Circumference
of Las Canadas caldera: 30 miles
(48 km)
Established as
a national park: 1954
Volcano
Teide (Tenerife)
[1]
Los Roques de Garcia,
Tenerife, is probably the biggest
attraction beside Teide in the
Las Canadas national park. Pictured
you see Teide to the right with
Pico Viejo to the left and the
formations of Los Roques de Garcia
below them
[2]
The biggest attraction
of Los Roques de Garcia is the
unusual shaped red rock called
Cinchado. One of the most popular
postcards of Tenerife is Cinchado
with Teide behind, as in the photo
above. Cinchado doesn’t
look very impressive when passing
from the road, then it almost
seems like just another rock.
You have to see it from close
up to see its special formation.
It is constantly being eroded
at its base and will eventually
fall down. The surrounding area
is highly restricted with ropes
and rangers, even the slightest
step outside the ropes will cause
wild whistling from the guards.
They watch over
the area like hawks, even on a
day when it was rainy and stormy
there were 5-6 guards there. The
reason for this vigilance is that
the authorities are trying to
allow plants and flowers that
are endemic to the area to establish
themselves so that less active
visitors may see the various species
without having to hike for miles.
Without this vigilance there is
the danger of these fledgling
plants being trampled upon by
the thousands of tourists that
visit here every single day. The
area is after all a popular tourist
attraction, it suits those who
don’t enjoy walking in the
mountains, and it’s close
to the road and has a huge parking
space. The Tenerife paradox hotel
is on the opposite side of the
road by the little church of Our
Lady of the snows.[2]
Los Roques De Garcia
are the spectacular eroded rocks
of an ancient volcanic crater
wall in Teide National park. Tenerife
is a stratovolcano capped by Las
Canadas, one of the most impressive
calderas (craters) in the world.
The strange landscape inside the
Canadas caldera has been used
in feature films such as Star
Wars, Planet of the Apes, and
Ten Commandments.
Geologists are still
unsure how the caldera formed,
with theories ranging from a volcanic
explosion to collapse, landslips
and erosion. Los Roques De Garcia
are the remains of a rim that
separates two segments of the
caldera floor. The weird, twisted
pinnacles of rock have names such
as "Finger of God" and
the "Cathedral." The
area provides a good opportunity
to compare two contrasting lava
types, "aa" lava which
has a jagged, blocky surface,
and "pahoehoe" lava
which has a rope-loke surface.
[1]
The floor of the
lower crater (Llano de Ucanca)
is covered with volcanic sand,
but in the spring this arid area
becomes a lake when water from
the melting snows above rushes
down the crater's slopes. The
whole area is a national park,
including the crater, out of which
rises Mount Teide
Teide National
park
Mount Teide or, in Spanish,
El Teide, is an active though dormant
volcano which last erupted in 1909
from the El Chinyero vent on the Santiago
(northwestern) rift and is located
on Tenerife, Canary Islands. The volcano
and its surroundings comprise the
Teide National Park (Parque Nacional
del Teide in Spanish). The park has
an area of 18900 ha and was named
a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on
June 29, 2007.
At 3718 m above sea
level, and approximately 7500 m above
the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, Teide
is the highest mountain in Spain,
highest point in the Atlantic Ocean
and the 13th highest mountain in European
Union (highest mountain not in the
Alps). (Note: The actual summit stands
3 metres (10 ft) higher than the triangulation
station, and associated bench mark,
which has an altitude of 3,715 m (12,188
ft)). The island of Tenerife itself
is the third largest volcanic ocean
island on Earth by volume. Teide is
also the third highest volcano on
a volcanic ocean island. It is also
unstable and possibly in a more advanced
stage of deformation and failure than
the much publicised Cumbre Vieja.
The United Nations Committee for Disaster
Mitigation designated Teide as a Decade
Volcano, because of its history of
destructive eruptions and its proximity
to several large towns, of which the
closest are Garachico, Icod de los
Vinos and Puerto de la Cruz.
Teide together with
its neighbour Pico Viejo and Montaña
Blanca form the Central Volcanic Complex.[4]
[2]
[1]