The Canary islands are all volcanic in origin, and have been the site of numerous recent
eruptions.
6 of its 7 large islands contain volcanoes which are considered active, as they have
erupted in the last 10,000 years.
One of these volcanoes, La Palma, is erupting right now.
Its eruption continues to produce spectacular lava fountains.
However, before this ongoing eruption, the most recent Canary Island volcanic eruption
originated on a completely separate island.
The eruption in question lasted for 5 months from 2011 to 2012 just offshore of the island
of El Hierro.
This eruption produced fountains of water associated with volcanic explosions due to
the vent's shallow depth.
Although this was a strictly submarine eruption, it may only be a matter of time before an
eruption occurs once again on the main island.
This video will discuss this volcano and mention what its future hazards are.
The Canary islands can be found several hundred kilometers west of the coast of Morocco.
The volcano which I will be covering in this video makes up the entirety of the westernmost
and youngest island of the group, El Hierro.
The reason this island exists is due to an ancient hotspot which is also responsible
for its modern volcanic activity.
This hotspot is known as the Canary hotspot, and has been slowly moving westwards, forming
islands along the way, and creating modern eruptions such as the ongoing eruption on
La Palma.
This island has a highly unusual almost triangular shape.
The reason for this is that El Hierro contains three rift zones as shown on screen.
These rift zones have each been the site of hundreds to thousands of individual cinder
cone forming and fissure eruptions, causing lava to pour out onto the volcano from three
central lines of activity.
El Hierro began forming a mere 1.12 million years ago, when a volume of low silica basaltic
magma erupted onto the ocean floor.
After approximately 150,000 years of continued submarine eruptions, this volcano reached
the surface.
Continued eruptions built a shield volcano known as El Tinor, which is today located
on the northeast section of El Hierro.
During this era of activity, some eruptions were highly explosive.
Due to the interaction of rising magma with groundwater, large craters were carved out
of the ground in explosive eruptions.
The dimensions of two of these craters are shown on screen.
After a 200,000 year long period of dormancy, El Hierro became active yet again 545,000
years ago.
This time, the eruptions originated from what is now the center of the overall island, whilee
also occurring on all three rift zones.
These large cliff forming eruptions formed the majority of the island which we see today.
During this phase of activity, at least three massive landslides occurred.
These landslides carved out horseshoe shaped craters on the overall volcano, giving the
island part of its peculiar shape.
More recently, the lavas at this volcano have become less viscous.
As a result, the most recent phase of eruptive activity created platforms of basaltic lava,
which have a negligible slope.
In the last 10,000 years, El Hierro has produced at least 5 eruptions, with 2 addition likely
eruptions.
On screen, I have labeled the suspected and confirmed locations of these eruptions, which
have occurred on all parts of the island.
One young eruption in 1793 lasted a single month, but created the Volcano de Lomo Negro
cinder cone and added about half a square kilometer of land to the island.
The most recent eruption lasted from October of 2011 to March of 2012, and continued to
build a shallow submarine volcanic cone.
This cone, which is currently at a depth of more than 100 meters, will eventually reach
the surface, thus forming a new small island.
Based on the assortment of recent eruptions, I have created a hazard map for the overall
island.
The area at highest risk is the west of El Hierro as it contains the greatest assortment
of young lava flows.
When the next eruption occurs, it will either create another relatively harmless submarine
eruption or a cinder cone forming eruption on one of the three rift zones.
I hope that you enjoyed this video!
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