Canary Islands, as well as the island of Madeira, the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands are of volcanic origin. On each island of Canary Islands you can watch different tracks and signs of volcanic activity: scoria cones, fissure volcanoes, craters of different sizes, lava flows. Most impressive scenery formed the Collapses volcano on Tenerife island at 2,000 m, ie Las Cañadas caldera, in the center of which stands the volcano Teide. The word “caldera”, which geologists call the falls of this type, having the form of almost perfect circle and is often located at a considerable height, was born in the Canary Islands. This term, in Spanish means “pot” is used to refer to various volcanic formations. German geographer Leopold von Buch, who visited the Canary Islands in the early XIX century borrowed the name from Taburiente Caldera (Caldera jde Taburiente) on the island of La Palma, which was then regarded as a huge crater, but in reality it was just a badly damaged rock formation.
Canary Islands volcanic activity was formed by volcanoes that were under water 20 million years ago. The most intense volcanic activity took place 5 million years ago. The process of formation of the Canary Islands was gradually. The farther to the west, the younger of the island. The oldest rocks are found on the island of Fuerteventura, which has a total of volcanic origin of the island of Lanzarote. They both appeared 19 million years ago. So, both the eastern islands with the lowest relief are the most ancient. Located just west of the island of Gran Canaria, which is not less than 17-18 million years. La Gomera 15 million years old, while the formation of Tenerife began only 13-14 million years ago, though Homer is west.
From the time of ancient cataclysmic volcanoes in the archipelago is not extinguished. The last eruption took place in 1971, then erupted Tenegufa, located in the south of the island of La Palma. Here in 1949 was a volcanic eruption of San Juan. Even earlier, in 1909, the volcano on Tenerife huffed Chinero, located dozens of kilometers from the volcano Teide. This was the first of three eruptions in the Canary Islands were observed in this century.
Last eruption was in 1798, when lava flowed into Las Cañadas caldera in the south-western slope of the volcano Pico Viejo, located near the Teide. Lanzarote’s last eruption recorded in 1824, but it was much less devastating eruption, which occurred in the area of Timanfaya in 1730-1736 gg. Then the entire West Bank, the third part of the island was covered by lava. History is the only eruption on the island of El Hierro, where in 1793 the volcano awoke Lomo Negro, located in the west of the island. Chronicle eruption started in 1409, when the colonization of the island of Lanzarote. Tenerife – the last of those captured by the Spanish Canary Islands with volcanic activity – taken over by the Spanish in 1496, is quite possible that some of the eruptions occurred in the past, before the end of the XV century., But went unnoticed. So, some of lava from volcanoes end Teide and Pico Viejo (in fact it is the same volcano) cannot be dated accurately. The exception is the eruption, which occurred in 1492, it was observed in the way of Christopher Columbus to the New World, and the event was noted in his travel diary.