Issue date: 13 Jul, 2006
This year we begin a new issue called Sciences of the Earth and the Universe made up of two stamps devoted to Vulcanology and Sismology and Derived Cartography. Toledo
The study of volcanoes and their phenomena as well as the sudden movements of the earth’s crust caused by earthquakes or seaquakes (depending whether they take place in the coast or in the open sea) are the two areas with which deal Vulcanology and Sismology. Spain is not a country specially affected by these phenomena of nature, but there are extinguished volcanoes that give us enough data for the study of the times when the Earth began to be formed. The best known active volcanoes in Spain are in the Canary Islands where in 1971 took place the last eruption in the Teneguía Volcano in the island of La Palma. In Spain, the National Geographic Institute, (IGN) is in charge of the vigilance, observation and communication of the volcanic activity in Spanish territory and to determine its risks. In order to carry out these tasks, the IGN counts with the necessary equipment for the detection and measurement of the seismic, geodesic and geophysics phenomena able to forecast the volcanic activity. The stamp depicts the last eruption of the Teneguía Volcano as well as a seismograph.
Cartography deals with the study as well as the art and science of making cartographic maps. Primitive peoples depicted with certain accuracy the geographic accidents and territories they knew and it is known that throughout the history of humanity there have been attempts to describe the image of the planet Earth with the help of scientists, discoverers, sailors and soldiers. In 1986 was passed the Bill of “Ordenacion de la Cartografia” (Regulation of Cartography), which rules the official cartographic production. This is classified into: basic, derived and thematic cartography. As in the previous paragraph, the National Geographic Institute is in charge of all official derived cartography. When in a map we see a scale of 1:200,000 covering all the National Territory, it is indicated that in 1cm of the map are represented 200,000 cm of the territory that is 2 km. The stamp depicts a derived map of Toledo from the series “Conjuntos Provinciales”.
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