The meteorological phenomenon that has recently turned the skies of southern Gran Canaria almost apocalyptic is much more than a suspension of mineral dust. Recent research from the University of La Laguna (ULL) and the University of Málaga, published in the Journal of Geochemical Exploration, has confirmed that the haze acts as a transport vector for long-range radioactive isotopes.
What residents and passersby breathe in the dunes today is not just Saharan sand, but a "secondary deposition" of Cesium-137 linked to the two biggest nuclear disasters of the 20th century. The presence of anthropogenic radionuclides in the Canary Islands has been a puzzle for physicists for decades. The study, led by researcher María López Pérez, reveals an atmospheric chain reaction: after the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in 1986, the radioactive cloud dispersed across the entire Northern Hemisphere.
Although there was no direct trajectory toward the islands in the days following the accident, the particles were deposited massively on the soils of North Africa. Today, the haze acts like a conveyor belt: sandstorms resuspend this contaminated soil and inject it into the atmosphere, traveling thousands of kilometers until it crashes down on southern Gran Canaria. The discovery of Cesium-134 (with a half-life of only 2 years) in retrospective samples from the 90s was the "smoking gun" that confirmed the origin in the Soviet accident, since by then the Cesium from the nuclear tests of the 60s had already degraded significantly in comparison.
Following the explosion in Ukraine, particles dispersed across the Northern Hemisphere, settling in vast areas of North Africa. Today, decades later, Saharan dust storms resuspend these contaminated sands. Researchers, led by María López Pérez, have confirmed that the intrusion of particulate matter from Africa carries cesium isotopes directly linked to the 1986 accident. Retrospective analysis of aerosol and soil data from Tenerife and Gran Canaria demonstrates a continuous influx of these anthropogenic elements each time the Saharan dust corridor is activated.
To this Ukrainian contribution is added the closest and most direct legacy: the Blue Jerbois. On February 13, 1960, in the Reggane region of Algeria, France detonated its first atomic bomb, a 70-kiloton device with a yield four times greater than that of Hiroshima. That experiment, dubbed the "Blue Jerboa," was not only a symbol of sovereignty for the Élysée Palace, but also turned the Algerian desert into a perpetual radioactive wasteland. The temporal coincidence is unsettling.
In February 2021, a massive dust storm in the Canary Islands coincided precisely with the 61st anniversary of that experiment. Algerian historians estimate that up to 57 experiments (both atmospheric and underground) were conducted until 1966, leaving behind a trail of residue that France refuses to officially locate. Every time the wind blows from the east over southern Gran Canaria, soil particles from Reggane, laden with the radioactive signature of French grandeur, cross the Atlantic to settle on the islands' dunes and crops.
El FIMERALL report The dosimetric study is exhaustive. Despite the confirmed presence of cesium, scientists emphasize that the concentrations are low and do not represent an immediate radiological risk to the health of the island's southern inhabitants. "They do not provide a significant increase in the doses received by the population," the study concludes.
However, the persistence of these radionuclides in aerosol samples over the last twenty years confirms that calima is a vector of transboundary pollution that has not ceased. The February 2020 episode, which closed all eight Canary Island airports for 42 hours and forced the population into lockdown due to a health alert, already showed that calima is not merely "dirty air," but a force majeure event with economic and public safety implications.
The haze of recent days in southern Gran Canaria is a physical reminder that the desert is not a void, but an archive. Among the silicon particles that irritate the eyes of passersby in Playa del Inglés today travel atoms forged in the core of a Ukrainian reactor and ash from a French bomb that never fully detonated. The atmosphere of the Canary Islands is, quite literally, where the nuclear history of the 20th century meets the present.
