The Canary hotspot, also called the Canarian hotspot, is a hotspot and volcanically active region centred on the Canary Islands located off the north-western coast of Africa. Hypotheses for this volcanic activity include a deep mantle plume beginning about 70 million years ago. The underwater El Hierro and subaerial Cumbre Vieja eruptions remain the most recent Canarian eruptions. [1]
The deep mantle plume hypothesis on Canary hotspot formation proposes how the current-day Canary islands rested above a province of tholeiitic magma during the Triassic Period. The province, known as the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), became active and extended over 10 million km2, developing into what scientists call today the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The archipelago formed about 60 million years ago from a magma source. The African Plate then shifted the plate the archipelago rests on over a stationary mantle plume. However, this hypothesis has been scrutinized for periods of up to several million years of a lack of volcanic activity between islands. [2] [3]
From July to September 2011, the Canarian island of El Hierro experienced thousands of small tremors, believed to be the result of magma movements beneath the island. This resulted in fears of an imminent volcanic eruption, which began October 10, 2011, approximately 1 km south of the island in a fissure on the ocean floor. Eruptions continued until March 2012. [1]
Prior to the Cumbre Vieja eruption on the island of La Palma on September 20, 2021, over 25,000 earthquakes were recorded starting on September 10. Since the 1971 Teneguía eruption, the volcano has remained very active, as since October 2017 until the 2021 eruption alone, nine earthquake swarms occurred. As a result of the Cumbre Vieja eruption, over 5,000 of the island’s inhabitants had to evacuate, significantly decreasing casualties. Still, more than 1300 homes and 1500 utility buildings were damaged and continuous magma flow stalled repair efforts for weeks. [4] As of 2023, La Palma continues to rebuild its infrastructure.
The Canary Islands, also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in Macaronesia in the Atlantic Ocean. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are 100 kilometres west of Morocco. They are the southernmost of the autonomous communities of Spain. The islands have a population of 2.2 million people and are the most populous special territory of the European Union.
Basanite is an igneous, volcanic (extrusive) rock with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. It is composed mostly of feldspathoids, pyroxenes, olivine, and plagioclase and forms from magma low in silica and enriched in alkali metal oxides that solidifies rapidly close to the Earth's surface.
La Palma, also known as La isla bonita and officially San Miguel de La Palma, is the most northwesterly island of the Canary Islands, Spain. La Palma has an area of 708 square kilometres (273 sq mi) making it the fifth largest of the eight main Canary Islands. The total population at the end of 2020 was 85,840, of which 15,716 lived in the capital, Santa Cruz de La Palma and about 20,467 in Los Llanos de Aridane. Its highest mountain is the Roque de los Muchachos, at 2,423 metres (7,949 ft), being second among the peaks of the Canaries after the Teide massif on Tenerife.
El Hierro, nicknamed Isla del Meridiano, is the second-smallest and farthest-south and -west of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, with a population of 10,968 (2019). Its capital is Valverde. At 268.51 square kilometres (103.67 sq mi), it is the second-smallest of the eight main islands of the Canaries.
Lanzarote is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately 125 kilometres off the north coast of Africa and 1,000 kilometres from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering 845.94 square kilometres, Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 152,289 inhabitants at the start of 2019, it is the third most populous Canary Island, after Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Located in the centre-west of the island is Timanfaya National Park, one of its main attractions. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1993. The island's capital is Arrecife, which lies on the eastern coastline. It is the smaller main island of the Province of Las Palmas.
A mantle plume is a proposed mechanism of convection within the Earth's mantle, hypothesized to explain anomalous volcanism. Because the plume head partially melts on reaching shallow depths, a plume is often invoked as the cause of volcanic hotspots, such as Hawaii or Iceland, and large igneous provinces such as the Deccan and Siberian Traps. Some such volcanic regions lie far from tectonic plate boundaries, while others represent unusually large-volume volcanism near plate boundaries.
Teide, or Mount Teide, is a volcano on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. Its summit is the highest point in Spain and the highest point above sea level in the islands of the Atlantic. If measured from the ocean floor, its height of 7,500 m (24,600 ft) makes Teide the third-highest volcano in the world, and is described by UNESCO and NASA as Earth's third-tallest volcanic structure. Teide's elevation above sea level makes Tenerife the tenth highest island in the world.
The Cumbre Vieja is an active volcanic ridge on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. The spine of Cumbre Vieja trends in an approximate north–south direction, comprising the southern half of La Palma, with both summit ridge and flanks pockmarked by dozens of craters and cones. The latest eruption began on 19 September 2021 in a forested area of Las Manchas locality known as Cabeza de Vaca. Voluminous lava flows quickly reached populated areas downslope, fanning out across settlements and banana plantations, destroying thousands of buildings and ultimately pouring over steep cliffs into the ocean to enlarge the island at several locations. The volcano went quiet on 13 December 2021, and on 25 December 2021, the local government declared the eruption to be over.
Teneguía is a monogenetic cinder cone – a volcanic vent which has been active once and has had further seismic activity. It is situated on the island of La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, and is located at the southern end of the sub-aerial section of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, of which Teneguía is just one of several vents.
The 2011–2012 El Hierro eruption occurred just off the island of El Hierro, the smallest and farthest south and west of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. The island is also the youngest in the volcanic chain. The October 2011 – March 2012 eruption was underwater, with a fissure of vents located approximately 2 kilometres to the south of the fishing village of La Restinga on the southern coast of the island. Increased seismicity in June 2012 to the north-west of the vent did not result in another phase of eruptive activity. Until the 2021 La Palma eruption, which started on 19 September 2021, this was the last volcanic eruption in Spain.
The El Maipés necropolis is an ancient burial site near Agaete on the Spanish island of Grand Canary, province of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands of the west coast of Africa.
A lava balloon is a gas-filled bubble of lava that floats on the sea surface. It can be up to several metres in size. When it emerges from the sea, it is usually hot and often steaming. After floating for some time it fills with water and sinks again.
The Canary Islands Seamount Province (CISP) is located in the Atlantic Ocean between 23º and 33º north. It comprises the seven major islands of the Canary Islands archipelago, the two islets of the Savage Islands and 16 seamounts scattered along an area of 540,000 km2 parallel to the northwestern coastline of the African Continent. Besides its geographical distribution, the components of the province share a series of geochemical similarities.
The geology of the Canary Islands is dominated by volcanic rock. The Canary Islands and some seamounts to the north-east form the Canary Volcanic Province whose volcanic history started about 70 million years ago. The Canary Islands region is still volcanically active. The most recent volcanic eruption on land occurred in 2021 and the most recent underwater eruption was in 2011-12.
Tagoro is a submarine volcano located off the southern coast of the island of El Hierro, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Canary Islands Seamount Province.
The island of La Palma in the Canary Islands is at risk of undergoing a large landslide, which could cause a tsunami in the Atlantic Ocean. Volcanic islands and volcanoes on land frequently undergo large landslides/collapses, which have been documented in Hawaii for example. A recent example is Anak Krakatau, which collapsed to cause the 2018 Sunda Strait tsunami.
An eruption at the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, comprising the southern half of the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, took place between 19 September and 13 December 2021. It was the first volcanic eruption on the island since the eruption of Teneguía in 1971. At 85 days, it is the longest known and the most damaging volcanic eruption on La Palma since records began. The total damage caused by the volcano amounts up to 843 million euros.
The Church of Saint Pius X was a Catholic church located in Todoque, Los Llanos de Aridane, La Palma. Built in 1954 and destroyed during the 2021 Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption, it was the world's first church dedicated to Pope Pius X.
Tajogaite or Tajogaite Volcano is a monogenetic volcano located in the municipality of El Paso on the island of La Palma, Canary Islands. It originated in the eruption that began on September 19, 2021, the most recent on the island and in the national terrestrial geography. It stopped on December 13, 2021, after 85 days of activity, being the longest historical eruption recorded on the island and third in the archipelago.
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