In order to find answers to the possible climate change whose symptoms are being felt in the Canary Islands and around the world, the seminar "Low Latitude Loess: Past and Present" began this Monday at the House of Volcanoes, in which, throughout the week, scientists from different European universities will study the island's sediments as a possible essential factor in research on climate change and the ice ages that have developed throughout history.
The presentation of the meeting was attended by Ángeles García, Councilor for New Technologies of the Cabildo, who highlighted Lanzarote's infrastructure and its geographical location as reasons that have brought the seminar to the House of Volcanoes.
The storm of rain and the continuous alert for winds that we are experiencing on the island in recent days could be due to variations in the planetary climate. The geographical situation of Lanzarote and its proximity to the Sahara, from where half of the sediments come, facilitates the work of the scientists, who are not yet daring to speak of the transfer of sediments as a key reason for climate change. "The scholars participating in the field study believe that the analysis of the island's sedimentation layer may lead them to know the reason for the climatic phenomena we are experiencing," said the Cabildo councilor.
The study that scientists from the German universities of Bayreuth and Technical and the British Oxford are going to carry out on the sedimentation layer and its history, present on the island for thousands of years, is sponsored by UNESCO and its results will be published in the scientific journal Quaternary International to serve researchers around the world.