Pico de Teide, Tenerife Island, Canary Archipelago

Abstract

Pico de Teide (16°38′W, 28°18′N) is a 3,718 m high volcano in the Tenerife Island, Canary volcanic archipelago, off the northwestern coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean. The Tenerife's original huge caldera Las Cañadas was formed during the Late Tertiary and Early Quaternary by empting volcano's large magmatic hearth in combination with the following collapse of the mountain summit. Large caldera of the volcano is of 12–20 km in diameter; it is partly filled by the present cones of Montana Blanca, Pico Viejo, an explosive crater, and the highest point of Pico de Teide. The main volcanic stage culminated about five million years ago. The birth of the Canary islands' volcanoes and of the whole archipelago can be explained by a hot-spot theory, based on the prospect of magmatic reservoirs of melted lava in the Earth's mantle. According to this prospect, one of these hot spots is located deep below the region in question; hot masses melted and weakened the upper-lying rock strata and subsequently enabled the passage of the melt to the surface. The concept of the hot-spot occurrence under Canaries fits well the tectonic structure and the structural disturbances in the northwest part of the African plate.

In addition to Pico de Teide, there are several other active volcanoes in this region. The island Lanzarote (670 m a.s.l.) was formed as a volcano some 20 million years ago, and is typical by its linear lava outflows. Basalt lava during the eruption in 1730–1736 (near Montanas del Fuego) and in 1824 (Nuevo del Fuego) covered about one quarter of the island. Also, volcanic activities in the Palma Island (2,426 m) should be mentioned; in 1585, almost 1,000-m high stromboli-type cone Tahuya was created (composed of papilla, mixture of cinder, and volcanic bombs); 60 years later (in 1645), another cone, San Martin, appeared there.