Canary hotspot

Hypotheses for this volcanic activity include a deep mantle plume beginning about 70 million years ago.

However, this hypothesis has been scrutinized for periods of up to several million years of a lack of volcanic activity between islands.

This resulted in fears of an imminent volcanic eruption, which began October 10, 2011, approximately 1 km south of the island in a fissure on the ocean floor.

As a result of the Cumbre Vieja eruption, over 5,000 of the island’s inhabitants had to evacuate, significantly decreasing casualties.

Still, more than 1300 homes and 1500 utility buildings were damaged and continuous magma flow stalled repair efforts for weeks.