Canary hotspot

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 lithosphere extension permitting melt to rise from the mantle beneath (the plate hypothesis), and a deep mantle plume. Volcanism is believed to have first started about 70 million years ago.[1]

A satellite image of the Canary Islands.

Formation

A deep mantle plume is the most widely accepted hypothesis of Canary hotspot formation. During the Triassic Period about 200 million years ago, when Earth was Pangea, the current-day Canary islands rested above a province of tholeiitic magma. 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 that 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]

Recent activity

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 floor of the ocean. Eruptions continued until March 2012.[1]

A town near the Cumbre Vieja eruption.

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 20 homes were damaged and continuous magma flow stalled repair efforts for weeks.[4]

See also

References
  1. Carracedo, J.C.; Troll, V.R.; Zaczek, K.; Rodríguez-González, A.; Soler, V.; Deegan, F.M. (2015) The 2011–2012 submarine eruption off El Hierro, Canary Islands: New lessons in oceanic island growth and volcanic crisis management, Earth-Science Reviews, volume 150, pages 168–200, doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2015.06.007
  2. Negredo, Ana M.; van Hunen, Jeroen; Rodríguez-González, Juan; Fullea, Javier (2022-04-15). "On the origin of the Canary Islands: Insights from mantle convection modelling". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 584: 117506. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117506. ISSN 0012-821X.
  3. Troll, Valentin R.; Carracedo, Juan Carlos (2016-01-01), Troll, Valentin R.; Carracedo, Juan Carlos (eds.), "Chapter 1 - The Canary Islands: An Introduction", The Geology of the Canary Islands, Elsevier, pp. 1–41, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-809663-5.00001-3, ISBN 978-0-12-809663-5, retrieved 2023-03-28
  4. "Canary Islands volcano roars to life for first time in 50 years". Science. 2021-09-20. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
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