The Canary islands contains 6 active volcanoes, several of which have erupted in historic
times.
Thus, you might think that its most famous volcano, Mount Teide, is the site of the largest
eruption while people lived on these islands.
However, this is not the case.
Instead, the largest eruption originated from a volcano to the east, which produced a famous
6 year long eruption from 1730 to 1736.
The volcano I am referring to is Lanzarote, whose aforementioned eruption covered a whopping
200 square kilometers, or about 1/4 of the island, in lava.
This eruption was quite similar to the famous 1783 eruption of Laki in Iceland, but was
an order of magnitude smaller.
Today, we know that Lanzarote is still active due to the presence of several shallow heat
sources underground, one of which produces a steam rich geyser.
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 is located on the easternmost island,
Lanzarote.
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.
The island of Lanzarote has been intermittently producing volcanic eruptions, in phases of
activity, for approximately 15.6 million years.
After 10 million years of intermittent eruptive activity, the modern island of Lanzarote was
actually 3 separate islands.
Then, for the next 4.5 million years, this volcanic complex became dormant.
Eruptive activity resumed 1.2 million years ago, which has since continued to the present
day.
Vast lava flows soon joined the 3 islands, creating a central landmass.
This period of eruptive activity created a series of large explosion craters known as
tuff rings.
One of these, known as Caldera Blanca, measures 1140 meters wide and 133 meters deep.
It formed when magma intruded into a large lake on the surface.
This caused the lake water to flash to steam, before subsequently generating a massive explosion,
thus carving out the deep crater you see today.
Later lava flows during this period created the island of Isla Graciosa.
Between 91,000 and 21,000 years ago, eruptive activity in the overall volcanic complex solely
occurred just south of the aforementioned island.
For the next 20,000 years, no additional volcanic activity occurred.
Then, in 500 AD, a new eruption occurred.
As a new volume of magma reached the surface, it created a series of small explosions.
These explosions continued for some time, depositing volumes of ash in a small radius
and creating bombs of lava.
This strombolian style eruptive activity created the Montaña de Juan Perdomo cinder cone.
200 years later, a similar eruption occurred, which created 3 more cinder cones.
Beginning on September 1st, 1730, the largest historical eruption in the Canary Islands
began.
A massive, 60 kilometer long fissure opened up in the center of the island, which erupted
all at once.
As millions of tons of magma poured out onto the surface, massive amounts of sulfur dioxide
were released into the atmosphere.
Over the next 6 years, this lava would go on to cover 204 square kilometers of land,
burying several towns and expanding the overall island.
In total, 5 cubic kilometers of molten rock was erupted.
Some activity even occurred on the northeast section of the island, forming the Corona
lava tube.
The most recent eruption on this island occurred in 1824, but was two orders of magnitude smaller,
creating a series of three vents over a period of 3 months.
Since then, no additional eruptions have occurred.
When this volcanic complex erupts again, it could technically occur on the entirety of
the island.
However, such a new fissure eruption is likely to originate on the center of the island,
where the last 4 eruptions have occurred.
The main hazards associated with this would be toxic gas and slow moving basaltic lava
flows.
I hope that you enjoyed this video!
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