- Janine Krippner
I am in the Canary Islands working on the 2021 La Palma eruption, specifically how it impacted the local communities and thinking about how we can help during these events in the future. While on the island of Tenerife between field work in La Palma, there has been some deep seismic activity pretty much below our feet. Learning from the experiences of La Palma, and communication efforts during eruptions in the past, my colleagues and I are getting information out immediately to help people to understand what is going on now, increase awareness and understanding for future eruptions, and help identify the official sources of information. We want to drive the open flow of information to empower people with knowledge moving forward. The release below is being shared across platforms and will be updated on social media and the GeoTenerife website as we move forward. This deep, small magnitude seismicity might not lead to anything this week or month, but this volcanic island will eventually experience more eruptions.
- What is happening at Teide Volcano in Tenerife? -
Latest information and context researched and compiled by Sharon Backhouse and team at GeoTenerife and Janine Krippner in collaboration with Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN). Please follow Instituto Geográfico Nacional de España, the institution responsible for volcano monitoring in Spain. When sharing information on volcanic activity please be sensitive to communities that misinformation could impact.
There has been renewed interest in social media and local press following recent low magnitude seismic activity below Tenerife in the last 48 hours. IGN reported 112 small earthquakes (max magnitude 1.7) at depths of 40-50 km below the area of Santiago del Teide, too small and deep to be felt by the population.
There were also three fault-related earthquakes (up to 3.7 magnitude registered between Tenerife and Gran Canaria around 9:30 this morning (6 July 2023) at a depth of 24 km. Some locals in Gran Canaria are reporting on social media that they felt it - IGN has a site where you can report any earthquake activity you feel: please go to
http://www.ign.es/.../portal/sis-cuestionario-macrosismico
Every year there are over 1,000 earthquakes detected by IGN in Tenerife. So what might this mean?
We spoke to Itahiza Domínguez IGN today. He said: “For sure, in the future, there will be an eruption in Tenerife. We don’t know when. It could be in a few years or a few decades. As volcanologists we don’t have the tools yet to predict an exact date - it’s always easier to look back and piece together what led to an eruption. But we follow developments closely and report them openly. And the activity we are seeing right now is unusual in the context of the last 20 years.”
It’s important to highlight that volcano monitoring networks in Tenerife have improved considerably in the last few years and they are now able to detect smaller, deeper events than before. So this recent activity could fall into a “background normal” pattern for the island, however, it cannot be ruled out that this activity may be part of a series of precursor events for a future eruption.
So what do we know? Some context:
Tenerife is a volcanic island in the Canary Islands. There have been five volcanic eruptions recorded in the last 500 years. All of them were effusive Strombolian eruptions producing lava flows and scoria cones in the NE and NW rifts, and Las Cañadas Caldera with some loss of life.
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| Photograph: The 1909 Chinyero eruption on Tenerife from Roberto et al., 2016. |
There has been a larger variation of volcanic eruptions in Tenerife in the last 10,000 years. We don’t yet have a complete record of the exact number of eruptions over this period, but volcanic activity that has been studied shows a variety of Strombolian eruptions in several places and some felsic (phonolitic) eruptions producing thick-long lava flows and an explosive sub-plinian event. These larger eruptions appear to be rare so according to IGN it is likely that a future eruption could be similar to the smaller events of the last 500 years.
However, the risk associated with an eruption in Tenerife could be higher than in the past, depending on where it occurs. With a local residential population of a million people and many tourists a new event could potentially be far more complex if it erupts next to population centres and/or key infrastructure. So a key to mitigate this is to keep people comprehensively informed.
What might happen when we are leading up to an eruption in the Canary Islands? The last two eruptions in El Hierro (submarine eruption in 2011) and La Palma (2021) were preceded by significant seismic activity. El Hierro had months with thousands of earthquakes before it erupted. In La Palma, there were 9 seismic swarms since 2017 that preceded the event. But, says Itahiza Domínguez “there are other factors we look for to be able to gauge whether the seismicity is related to magma being on the move. This could lead to an eruption, or stall, meaning the magma stays below the surface.”
The team at IGN monitor key parameters that can help to gauge what the magma is doing below the island: seismic activity, geochemical signals (a change in the chemical composition of gases detected at the surface) and deformation (possibly a sign that magma is pushing up towards the surface). “Typically we look for a change in these measurements to gauge the possibility of an eruption,” says Itahiza Domínguez, “and we are seeing no change in gas or deformation data right now”.
What does this mean and what does it not mean?
At this point it is impossible to know if the seismicity is related to magma movement or not. There have been no changes in any of the other monitoring data that would be expected leading to an eruption. Regardless, we do know that Tenerife will experience more eruptions in the future, so this is a chance to educate ourselves and prepare.
For now, there are no signs of an imminent eruption in Tenerife, but it is important we all remain informed and follow official sources of information: IGN and 112 Canarias.
