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Eruptive and structural history of Teide Volcano and rift zones of Tenerife, Canary Islands

J.C. Carracedo^,1, E. Rodríguez Badiola², H. Guillou³, M. Paterne³, S. Scaillet³, F.J. Pérez Torrado⁴, R. Paris⁵, U. Fra-Paleo⁶ and A. Hansen⁷

¹ Estación Volcanológica de Canarias, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
² Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 28006 Madrid, Spain
³ Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Commisariat à 3Énergie Atomique–Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
⁴ Departamento de Física-Geología, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
⁵ Géolab Unité Mixte de Recherche 6042, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Maison de la Recherche, Clermont-Ferrand, France
⁶ Departamento de Geografía y Ordenación del Territorio, Universidad de Extremadura, Spain
⁷ Departamento de Física-Geología, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35017 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

The Teide and Pico Viejo stratocones and the Northwest and Northeast Rifts are products of the latest eruptive phase of the island of Tenerife, initiated with the lateral collapse of its northern flank that formed the Las Cañadas Caldera and the Icod–La Guancha Valley ca. 200 ka. The eruptive and structural evolution of this volcanic complex has been reconstructed after detailed geological mapping and radioisotopic dating of the significant eruptive events. A set of 54 new ¹⁴C and K/Ar ages provides precise age control of the recent eruptive history of Tenerife, particularly Teide Volcano, the third-highest volcanic feature on Earth (3718 m above sea level, >7 km high), and unique in terms of its intraplate setting. The development of the Teide–Pico Viejo Volcanoes may be related to the activity of the Northwest and Northeast Rifts. Volcanic and intrusive activity along both rift zones may have played an important role in activating the gravitational landslide and in the subsequent growth, nested within the collapse embayment, of an increasingly higher central volcano with progressively differentiated magmas. The coeval growth of the central volcano with sustained activity along the rifts led to a clear bimodal distribution in composition of eruptive products, with the basaltic eruptions in the distal part of the rifts and phonolitic and more explosive eruptions in the central area, where the differentiated stratocones developed. Current volcanic hazard in Tenerife is considered to be moderate, because eruptive frequency is low, explosivity is modest, and the eruptive activity of the Teide stratocone seems to have declined over the past 30 k.y., with only one eruption in this period (1150 yr B.P.).

Key Words: radioisotopic ages • volcanic history • structural history • rift volcanism • nested central volcanoes • Teide Volcano • Tenerife • Canary Islands

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