F. J. Pérez Torrado

HOTSPOT VOLCANISM CLOSE TO A PASSIVE CONTINENTAL MARGIN : THE CANARY ISLANDS

The Canarian Archipelago is a group of volcanic islands on a slow-moving oceanic plate, close to a continental margin. The origins of the archipelago are controversial: a hotspot or mantle plume, a zone of lithospheric deformation, a region of compressional block-faulting or a rupture propagating westwards from the active Atlas Mountains fold belt have been proposed by different authors. However, comparison of the Canarian Archipelago with the prototypical hotspot-related island group, the Hawaiian Archipelago, reveals that the differences between the two are not as great as had previously been supposed on the basis of older data. Quaternary igneous activity in the Canaries is concentrated at the western end of the archipelago, close to the present-day location of the inferred hotspot. This is the same relationship as seen in the Hawaiian and Cape Verde islands. The latter archipelago, associated with a well-defined but slow-moving mantle plume, shows anomalies in a plot of island age against distance which are comparable to those seen in the Canary Islands: these anomalies cannot therefore be used to argue against a hotspot origin for the Canaries. Individual islands in both archipelagoes are characterized by initial rapid growth (the ‘shield-building’ stages of activity), followed by a period of quiescence and deep erosion (erosion gap) which in turn is followed by a ‘post-erosional’ stage of activity. The absence of post-shield stage subsidence in the Canaries is in marked contrast with the major subsidence experienced by the Hawaiian Islands, but is comparable with the lack of subsidence evident in other island groups at slow-moving hotspots, such as the Cape Verdes. Comparison of the structure and structural evolution of the Canary Islands with other oceanic islands such as Hawaii and Reunion reveals many similarities. These include the development of triple (‘Mercedes Star’) rift zones and the occurrence of giant lateral collapses on the flanks of these rift zones. The apparent absence of these features in the post-erosional islands may in part be a result of their greater age and deeper erosion, which has removed much of the evidence for their early volcanic architecture. We conclude that the many similarities between the Canary Islands and island groups whose hotspot origins are undisputed show that the Canaries have been produced in the same way.

K-Ar ages and magnetic stratigraphy of a hotspot-induced, fast grown oceanic island: El Hierro, Canary Islands

Abstract The combined use of accurate radiometric dating and magnetic stratigraphy can be applied to define the main stages of the building of oceanic volcanic islands. This method has been successfully applied on the island of El Hierro, the westernmost island of the Canaries Archipelago. For the emerged part of this island, built in the last 1.2 Ma, magnetic stratigraphy and mapping show the presence of four consecutive subchrons. K-Ar dating of eighteen samples in stratigraphic sequences using an unspiked technique produced ages consistent with the general volcanic stratigraphy. The ages show that the magnetic polarity zones correlate to the upper part of the Matuyama and to the Brunhes chrons. The Jaramillo normal polarity subchron of the upper part of the Matuyama reverse polarity Chron is recorded in one of the lava sequences. The lower limit of this event is constrained by two ages of 1.04 ± 0.02 Ma and one of 1.05 ± 0.02 Ma, close to the value deduced from the astronomically tuned magnetic polarity time scale (APTS). The volcanic history can be summarised by two consecutive main basaltic volcanic edifices: the El Tinor, active during the upper part of the Matuyama Chron and the El Golfo edifice, constructed during the Brunhes Chron.

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

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 Canadas 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 14 C 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.).