Volcanoes on Lanzarote

As we all know, the Canaries are of volcanic origin. Lanzarote and Fuerteventura were formed during volcanic eruptions about 20 million years ago. At that time however, the surface of Lanzarote was just a fraction (only the area called Los Ajaches in the south of the island) of its current area of 845 square kilometres.

Volcano Lanzarote

Most of the 300 volcanoes, which account for the appearence of Lanzarote in the present, emerged not so long ago: namely during the eruptions between 1730 and 1736. Volcanoes such as Montaña Corona in the north of Lanzarote (about 5000 years old) and the about 100 volcanoes or ‘ Montañas del Fuego’ of Timanfaya Volcano (about 274 years old) enlarged the surface area of the island by severalfold until it reached its current size.

As one can see well on the map, the island is covered by dozens of volcanoes lanzarote, at which the most spectacular and the youngest ones are located inside Timanfaya Volcano National Park (see zone marked red). The most comfortable way of watching the volcanoes at close range is probably an official bus tour through Timanfaya National Park.

Best Flickr pictures of volcanoes on lanzarote

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To those who don’t want to pay any admission, we recommend a tour with a rental car from La Santa in the north of the island till Yaiza on road LZ-67 (marked as a white line on the map). This track often leads bold upright through the volcanic landscape lanzarote on a length of 27 kilometres. Now and then, there is even a little car park where one can leave their car and really assimilate the mystic landscape and touching tranquility.

The last volcanic acitivity on Lanzarote was registered in 1824.

Videos Volcanoes Lanzarote and Timanfaya

We recommend you this three parts of a documentary about National Park Timfaya and Volcanoes on Lanzarote. The text is in spanish but anyway the images are also very interesting and spectacular. Here the first part:

Future volcanic eruptions volcanoes lanzarote?

According to volcanologists, further eruption of volcanoes lanzarote without warning on Lanzarote are more than unlikely. Teams of experts on location measure the seismic activities every day in several centres spread over the island, using extremely sensitive and most modern technical equipment (since 1986, there have been 76 sensors spread over the island), in order to forecast (unlikely) future volcanic eruptions.

Furthermore, the volcanoes of Lanzarote are among the ‘tamer’ kind of volcanoes. So there is no risk of sudden and aggressive eruptions. Also, the lava stream of the type of volcanoe that predominates on Lanzarote, is very slow, so that one could evade at walking pace in the very unlikely case of an eruption.