Lanzarote Geological History
About 16-20 million years ago, the Africa tectonic plate drifted The results of this process are vivid all over Lanzarote. It is The pictures are rather large, because you need to see the detail
On to the first...
Back to the Main Lanzarote Page
over a hot spot in the earth's crust. Over the next half a million years,
the Canary Islands were violently born. Lanzarote, and, next, Fuerteventura
were the first to break the sea's surface as the plate drifted east
as the lava remained relatively stationary, periodically bursting through
the surface in the form of yet another volcano and either adding
to the existing landmass, or creating a new one.
simply mind-boggling to stand in front of 20 million years of
geological history, seeing it layer by layer. And then seeing the
most recent results of eruptions, and contrasting that to what I
was looking at from millions of years ago while wondering what this
place would look like millions of years from now... One more little
line in the compressed rock of the earth.
in the rock that I was looking at.