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The La Palma Eruption and Reconstruction Project

 La Palma project by GeoTenerife is a multi-media project which aims to increase the awareness and understanding of volcanic activity, volcanic emergency plans, and reconstruction in La Palma. Our self-funded research on La Palma has led to our award-winning documentaries “Lava Bombs: Truths Behind the Volcano” and “Lava Bombs 2: The Reconstruction”. Our work is open access, in non-specialist language, and resident-focused.

Want to ask us a question about VolcanoStories’ La Palma reconstruction project? Visit our Forum

Most recent

24 March, 2026

Why do people return?

A recent study presents evidence that some local people moved back to Pompeii quickly after the 79AD eruption of Mt Vesuvius that famously entombed the Roman city under violent pyroclastic flows. These findings generated considerable media coverage, with many questioning why people would return to the destroyed area. However, this is not the exception but rather the rule for anyone familiar with so-called ‘urban’ volcanic eruptions, and indeed, a portion of La Palma’s population is keen to

Volcán de Tajogaite (2021) Eruption and Reconstruction

GeoTenerife aims to tell the unheard human stories of the people affected by the 2021 eruption of the Volcán de Tajogaite, La Palma.  Through our collaboration with Alexander Whittle of New Light Studio, GeoTenerife has produced two documentaries LAVA BOMBS: Truths Behind the Volcano and LAVA BOMBS 2: The Reconstruction. 

The 2021 Tajogaite eruption was the largest and most destructive eruption in La Palma for the last 500 years. It caused around €1 billion in damage, displacing over 7,000 people, and destroying 3,000 buildings, 2,000 of which were people’s homes. Here are some of VolcanoStories helpful summary videos:

A collection of interviews with witnesses of the 2021 La Palma Eruption, conducted by GeoTenerife. These interviews were later used in the Lava Bombs: The Truth Behind the Volcano documentary.

To help put the science in context and counter sensationalism GeoTenerife was involved in social media live streams and news interviews with local, national and international media outlets during the volcanic eruption of La Palma. Here are the playlists which document our work.

Charities to support affected residents

Here are the charity campaigns we have supported/run for the affected residents of the La Palma eruption

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The Conversation: People returned to live in Pompeii. Now, they return to La Palma’s latest lava flows.

GeoTenerife@geotenerife
19 Posts
#1 · 24 March, 2026, 3:50 pm

People returned to live in Pompeii. Now, they return to La Palma’s latest lava flows. It’s easy to see why.

Ben Ireland, Volcanology PhD student and Lead Scientific Advisor, GeoTenerife

"People's attachment to ‘home’ and a lack of resources to uproot, will continue to drive populations to remain in areas prone to a wide variety of environmental hazards."

Read the opinion piece here:  https://geotenerife.com/why-do-people-return/

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Current Projects

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Forum: Ask us questions about GeoTenerife's work during La Palma Eruption and Reconstruction
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3D Lava and Cone models
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La Palma Reconstruction Updates
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Tajogaite eruption timeline
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The Eruption day-by-day
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La Palma eruption Open data sets
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GeoIntern research on La Palma
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Eruption Witness Interviews

Here you can find our glossary of Volcanic terms, complete with examples and explanations specific to the 2021 eruption on La Palma. You can download the glossary here in pdf or doc

ERRORS AND OMMISSIONS: VolcanoStories represents our best endeavour to reflect the eruption of Volcán de Tajogaite accurately, but we fully accept it may contain errors and omissions for which we apologise in advance and ask for your HELP. We encourage individuals or institutions who see an ERROR or who would like to CONTRIBUTE further material to help in this endeavour please contact us.

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