I’ve always taken refuge in the words of those scientists who dismissed the idea that a piece of La Palma the size of the Isle of Man could detach itself from the island, slide into the sea, create the biggest mega-tsunami recorded and wreak havoc across the world. Within five minutes of speaking with eminent geologist Dr Simon Day, my comfort blanket was in shreds and my position had changed from idly wondering if it might happen, to wanting to know exactly when it would happen.

Dr Day’s research about the collapse of the Cumbre Vieja on La Palma caused an eruption of its own when it was published nearly ten years ago. Last week Dr Day and volcanologists from more than 50 countries were at the Casino Taoro in Puerto de la Cruz for the Cities on Volcanoes Conference (COV6) – an international forum about managing volcanic risks. As home to one of the World’s decade volcanoes, Tenerife was the perfect choice for the conference. With temperatures soaring to heights which added a sense of ‘being there’ to slideshows of molten lava, Mount Teide rising above the Orotava Valley added a sublime finishing touch.

Whilst experts debated how to reduce risks from volcanic eruptions, there were presentations ranging from topics whose very titles could make your head spin like ‘Plagioclase zoning as an indicator of magma processes’ to ones of more general interest based around the beneficial aspects of living beside volcanoes, especially from a tourism point of view. These were full of fascinating snippets.

A presentation on innovative tourism demonstrated that the scenery in the Teide Crater really is out of this world – the Culann Patera Volcano (a name straight out of Star Trek) on Jupiter’s moon Io is the intergalactic double of Mount Teide.  Another about volcanoes and adventure tourism informed delegates that Yellowstone National Park have a fascinating book about how people have died in the park which apparently includes someone who went scuba diving in a boiling hot spring.

As well as speeches and presentations there was an art exhibition with a volcanic theme, not always obvious, and a display of local schoolchildren’s paintings.

During the conference I met up with Dr Simon Day and asked him about a big chunk of La Palma going scuba diving.

Dr Simon Day

Not a lot has changed since he published his findings. The Cumbre Vieja remains stable which some equate to being safe.
“It’s only safe in the same way that driving along a winding road at 50 mph in dry conditions is safe,’ he explained. ‘Drive along the same road in wet conditions at the same speed and it’s no longer safe. There hasn’t been an eruption in that time, but it’s what happens then that makes the situation unsafe.”

When there is one the land mass becomes less stable and potentially moves. This is what happened in 1949 when, following an eruption, part of the western flank of the island slipped about 13 feet.

“It might not be the next eruption, or the one after that, but every time it happens and the Cumbre Vieja moves, it becomes more unstable. Eventually it will detach and slide into the sea,” Dr Day told me with unflinching conviction.

Becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility of being engulfed by a mega-tsunami when this happens, I asked about the chances of it falling into the sea gradually so that the impact is negligible as suggested by some. His answer was simple, yet compelling.

“It’s never happened that way before.”

There have been dozens of landslides triggered by eruptions and every one of them has gone in one big chunk. It’s a fact that is hard to argue with and one that demanded another question. When could it happen?

At this point it’s essential to separate reality from sensationalist newspaper headlines. When scientists talk about events, their timelines are different from yours and mine. They talk about centuries the way we talk about years. It’s impossible to predict when Mother Nature is going to throw one, but when Dr Simon Day states that a piece of La Palma is going to fall into the sea, he doesn’t mean tomorrow, next year, or even next century. To put it into perspective, the closest I could pin him down to was that he believed if he returned in ten thousand years, La Palma won’t be as big as it is now.

And therein lay part of the aim of COV6; to learn more about living with volcanoes is to understand them better and remove the fear that sensationalist reporting can awaken.

“Worry more about crossing the road,” is Dr Day’s reassuring advice to those of us who live on these volcanic islands.

Mention volcanoes and what do many people visualise? Possibly an angry mountain spewing out rivers of molten lava and turning the skies black with billowing clouds of gloomy smoke.

The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (I’m sure somebody called me that in a Govan pub once) in Iceland and the subsequent havoc caused by its clouds of ash have helped reinforce the idea that volcanoes are malignant giants whose purpose is ultimately one of wanton destruction.

It’s no wonder that our forefathers believed that they were the homes of gods with particularly unstable temperaments.

And yet every time I turn that corner on the road between Tacoronte and El Sauzal and ‘El Teide’ looms larger-than-life on the horizon, dwarfing the Orotava Valley, the overwhelming emotion I feel is not one of nervous anxiety; it’s one of wondrous awe at living in the shadow of such an iconic wonder of the world.

El Teide is one of the factors that make Tenerife unique and other Canary Islands are only too aware of this. On La Gomera, they claim that the most outstanding views of Teide are from their island and publicity for hotels on La Gomera make the most of their vistas of the ‘majestic’ mount.

But distant views don’t quite compare with actually standing on the spot where Tenerife’s original Guanche inhabitants believed the earth held up the sky. As a tourist magnet, Mount Teide has a strong gravitational pull. Millions are attracted to its other worldly terrain annually and Hollywood chose it as a stand in for Ancient Greece for the blockbuster movie Clash of the Titans. Teide National Park also has the distinction of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the mountain itself is one of sixteen volcanoes in the world designated as Decade Volcanoes.

What Are Decade Volcanoes?
This is a good news, bad news sort of scenario. Being classified as a Decade Volcano by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI) adds another prestigious title to Mount Teide’s collection – good news. To be classified a Decade Volcano, a volcano must have an explosive history and be located very close to centres of human population – potentially bad news.

Other Decade Volcanoes include Colima in Mexico (ongoing eruptions since 2001); Santa María, Guatemala (ongoing eruptions since 2003 and whose worst eruption in 1902 killed up to 6,000 people); Vesuvius, Italy (the one that destroyed Pompeii) and Unzen, Japan (15,000 people killed in an eruption in 1792).

Compared to them, Mount Teide seems like a slumbering baby whose occasional awakenings have generally been little more than worrying inconveniences.

Eruptions on Tenerife

• 1492 – Columbus sailed the ocean blue and stopped off at La Gomera on his way to discover America possibly because El Teide was throwing a hissy fit.
• 1704 – Siete Fuentes erupts.
• 1705 – Montaña Fasnia and Montaña Arenas both erupt.
• 1706 – The most famous eruption on Tenerife. Montaña Negra blows its top, takes out Garachico’s harbour and ends the town’s role as Tenerife’s main port.
• 1798 – Chahorra erupts.
• 1909 – Chinyero joins the party and sends streams of lava towards villages in the Santiago del Teide Valley where it stops metres from Las Manchas thanks to the intervention of a saint; so they say locally.

And since then nada. There have been occasional rumblings over the years and Spanish Scientist Dr Alicia Garcia caused an eruption of a different kind in 2009 when she didn’t choose her words particularly well by implying that Teide was primed and ready to blow at any moment, prompting an understandably angry reaction from the Tenerife government. But for the moment the giant continues to remain tranquilo.

So What Will Happen if Teide Erupts Again?
With impeccable timing, given the events taking place in Iceland, the Commission of Cities and Volcanoes (CaV) and the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI) are co-hosting the COV6 – Tenerife 2010 conference in Puerto de la Cruz at the end of this month.

COV stands for ‘Cities on Volcanoes’ and the conference aims to bring together geoscientists working on active volcanoes, authorities, civil protection specialists, city planners, social scientists, economists, psychologists, educators, health specialists, engineers, mass media and general members of communities living near active volcanoes to discuss how to improve volcanic risk management in densely populated volcanic regions.

In laymen’s terms that means devising strategies so that you and I don’t end up running hell for leather down a street with our pants on fire and a stream of molten lava hot on our tails. Sounds like a damn good reason for a conference to me.

COV6 Fact file:- The conference runs from May 31 to June 4 and includes field trips and sessions covering topics ranging from the science of volcanoes, crisis management of volcanic eruptions and the risks and opportunities that come from living near an active volcano.