña Quemada
-1585 Tajuya near El Paso
-1646 San Martin Volcano
-1677 San Antonio Volcano
-1712 El Charco
-1949 Nambroque at the Duraznero, Hoyo Negro and Llano del Banco vents Volcanos
-1971 Teneguía Volcano
During the 1949 eruption -which commenced on the fiesta of San Juan 24 June 1949 at the Duraznero, and 8 July 1949 Llano del Banco vents on the Cumbre Vieja -an earthquake, with an epicentre near Jedy, occurred. This is considered to have caused a 2.5-kilometre-long crack which Bonelli Rubio (1950) named La Grieta, to form, with a width of about 1 m and a depth of about 2 m. It attains a maximum displacement of ~4 m in the vicinity of the Hoyo Negro to Duraznero vents. It is not traceable southward from the Duraznero vent.
More information: Reservas Parques Nacionales
North of the Hoyo Negro it traverses downslope and is traceable for ~1500 m. It should be noted that the total distance from the southern rim of the Duraznero vent to the Llano del Banco is ~4 km.
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| Walking across tropical forests in La Palma |
In 1951 Ortiz and
Bonelli-Rubio published further information in respect of the eruption
and associated phenomena that occurred before and during the eruption.
There is no indication that the crack has penetrated the edifice of the volcano, and, due to the absence of Minas Galerias, water tunnels, within the Cumbre Vieja, there is no possibility of examining the internal structure of the flank.
There is no indication that the crack has penetrated the edifice of the volcano, and, due to the absence of Minas Galerias, water tunnels, within the Cumbre Vieja, there is no possibility of examining the internal structure of the flank.
The local economy is primarily based on agriculture and tourism. Plátanos or bananas are grown throughout the island with many banana farms on the western side of the island in the valley of Los Llanos de Aridane.
Other crops include: Strelitzia, bird of paradise, flowers, oranges, avocados and grapes, which grow well in the volcanic soil. The wine from the grapes is prized. Local ranchers herd cows, sheep and goats, from which they make goat cheese.
More information: Hello Canary Islands
Fishermen operating from Santa Cruz, Tazacorte, and Puerto Naos catch fish for the local markets.
La Palma has abundant plant life, including several endemic species. Although large areas have been deforested, the upland areas of La Palma retain some of the evergreen temperate cloud forest, or laurisilva, laurel forest, where species of Lauraceae, such as Laurus azorica and Ocotea foetens are a characteristic component. This is a relic of the Pliocene subtropical forests which used to cover the island.
The Canary Island pine, Pinus canariensis, is found on all of the western Canary Islands, but it is particularly abundant on La Palma. The pine forests are home to two recently discovered and extremely rare La Palma endemics: Lotus eremiticus and L. pyranthus.
Spartocytisus supranubius, a white-flowered broom known locally as Retama del Teide, is native to La Palma and Tenerife, being restricted to the alpine/subalpine habitats present only in these two islands. Like Tenerife, La Palma also has its own alpine violet, Viola palmensis.
Echium pininana, Tree echium, is endemic to La Palma and the tallest species in the genus, reaching over 4 m.
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| Searching answers in El Roque de los Muchachos |
It is related to Echium wildpretii, Tower of jewels, which occurs, with separate subspecies, in the subalpine zone of both Tenerife and La Palma.
Both species are monocarpic, producing a massive terminal inflorescence. Echium webbii, a branched shrub with several smaller, dark blue flower spikes, is another island endemic with close relatives on Tenerife.
The daisy family, Asteraceae, comprises several La Palma endemics such as Sonchus palmensis, Argyranthemum haouarytheum Pericallis papyracea and Cheirolophus sventenii.
Both species are monocarpic, producing a massive terminal inflorescence. Echium webbii, a branched shrub with several smaller, dark blue flower spikes, is another island endemic with close relatives on Tenerife.
The daisy family, Asteraceae, comprises several La Palma endemics such as Sonchus palmensis, Argyranthemum haouarytheum Pericallis papyracea and Cheirolophus sventenii.
Several animals are native or endemic to La Palma, including the:
-La Palma giant lizard, believed extinct until rediscovered in 2007
-Western Canaries lizard, Gallotia galloti subspecies palmae
-Graja, Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax barbarus, subspecies of the red-billed chough
-Canary Islands chiffchaff, Phylloscopus canariensis
-La Palma chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs palmae
-Western Canary Islands goldcrest, Regulus regulus ellenthalerae
-Canary Islands quail, Coturnix gomerae, now extinct
In addition, many other animals have been introduced, including rabbits and Barbary sheep, or aoudads, which have become a serious threat to endemic flora.
A biosphere reserve was established in 1983, and extended and renamed in 1997 and 2002.
More information: Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Every volcano is a powerful illustration of God's character.
He is a Vesuvius of goodness, life, and energy.
Reinhard Bonnke
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