Last Spring, the BBC Horizon programme aired a show dedicated to the possible consequences of a massive landfall in the Canary Islands. A conclusion was reached that suggested a massive tidal wave or Tsunami would be created and could race across the Atlantic at speeds of 800km/h and reach the USA and Caribbean as a 150 foot ‘wall of water’. At the time, nothing was mentioned of possible consequences in the British Isles. A report was released more recently, detailing possible affects in Britain.

La Palma is one of the smaller Canary Islands, its geographical structure is made up of two volcanoes, one dormant and one active. The active one is the Cumbre Vieja and this is where the problem has arisen. Natural pockets of water inside the Cumbre Vieja could be superheated by molten rock and the force of the resulting steam could literally break one side of the Island away. It has now been revealed that if this were to happen, the massive landslide would cause a tidal wave that could reach the shores of Scilly as a 40-foot wave.

Scilly and the South West peninsular would bear the brunt of the impact.

However, Scilly is used to 40-foot waves. On exposed rocks, like Scilly Rock in the Norrad Rocks, waves have been seen this high before. In fact, Scilly Rock, which is about 40-feet high, has been seen totally submerged under waves. Though the tsunami will be travelling faster than normal waves, and coming from a different direction, it still should leave Scilly pretty much as it was.

Waves cannot be any taller than they are deep, so if they are in 20-feet of water, they can only support being 20-feet high. This will also rule out total devastation of Scilly, due to our shallow waters.

The wave will be far more devastating to the American continent.

Scientists cannot say when this wave will strike. It revolves around the active volcano in the Canary Islands, which erupts, on average, every 200 years, and the last eruption was in 1949. But the landslide may not occur on the next eruption, it may take up to six explosions, by which time Scilly may have submerged due to global warming, anyway.

IOS stand in Lifeboat was called out to look for a boy who had gone swimming off a beach on St Mary?s.

The regular lifeboat ?The Whiteheads? has been away for vital maintenance for the past few months. The Stand in lifeboat is very similar to ?The Whiteheads?.

The lifeboat was called around to Porth Cressa, from where the boy had been lost. His clothes had been left at the top of the beach.

However, the lifeboat soon returned to it?s moorings, so it is assumed the boy was found elsewhere.

Isles of Scilly?s Carnival 2001, held today, is in aid of St Mary?s Hospital and the Sunrise Appeal for the RCH Treliske.

It was a scorching hot day, with little breeze, and temperatures dropping to 23?C (73?F) by early evening.

bActivities today:/b

b1:00 pm: Floats and Opening/b

The floats will gather on the Strand. The carnival will be opened by the recently re-elected IOS Council Chairman, Dudley Mumford before the floats are judged and continue on through Hugh Town.

b2:00 pm: Hugh Beach/Holgates/b

Sand castle competition; music by Touching Cloth, who were busy last night at Camel Rock; fire brigade display; judo display, etc.

b3:30 pm: Holgates/b Tug-of-war.
b6:00 pm: Strand/b Slow bike race.
b8:00 pm: Holgates/b Relay races.
bEvening: Holgates/b A Barbecue, line dancing and a disco will be running.

Details of events, prize winners, etc., will be updated as they happen.

Last nights ?Camel Rock? fund raising extravaganza of a Music Festival rocked the Islands. If you couldn?t be there on the night, you may well have listened to the event live on Radio Scilly, but in all truthfulness you could hear it from St. Agnes anyway!

The now annual event, raising money for local charities, was bigger and better than ever before, from when it started at midday Sunday until the Islands ?Steamband? finished off with a few of their classic covers.

“//camel-rock2.jpg”

The event did not, however, manage to attract some of the big name bands that had been hoped for against hope, such as the Levellers and the Charlatans. One of the bigger bands, Abba Gold, who were due to close out the evening, pulled out at the last minute.

The only band to have played all four Camel Rock events is ?Upshot? who on their way down from London, missed the hire bus and opted to pay a perplexed London Black Cab driver for a fare down to Penzance, rather than miss the event. A total cost of ?310; thats what I call commitment!

We have so far had no indication of how much the event has raised or the statistics for the numbers there but we certainly will keep you posted on that.

Fog has struck yet again this year, grounding the helicopter and SkyBus service from the mainland. This has resulted in the Scillonian doing it?s infrequent night sailings from Penzance.

It arrived in St Mary?s harbour carrying both helicopter and SkyBus passengers at 10:45 pm.

RMV Scillonian III used to do two-day sailings, leaving one day, returning the next - staying in St Mary?s quay overnight, in early and late seasons until just over a decade ago. Since then it has only been seen at night when fog has grounded aircraft.

However, the increasing safety precaution of recent years have meant that aircraft cannot fly in poor conditions, hence more boat trips.

Co-operation between the Steamship Company, which runs both the Scillonian and SkyBus, and the British Internation helicopters, has meant that fog delays for air passengers is quickly sorted out with a transfer on to operating services.

Although Seals have been a popular tourist attraction, their growing population has caused concerns amongst fishermen who blame the animals for poor catches.

It was common for fishermen to cull seals in the late seventies and early eighties to protect their fishing livelihood, but as regulations were tightened, this pracise died out. It is now thought that seals are making a major comeback. It was first noticed by locals taking boat trips out to the Western and Norrad rocks but in more recent years the seals have started to migrate to previously unchartered territory around the inhabited Islands.

Seals find it easier to steal fish out of nets rather than catch it themselves. Atlantic Grey seals have been a popular subject for wildlife lovers for some time now and most boat services take visitors on trips to see them.

Starting 11:30 am on Sunday 26, until 12:30 am on Monday, Camel Rock will be hosting a wide range of bands:

bSteam Band & Caramba/b from Scilly
bOrtega/b from Surrey
bGreen Mango/b from Penzance
bPyromania/b from Sheffield
bUpshot/b
bBrychen/b from Wales
bPyromania/b from Sheffield
bABBA Gold/b
bZennor Project/b doing ?visual art?, such as fire-eating

Entrance fee: ?6

Volunteers for the clear-up operation on Monday are being called upon to ?come forward?.

Approximate audience: 2,000.

Raising money for the Isles of Scilly Music School and cystic fibrosis, the event hopes to raise ?20,000. This will be achieved by the bar, food, videos and t-shirts on sale. There will also be an RNLI raffle.

The Isles of Scilly Secondary School is the one-hundred-and-second school to have been given a grant by Barclay?s New Futures this year.

Barclay?s New Futures is the UK?s largest education sponsership programme.

The grant money will be used to train students who have gone to the mainland from Scilly to receive further education, “so that they can mentor the current Year 11 students through their transition” says Barclay?s.

Konnie Huq, a Blue Peter presenter, and on the New Futures judging panel said: “These awards enable young people to make a positive different and have a lot of fun helping others.”

This funding comes at a prime time for funding and reorgansation: the British government have recently set up ?Connexions?, which is a service loosly based on the old careers service to help ?young people? in their teenage to young adult years.

Island Students had to spend several nervous hours waiting for their results. They were made to wait longer than many students on the mainland because the results were delayed as the helicopter was grounded first thing, due to fog and the Islands post could not be delivered. Students finaly found out their grades at 3:30 in the afternoon, nearly five hours after they were meant to be issued.

table border=1trtdYeartdNat. Av.tdIOS gradetrtd2000td56.6 %td77 %trtd2001td57.1 %td71%trtd colspan=3% = % of A-C grades/table

Though the Island students average pass rates are lower than previous years - they are still way ahead of the national average of .

County-by-county results will be issued in the papers tomorrow. Scilly News will report of IOSSSc?s position in the tables.

With many A*?s, A?s and B?s the Island students are maintaining their reputation, despite allegations of erratic teaching, inconsistent teacher posts and poor OFSTED reports.

Yesterday?s fete on the isle of Tresco. Their target, ?5000, was rasied for the Millennium Hall fund. The Millennium Hall is the new ?reading room? on Tresco. It was completed last year thanks to lottery funding. Most islands have a ?reading room?, which is used by the community in various ways.

The Tresco Millennium Hall was subject to controversey last year when the owner of the isle, Mr Robert Dorien-Smith, used the old reading room, which the lottery funding had freed up, and turned it into lodgings.