Changes in the natural landscape in the eruption of Tajogaite 2021 (La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain)
Volcanic activity has marked the evolution of La Palma, located in the northwest of the Canary Islands, which is an important laboratory for geomorphological and biogeographical processes. Cumbre Vieja is the study area, a stratovolcano with more than 80 monogenetic basaltic volcanoes and lava and p...
| Autores: | , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha |
| Repositorio: | RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/45438 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10578/45438 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Geografía Tajogaite |
| Sumario: | Volcanic activity has marked the evolution of La Palma, located in the northwest of the Canary Islands, which is an important laboratory for geomorphological and biogeographical processes. Cumbre Vieja is the study area, a stratovolcano with more than 80 monogenetic basaltic volcanoes and lava and pyroclasts fields, where the historical volcanic activity has been concentrated (Romero Ruiz, 1991). A descriptive analysis method has been followed, from the perspective of Physical Geography, of the changes in the natural landscape (landforms, vegetation and land use). The study area was visited between September 2021 and October 2022 in several fieldworks, to carry out a morphological characterization of the eruption, also following previous studies by geographers. The changes in vegetation and land use have been approached through photographies taken with a Dji Mavic 2 Pro drone, orthophotographs (2020-2022 from the GRAFCAN Spatial Data Infrastructure) and studies on the vegetation of the Canary Islands to assess the impact of the eruption. The Tajogaite eruption starts on 19 September 2021 at an altitude between 804 and 1100 m a.s.l. and ends on 13 December 2021, 85 days (the longest eruption in La Palma and the fourth in the Canary Islands). The morphological changes observed have been described as a main scoria cone of 200 m in height and 800 m in diameter with several craters, spatter cones, hornitos, eruptive fissures, and abundant lava flows covering an area of 12.25 km2, including two lava deltas (Punta del Perdido, 0.05 km2, and Las Hoyas, 0.75 km2), that have expanded the surface of the island (Romero Ruiz et al., 2023, 2024; Ferrer et al., 2023; Dóniz-Páez et al., 2024). |
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