A geoheritage valuation to prevent environmental degradation of a new
volcanic landscape in the Canary Islands
Abstract
On 19 September 2021, a new monogenetic volcano (Tajogaite) erupted on
the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain). After 86 days of
strombolian eruption, with emissions of volcanic material, a pyroclastic
cone 200 m high and 800 m in diameter was formed. Successive lava flows
descended the western slopes and reached the sea on 29 September. On
descending the coastal cliffs and entering the sea, the lava flows
formed two lava deltas of 75 and 5 ha, on the submarine island shelf,
backed by fossilized coastal cliffs. This work presents an approach,
using comparative and numerical methods, to estimate the geoheritage
value and support the conservation of a new volcanic landscape in an
island territory with high anthropic pressure on land uses. In a first
phase, a cartographic inventory was made of all the volcanic formations
similar to the new volcano in the geological domain of the Canary
Islands. In a second phase, their representativeness (A), rarity (R),
diversity (D), integrity (I) and observability (O) was quantitatively
measured by means of dimensional estimators. The results obtained show
that the new volcano presents a geological value of the first order in
the context of the Canary Islands, which is one of the most prominent
hot-spot archipelago worldwide. Its value is based above all on its high
conservation state with respect to the similar volcanoes in the Canary
Islands. The high mismatch found between the intrinsic geological value
and the environmental protection of this area, justifies the development
and application of urgent basic guidelines for its protection, as well
as the promotion of geotourism as opposed to alternative land uses.