Las Cañadas caldera, Tenerife, Canary Islands: A review, or the end of a long volcanological controversy

Abstract

The Las Cañadas caldera is one of the best exposed volcanic calderas in the world and one of the few known evolved alkaline volcanoes. It truncates the pre-Teide-Pico Viejo central volcanic edifice, the Las Cañadas edifice, which started to take shape at the end of the formation of a large basaltic shield that forms the main part of island of Tenerife. Historically, the origin of the Las Cañadas caldera has been controversial, as it has been interpreted as the result of either multiple vertical collapses or due to a giant sector collapse. The available stratigraphical, structural, volcanological, geochronological, and geophysical data, as well as its comparison to other well-known collapse calderas should not offer any doubt as to its direct relationship with a long history of phonolitic explosive volcanism. However, the existence of large landslide events on Tenerife, which have significantly modified the flanks of the Las Cañadas volcano, have also been used as a potential explanation for the origin of the Las Cañadas depression. This contribution reviews the available information on the Las Cañadas caldera, the causes of this controversy, and rationalises the most plausible explanation for the origin of Las Cañadas caldera based on the current evidence gathered from all previous studies.

Cascading Effects of Extreme Geohazards on Tenerife (Canary Islands)

“…During the construction of Las Cañadas, several large sector collapses affected parts of the island, at least two of which coincided in time with the occurrence of caldera‐forming episodes. This is the case of La Orotava and Icod valleys, on the northern flank of Tenerife, which are coeval with the formation of the central (Guajara, 0.56 Ma) and eastern (Diego Hernández, 0.17 Ma) sectors of the caldera, respectively (Carracedo et al., 2011; Hunt et al., 2011, 2013a, 2013b, 2018; Ibarrola et al., 1993; Martí, 2019; Martí et al., 1997; Martí & Gudmundsson, 2000).…”

“…(2000), Kelfoun and Druitt (2005), Kelfoun et al. (2010), Martí (2019), Martí, Mitjavila, and Araña (1994), Núñez (2017), Pittari (2004), Pittari et al. (2008), Sheridan and Malin (1983).…”

“…The white lines correspond to the cross-section of part (c) of this figure, and the red line I-I' corresponds to the cross-sections in Figures 2 and 3. 10.1029/2021JB022294 4 of 19 et al, 2011;Hunt et al, 2011Hunt et al, , 2013aHunt et al, , 2013bHunt et al, , 2018Ibarrola et al, 1993;Martí, 2019;Martí et al, 1997;Martí & Gudmundsson, 2000).…”

Testing a Comprehensive Volcanic Risk Assessment of Tenerife by Volcanic Hazard Simulations and Social Vulnerability Analysis

“…The phonolitic volcanism builds the Las Cañadas edifice (> 3.5 Ma to 18 Ka), which appeared after the phase of basaltic shield. The active Teide-Pico Viejo evolved from basaltic to phonolitic [25].…”

Petrophysical characterisation of volcanic ejecta to constrain subsurface lithological heterogeneities: implications for edifice stability at basaltic volcanoes

“…Caldera collapses and flank failures punctuate the history of volcanoes worldwide and represent major highly hazardous events in their evolution [Poland et al 2017]. Moreover, vertical caldera collapse and flank deformation or collapse can be coeval and thus mechanistically linked [Hunt et al 2018;Martí 2019]. Never-Corresponding author: dimuro@ipgp.fr theless, their link to magma transfer and storage in the plumbing system, together with the nature of weakness zones responsible for volcano collapses still needs to be fully elucidated.…”