Abstract
Canary Islands constitute an active volcanic archipelago. From the time
immediately before the Castilian conquest of the islands, 17 volcanic
eruptions have occurred: 2 prehispanic and 15 historical, some of them
with multiple eruptive vents, affecting the islands of Lanzarote,
Tenerife, La Palma and El Hierro. In order to carry out the inventory of
geosites for the Canary Islands at a regional scale, it has been applied
a methodology consisting of two sequential phases: the first one address
the selection of geosites that will be part of the inventory, and the
second one deals with the characterization and assessment of the
selected geosites. In this methodology, geosites are selected within
geological frameworks previously established given their regional
significance for Canary Islands. With this aim, 12 geological frameworks
representative of the geodiversity of Canary Islands have been
identified, which include the essential elements, processes and
morphologies of the Canarian geology, covering all stages of
construction of the islands as well their geological evolution,
including processes, morphologies, fossils and deposits associated both
to the volcanism and the external geological agents. The selection of
geosites is then constrained and facilitated by its representativeness
within each geological framework. One of these 12 geological frameworks
corresponds to “Historical and prehistorical volcanism”. The scarce
number of volcanic eruptions, their low frequency and their general
characteristics –fissure mafic eruptions, low VEI and strombolian
eruptive styles- determine an apparent geological homogeneity.
Nevertheless, the high variety of processes, morphologies and deposits
associated to this framework, their good conservation status, as well as
the information from the historical chronicles, have permitted to
identify 19 geosites of high scientific value. They highlight the
existence of eruptive styles ranging from hawaian to vulcanian, with
short phases of water-magma contact, quiet emissions of water or in
geysers, phreatomagmatic explosions, etc. These geosites constitute a
unique and representative record of the volcanology, geomorphology,
tectonics and petrology characterizing the most recent mafic volcanism
of the Canarian archipelago.