La Palma (, ), also known as La isla bonita (, ) and historically San Miguel de La Palma, is the most northwesterly island of the Canary Islands, a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in Macaronesia in the North Atlantic Ocean. La Palma has an area of making it the fifth largest of the eight main Canary Islands. The total population at the start of 2023 was 84,338,Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Madrid, 2023. of whom 15,522 lived in the capital, Santa Cruz de La Palma and 20,375 in Los Llanos de Aridane. Its highest mountain is the Roque de los Muchachos, at , being second among the peaks of the Canaries after 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.
Etymology The full name of the island is "San Miguel de La Palma" ("Saint Michael of La Palma"), usually abbreviated simply to "La Palma". La Palma is nicknamed "La Isla Bonita" ("beautiful island").
Origins and geology La Palma, like the other islands of the Canary Islands archipelago, is a volcanic ocean island. The volcano rises almost above the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. There is road access from sea level to the summit at ,ISTAC "Instituto Canario de Estadistica" (In Spanish). Retrieved 24 April 2009 which is marked by an outcrop of rocks called Roque de Los Muchachos ("Rock of the Young Men"). 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 above sea level, and the base of the island is located almost below sea level. The northern part of La Palma is dominated by the Caldera de Taburiente, with a width of and a depth of . It is surrounded by a ring of mountains ranging from to in height. On its northern side is the exposed remains of the original seamount. Only the deep Barranco de las Angustias ("Ravine of Anxiety") 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 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 ('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 ridge is active, last erupting in the 2021 La Palma eruption, which destroyed more than 2600 buildings and caused one death. Beyond Punta de Fuencaliente at the southern tip of the island, the Cumbre Vieja continues in a southerly direction as a submarine volcano.
Volcanism and eruptions
Like all of the Canary Islands, La Palma originally formed as a seamount through submarine volcanic activity. Along with Tenerife, La Palma is the most volcanically active of the Canary Islands. Its base lies almost below sea level and reaches a height of 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 old seamount in the northern part of the caldera. Since the Spanish have kept records, there have been eight eruptions – all of which have occurred on the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge: 1470–1492 Montaña Quemada 1585 Tajuya 1646 Volcán Martín 1677 Volcán San Antonio 1712 El Charco 1949 Volcán San Juan: Duraznero, Hoyo Negro and Llano del Banco vents 1971 Volcán Teneguía 2021 Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption
At Cumbre Vieja ridge a new monogenetic volcano burst on 19 September 2021 after several seismic crises that rocked the island, among other anomalies regarding volcanic surveillance. At 85 days, it is the longest known and the most damaging volcanic eruption on La Palma since records began. The total damage caused by the volcano amounts up to 843 million euros. A Special Commissioner for the Reconstruction of the island of La Palma was created in 2022, tasked with coordinating and promoting the actions adopted by the General State Administration to repair the damage caused by volcanic eruptions and for the reconstruction of the island. Hector Izquierdo Triana, born in La Palma and secretary of state for finance at that time, was appointed to this responsibility.
Tsunami scenarios
In an episode of the BBC Horizon series broadcast on 12 October 2000, two geologists hypothesised that during a future eruption, the western flank of Cumbre Vieja, with a mass of approximately 1.5 × 1015 kg, could slide into the ocean. This could then generate a giant wave, known as a "megatsunami" around high. The wave could radiate out across the Atlantic and inundate much of the eastern seaboard of North America, and many of the islands in the Caribbean and northern coasts of South America between six and eight hours later. They estimate that such a tsunami could have waves possibly or higher causing massive devastation along the coastlines. Modelling suggests that the tsunami could inundate up to inland.Day, S. J; Carracedo, J. C; Guillou, H. & Gravestock, P; 1999. Recent structural evolution of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, La Palma, Canary Islands: volcanic rift zone re-configuration as a precursor to flank instability. J. Volcanol. Geotherm Res. 94, 135–167.,Ward, S. N. & Day, S. J; 2001. Cumbre Vieja Volcano; potential collapse and tsunami at La Palma, Canary Islands. Geophys. Res. Lett. 28-17, 3397–3400. http://www.es.ucsc.edu/~ward/papers/La_Palma_grl.pdf The claim was also explored in a BBC docu-drama called End Day which went through several hypothetical scenarios of disastrous proportions. However, nowhere in their papers do the authors make any claim about the imminent collapse of the flank. Rather, they state that they have modelled the worst-case scenario.
In 2002 the Tsunami Society published a statement stating "... We would like to halt the scaremongering from these unfounded reports..." The major points raised in this report include: The claim that half of Cumbre Vieja dropped during the 1949 eruption is erroneous, and contradicted by physical evidence. No evidence was sought or shown that there is a fault line dividing the island of La Palma. Physical evidence shows a long line in the rock, but the models assumed a line, for which no physical evidence was given. Further, there is no evidence shown that the long line extends to beneath the surface. There has never been a megatsunami in the Atlantic Ocean in recorded history.Pararas-Carayannis, G; 2002. Evaluation of the Threat of Mega Tsunami Generation from Postulated Massive Slope Failures of Island Stratovolcanoes on La Palma, Canary Islands, and on The Island of Hawaii, Science of Tsunami Hazards, Vol 20, No.5, pp 251–277.
A geological survey published in 1999 concluded that the western flank is stable with no evidence of aseismic creep.Moss, J.L., McGuire, W.J., Page, D., 1999. Ground deformation monitoring of a potential landslide at La Palma, Canary Islands. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. 94, 251–265. Other experts agree that the fracture resulting from the 1949 eruption is a shallow and inactive surface expression that should be monitored, but consider the possibility that it is unstable as being almost nonexistent.Carracedo, J. C; Badiola, E. R; Guillou, H; de la Nuez, J; and Pérez Torrado, F. J; 2001. Geology and Volcanology of La Palma and El Hierro, Western Canaries. Estudios Geol. 57, (5–6) 175–273. Also, it is likely that the morphology of the floor of the Atlantic Ocean would hinder the propagation of a transoceanic tsunami.Murty, T. S; Nirupama, N; Nistor, I; and Rao, A. D. 2005. Why the Atlantic Generally cannot generate trans-oceanic tsunamis? ISET J. of Earthquake Tech. Tech. Note., 42, No. 4, pp 227–236. In 2006 Jan Nieuwenhuis of Delft University of Technology simulated several volcanic eruptions and calculated it would take another 10,000 years for the flanks to become sufficiently high and unstable to cause a massive collapse.New research puts 'killer La Palma tsunami' at distant future , PhysOrg.com, 20 September 2006.
A 2008 paper looked into the worst-case scenario of a massive landslide and subsequent megatsunami. The authors concluded that waves could reach heights in the range 10 to 188 meters in the Canary Islands, but that the waves would dissipate as they radiated out into the Atlantic Ocean. They predict 40 meters height for some nearby island systems. For continents, the worst effects would be expected in Northern Brazil (13.6 m), French Guiana (12.7 m), mid-US (9.6 m), Western Sahara (largest prediction at 37 meters) and Mauritania (9.7 m). While still large, this would not qualify as a megatsunami (apart from locally in Macaronesia), with the highest prediction for Western Sahara comparable to the 2011 Japanese tsunami.Løvholt, F., G. Pedersen, and G. Gisler. "Oceanic propagation of a potential tsunami from the La Palma Island." Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 113.C9 (2008).
Climate La Palma is characterized by two main climate types: the warm/hot summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb/Csa), characterized by dry summers and humid winters, is prevalent in the northern coast and in the mid to high altitudes of the island. At lower altitudes, particularly at the south and southwest coasts, the climate becomes semi-arid (Köppen: BSh). Average temperatures at the coast vary from in January and February to in August and September. For a Canary island, the weather is quite cloudy, as La Palma is far more exposed to marine air systems than easterly islands, caused by the Canary Current. As altitude increases moving inland, the climate becomes cooler and more humid, which provides conditions for laurisilva cloud forests to occur, such as the one in the Natural Park of Bosque de los Tiles.
Government The island is part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The island is divided into 14 municipalities: Name Area(km2) Census Population EstimatedPopulation(2023)Estimate of 1 January 2023: from Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Madrid. 2001Census of 1 November 2001: from Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Madrid. 2011Census of 1 November 2011: from Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Madrid. 2021Census of 1 January 2021: from Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Madrid.Barlovento43.552,3822,0671,9661,992Breña Alta30.825,7157,1737,2237,315Breña Baja14.203,6215,3235,8715,966Fuencaliente de la Palma56.421,8331,8411,7471,849Garafía103.001,7951,5661,8441,949Los Llanos de Aridane35.7917,72020,49320,77320,375El Paso135.926,7647,6657,7137,972Puntagorda31.101,6751,7302,3112,380Puntallana35.122,3372,4072,5522,612San Andrés y Sauces42.755,3514,5784,3114,301Santa Cruz de la Palma43.3817,26516,56815,54615,522Tazacorte11.375,0624,7774,5104,535Tijarafe53.762,7302,6752,5482,632Villa de Mazo71.174,5504,8264,8974,938Totals708.3678,80083,68983,81284,338
La Palma has a "sister city" relationship with El Dorado Hills, California.
Economy