Last Saturday, December 9, an illustrated guide book of geology and landscape of Lanzarote published by Ediciones Remotas under the title 'The Island of Volcanoes' was presented for the first time at the Yaiza House of Culture. With an entertaining discussion moderated by the editor Mario Ferrer, which included the participation of the author, Roger Trend, a graduate in geology and geography with a doctorate in science education, the prestigious Spanish researcher Juan Carlos Carracedo, author of the book's prologue together with Valentín Troll, both members of the Royal Canarian Academy of Sciences, and the writer and journalist Larry Yaskiel, luxury guests to bring us closer to this publication conceived for non-specialists, without renouncing all the investigative rigor that supports the signature of Roger Trend, retired professor from Oxford.
A publication that was born as an idea derived from the talks that Professor Roger Trend voluntarily gave to tourists in Lanzarote hotels to talk to them in practical terms about the volcanic personality of the Island, and now, twenty years later.
"I started giving talks in the hotels where I stayed and I realized that people knew little about volcanoes, so I thought about writing a book that would bring that beauty closer to all types of audiences," the author noted. Those conferences in the hotels evolved until they became an illustrated book of 150 photographs by Rubén Acosta and Christian Hansen, 15 graphics and some maps of the Island. The photographs serve as a link between science and aesthetics, thus bringing the contents closer to the reader less versed in the subject.
The book manages to "translate" articles from many years of research, those that science calls 'papers', into a colloquial language that makes it an accessible dissemination tool for schoolchildren, the entire educational community and society in general. Society, said Professor Carracedo, "has the right to know how public money is invested and what are the practical results of the research."
To give an idea of the care of the texts, Mario Ferrer said that "in the correction process there were up to 46 editing proposals to reach the highest level of precision. The idea since the author proposed us four years ago to publish the book was that it would be an easy-to-understand guide, without losing the exhaustive character of the research, which is why we reached so many corrections." The author is a specialist in the didactic dissemination of geology and has been an advisor in more than 40 children's books on geology, geography and science.
Information about the three volcanic shields that make up Lanzarote, the central one, in San Bartolomé, Los Ajaches and Famara, the eruptions of 1,700 or the most recent episode of 1824, as well as incredible or little-known details of the "deceptive" volcanic Lanzarote, as Carracedo explained, are written in a clear and simple way in the guide book.
Juan Carlos Carracedo recalled that Lanzarote is really an "extension" of Fuerteventura, "the Bocaina Strait was not always submerged", as he also specified that the lava tube of La Corona of 7.5 km in length "is not an underwater tube, but a flooded tube, it is the scientific magic that helps us understand the changes that occur over time."
"And there is much to investigate because beyond the visible limits that we see in the Canary Islands, there are volcanic mountains that extend into the depths of the sea. Larry Yaskiel stressed "the dissemination of the geological heritage of the Island; the surroundings of Lanzarote are the volcanoes and people know little about them."
On behalf of the Yaiza City Council, the mayor, Óscar Noda, publicly thanks Ediciones Remotas for choosing Yaiza to "discover this wonderful didactic work that we can find in bookstores in Spanish and English." Yaiza maintains its "literary and scientific meetings with the aim of giving greater dissemination to letters and research."
