Tenerife 2009 February Monday 16

th

– Friday 20th

Who is going 8 BWS students (4 Year 12 & 4 Year 13) 13 SWGS (11 Year 12 & 2 Year 13) staff me Kate Behan, Head of Geography Nick Treglown, BWS Teacher from Taunton School

Tenerife February 2008 Feb 2008

Timings • Coach from South Wilts leave

• Flight times at 9am

Gatwick North leave

2.30pm

to Tenerife South arrive

6.40pm Monarch ZB284

Tenerife South leave

7.40pm

to Gatwick North arrive

11.35pm Monarch ZB285 • Coach to Salisbury

central car park at 2am – 3am!

Paperwork

• European health Insurance Card www.ehic.org.uk

• Passport • Copy of passport

Luggage

• luggage – one soft bag – not too big • in Tenerife we have 3 x 9 seaters, Renault Traffic or similar • so 8/9 in each bus

What to take

• boots with a good grip that will survive lava flows • cotton trousers – or jeans – if you fall on the lava they rip!

• range of top layers so that you can take layers off as you go down the mountain • forget fashion – bring the minimum!

Weather

• on the coast likely to be 20 – 27 o C • on the top there could be snow and biting wind 2-3 o C • in the caldera 10 – 20 o C • rain is rare – 5 days average in February • weather today is partly sunny and 20 °C

Risks

• falling on aa lava flows – cuts • hotel swimming pool • the chances of volcanic or earthquake activity are very low!

Money

• El Teide cable care fare 20 euros max • lunchs – make sandwiches etc, crisps, drinks to take in the field • general spending money

Where we stay

• Apartments – 3 or 4 in each • Laguna Park II Hotel Playa de Las Americas Tenerife 38660 • Emergency contact numbers School mobile 07967 271332 Hotel 0034 922 71 55 11

Hotel

Food

• plentiful buffet • breakfast • evening meal • make your own lunch

Field Trip rules

• courtesy to each other and other guests • no alcohol / smoking / drugs • bad behaviour at any time will result in severe sanctions • always stay in groups • stick to the times set for each activity

Tenerife February 2009

Full days 1 lava tubes, flows and cones with Los Roques and hydrothermal minerals 2 Pico del Teide 3718m cable car up and walk down pumice obsidian and lava 3 Crater and pyroclastics, Poris and wind farm 4 El Medano cone and Playa Paraiso pyroclasts

Geology of Tenerife

1341 1393 1394 1430 1492 1704 1705 1706 1798 1909 In the island summits - News brought by sailors In the island summits - News brought by sailors In the island summits - News brought by sailors Orotava Valley, Taoro Volcano - News brought by sailors Pico Viejo described by Christopher Columbus in the logbook of the "Santa María", sailing offshore Tenerife and heading for the discovery of America Siete Fuentes volcanos, in Fasnia Güimar. Three different eruptions menaced the town of Güimar. Candelaria was evacuated.

Montaña Negra volcano. Destruction of the town of Garachico and its port and harbour, until then the main port of the island. Chahorra volcano, Narices del Teide Chinyero volcano The last volcanic event on Tenerife (1909) built the 80m scoria cone of El Chineryo, erupted 2.2 km 3 of lava and covered a large area in black scoria.

El Chineryo, 1909

The eruption lasted only ten days, producing basaltic aa lava flows and pyroclastic material that caused some damage.

Rocques de Garcia

Lava tube

Caldera

Teide and Pica Veijo

Pico Viejo Crater; Tenerife, Canary Islands. Pico Viejo last erupted in 1798, an eruption lasting 92 days, during which basaltic lava flows and pyroclastics were erupted from a flank fissure vent.

At 3,718 metres (12,198 ft) above sea level, and approximately 7,500 metres (25,000 ft) above the adjacent sea bed, Teide is the third largest and the third highest volcanic island on Earth.

pyroclastics

Teide is a stratovolcano capped by the Las Canadas caldera. The caldera is 7-12 miles (12-20 km) in diameter and partial filled by Montana Blanca, Pico Viejo (which has a large explosion crater), and Pico de Teide.

Montano Roja

Playa Paraiso

Will it erupt again?

• Mount Teide on Tenerife seems to have erupted about once every one hundred years for the period for which we have reliable records. The last one was in 1909. Thus, we might be due for another one soon.

• Typical signs of impending volcanic activity are small earthquakes, possibly for up to eighteen months before the eruption, and earthquakes occurred on Tenerife in spring 2004.

• Since then there has been no earthquake swarms.

•

Hot-Spot Theory

• Early research related the Canary islands to ‘hot spot’ volcanism. This theory implies the existence of a localized magmatic focal point in the mantle, above which the lithospheric plate moves west-east. • Volcanism directly related to the hotspot gives rise to a series of volcanic seamounts. This process results in a island chain going from youngest to oldest with distance from the hot-spot, with active volcanism evident in only the youngest islands. The Hawaiian island chain is the classic exemplar of the hot-spot theory. • Evidence for the theory in the Canaries lies in the spatial-age structure, with the oldest islands ((Fuerteventura and Lanzarote) in the east and the youngest islands (Hierro and La Palma) in the west. • Evidence of contemporary and historic volcanic activity in Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Tenerife, however, serve to cast doubt on the plausibility of this hypothesis.

Age

• The volcanic history of these islands is thought to date back 30Ma although all but two of the islands (Fuerteventura & La Gomera) have experienced active volcanism in the historic or prehistoric times, with the last major eruptions occurring in Tenerife (1909) and La Palma (1949, 1971). The age of Tenerife is somewhat disputed but recent radiometric dating (K-Ar) suggest that the oldest lavas originate in the late Miocene about 8.5 Ma BP

•

Modern Basaltic Series

Widespread basaltic volcanism followed the collapse of the Cañadas volcano covering large areas of the lower flanks of Las Cañadas and in particular on the Dorsal ridge. Most of these basalts were erupted from scoria cones which remain well preserved on the Dorsal ridge. The scoria cones often exhibit strongly linear alignment suggesting fissure-fed eruption.