Canarias was destined to become the volcano command center from all over Spain. The Archipelago will house the National Volcanology Center in Tenerife or La Palma without anyone doubting that the reasons why it should do so are obvious and logical due to its great volcanic risk. The years of scientific research, the data collected, the collaboration between institutions and Risk planning has been key to being able to face the three earthquake-volcanic crises that the Canary Islands have suffered in just 18 years. But the reality is that, at the beginning of this century, this same initiative would have had a much harder time gaining support.
To understand the history of how the Canary Islands have become benchmarks in state volcanism, we must go back to 2004. The Canary Islands were experiencing a new economic dawn. The consolidation of mass tourism at the beginning of the 80s distanced Canarian society from the volcanic dangers that slept underground while the majesty of Mount Teide was relegated to just another tourist attraction. But one day things changed. At the end of April, the vicinity of Las Cañadas began to show signs of activity. The residents of several municipalities felt the roars of Teide and the alarms did not take long to sound.
At that time there were only two institutions on the island capable of reading the movements of the earth. The Geophysical Center of Tenerife, of the National Geographic Institute (IGN), and the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). The Geophysical Center of the Canary Islands, installed on the island in 1961, had some seismic stations scattered throughout the Islands. In 1985 the IGN, in an effort to create a National Seismic Network, installed –not without technical difficulties– five stations in the Canary Islands: one in Tenerife, two in El Hierro, another in Gran Canaria and a last one in Fuerteventura. By the year 2000, the IGN’s Canary Islands Seismic Network had seven stations, including one on Mount Teide (Tenerife) and another on Lanzarote. At the same time, the geologist specialized in volcanology, Juan Carlos Carracedo, had installed a network in Tenerife that was part of his Volcanological Station of the Canary Islands, of the CSIC, in which a highly relevant research group in the field of volcanology had been formed. However, this network was scientific in nature and not surveillance.
The first observation
It was these stations that, for the first time, were able to capture the first traces of a volcanic eruption in Spain. Subsequently, researchers from the Environment Division of the Technological and Renewable Energy Institute (ITER), led by the now scientific coordinator of the Canary Islands Volcanic Institute (Involcan), also participated in the observation of the phenomenon – which was postponed for several months. , Nemesio Pérez, who had established themselves as experts in gas emissions.
That April 2004 was a turning point for volcanology in Spain for several reasons. For the first time in almost three decades, the canaries were aware that they had forgotten that the volcanoes slept under their feet. At the same time, the island’s institutions realized that they were not prepared to face a crisis of this caliber, nor did they really know its real danger. And it was also then that it became clear that there was no one behind the wheel. For this reason, in June of that same year, the State, through Royal Decree 1476/2004, decided to grant responsibility for the “observation, surveillance and communication of volcanic activity in the national territory and determination of associated risks” to the General Directorate of the IGN.
From this date, the Institute begins a new stage with the creation of the work area, Volcanic Surveillance and Alert, which leads to expanding the work of the different Seismic Network Services, as well as the Geophysical Center of the Canary Islands, located in Tenerife . In subsequent years, the surveillance network is reinforced and, little by little, experts in the field are incorporated. But they were not easy beginnings, since the center had to rely on CSIC experts, through an agreement, to be able to correctly carry out the work that had been entrusted to it.
At the same time, in 2005 the Senate voted in favor of creating a Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (IVC, later Involcan) in a motion presented by, at that time, a senator for the Canarian Coalition, Ricardo Melchior. At that time, it was urged to create an IVC as an “autonomous body dependent on the three public administrations with greater powers in civil protection against a possible crisis: Cabildos, Government of the Canary Islands and the Spanish State”, despite the fact that that proposal meant duplicating the powers that a year before they had been granted to the IGN. The unanimous political vote was transferred to the Parliament of the Canary Islands in 2006, to the Congress of Deputies in 2009 and to the general assemblies of Fecam and Fecai in 2008 and 2014, respectively.
The institutional declarations were what promoted the creation, on June 29, 2010, of the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan), as a public company associated with the Technological and Renewable Energy Institute (ITER) and promoted by the Cabildo de Tenerife.
A few months after Involcan emerged, the Special Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Attention due to volcanic risk in the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands was approved. A management tool that today the entire Archipelago knows better by its acronym: Pevolca. The Archipelago thus led a new era in volcanic risk management in Spain. In fact, it was not until 2013 that the State Plan for Civil Protection against Volcanic Risk was approved. Said Plan ratifies the surveillance competence of the IGN, something that Decree-Law 2/2022 has also done this year. These plans have been essential to manage both the El Hierro (2011) and La Palma (2021) crises. Two historical moments, which have also made it possible to expand and improve all the surveillance and volcanic knowledge of the Canary Islands
modern surveillance system
This regulation recalls that, although “Spain already has a seismic and volcanic monitoring system”, the eruption of La Palma has “shown that it is essential to immediately have a modern and adequate monitoring system” that has with the collaboration of the different actors of the public administrations involved in the matter. And in compliance with this declaration of intent, the National Center of Volcanology is created, although its functions are still unknown, how it will be organized or, what has generated a greater debate: on which island it will be installed.
Tenerife and La Palma have not been slow to request to be the place where the headquarters of this new body will be installed. And the truth is that both islands have become serious competitors in this regional struggle. The final decision of the regional and national Executive will probably be known in the coming days, since Sánchez has announced his imminent visit to the island of La Palma, but for the moment, the final location is a mystery.
The defenders of Tenerife argue that it is the right island to house this control center because it is the one with the highest volcanic risk in Spain, more scientific centers and a long scientific and governmental history of supporting volcanic risk management.
