A recent trip took me to the Caldera de Taburiente on the island of La Palma on the western edge of the Canary Islands.  The Canaries – not named for the birds but for dogs the pre-Spanish people kept and ate – are hugely popular destinations for sunseekers from northern Europe.  The interesting geology of the islands is not what brings in the plane loads of tourists, though what they seek for a large part, results from geological processes.  Beaches, sun and alcohol, not necessarily in that order.  Fuerteventura, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote all promise kilometers of beaches for the sun-deprived northerners to escape the long winters with.

OFF TO THE CANARIES

The Canary Islands, much like the Azores, Madeira, the Cape Verdes, Hawaii, Iceland, much of the Philippines and Indonesia – the list goes on and on – arise from volcanic origins.  Lanzarote counts over 300 volcanic vents alone.  Tenerife’s Teide volcano stands as Spain’s highest point at 3,175 m – 12,188 ft.  Measuring it from its origins at the ocean floor pushes the height to 7,500 m – 24,600 ft – making it the third highest volcano in the world.

CRATERS VERSUS CALDERAS

So, what is a caldera and how is it different from a crater?  Well, technically, a caldera is a form of a crater though craters are not always associated with vulcanism though calderas are. 

Calderas are also much larger.  They are the result of large collapsed volcanic structures when the magma chambers underneath are emptied with the ground above sinking into the void beneath.  Yellowstone, for example, is a caldera.  It measures 70 kilometers (43 miles) by 45 kilometers (28 miles).  Around 631,000 years ago, the magma chamber underneath a large area of that park emptied with the ground collapsing into the vacant spaces below.

OTHER CALDERA EXAMPLES CLOSER TO MY HOME

Roughly, craters are a few hundred meters (yards) across while something on the scale of 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) is considered a caldera.  Craters can dot the surface of calderas; a great example would be Wizard Island in the middle of Crater Lake. 

While we are here, Crater Lake is a caldera.  Some 7,700 years ago, Mount Mazama gave forth to an eruption with ash covering most of western North America.  The mountain then collapsed in on empty magma chambers underneath forming a caldera.  Rain, snow and no outlet formed the lake over time.

Another great example of a caldera even closer to home is the Larch Mountain Crater.  Another example of a crater getting more credit than it is due.

CALDERA DE TABURIENTE

Back to Taburiente, the caldera formed about 2 million years ago.  Instead of the more normal collapse calderas, Taburiente did not form after an eruptive event emptying the magma from underneath the mountain above.  Instead, it is known as an erosion caldera. 

EROSION CALDERA

Three shield volcanoes formed one after another overlapping each other forming much of what is the northern part of La Palma today.  The resulting mountain reached 3,000 meters (9483 feet) high stretching for some 20 kilometers (12.43 miles) in width.  About 525,000 years ago, the southwestern edge of this volcano became unstable, collapsing laterally in a huge debris landslide.  This created a valley which enlarged through erosion over time.  So quite different from the more infamous calderas.

The Caldera de Taburiente reaches across almost 10 kilometers with walls rising 2,000 meters (6562 feet) above the floor.  Roque de los Muchachos on the northern wall rises to 2,426 meters (7959 feet)

NATIONAL PARK

But the caldera is every bit as scenic as its more violent cousins.  The area around the caldera makes up one of the four national parks found in the Canaries.  While, in my mind, as spectacular or even more some than some of the other parks – Teide, Timanfaya on Lanzarote and Garajonay on La Gomera.  In 2015, the park attracted a little over 445,000 visitors – Teide brought in close to 4.1 million visitors in 2016.  Both Taburiente and Teide have European astronomical observatories located on their slopes.  The number of visitors to Taburiente has probably not increased in any dramatical fashion due to the extensive damage caused by three months of lava flows engulfing large swaths of land on the west side of the southern part of the island in late 2021.

VISITING

Visiting the park on a tour in which we visited the Mirador de la Cumbrecita – this is the lowest point on the caldera rim at only 1,147 meters (3,785 feet) high. The one kilometer walk over to the Mirador Lomo de las Chozas was a highlight of my time in the Canaries.  Dense forest of Canary pine engulfs the caldera (as do clouds) and while there are still plenty of tourists, at least at the Cumbrecita viewpoint, there are lots of trails on which you can get away on while exploring the magnificence.

PARKING PERMITS

Most people visit the caldera by way of the Cumbrecita mirador.  If you are driving a car, which makes a lot of sense here on La Palma, you need to get a parking permit from the Visitor Center to the south off the LP-3 highway.  You can either try and pick one up that day or you can gain one online.  There is a manned checkpoint where your permit is evaluated – the road in is on LP-302 which takes several miles through the pine forests.

To reach the north wall of the caldera, the best way takes you up LP-4 from Santa Cruz de la Palma.  It takes about an hour of switchbacks to gain over 2000 vertical meters.  Weather up here can be clear but cooler indeed than down in Santa Cruz, plus the wind can be acting up too.

HIKING SOURCES

A website with some good ideas for hikes here can be found here.  The same author gives the option to hike the Ruta de los volcanes which heads south over the numerous volcanic craters forming the southern spine of the island.  Best starting point seems to be the Refugio del Pilar at the pass on highway LP-301.  It is then 23.75 kilometers (14.76 miles) to the lighthouse on the southern end of La Palma – Faro de Fuencaliente.  The author describes ways you can accomplish this hike without a car, but it almost seems two cars is better than one.

Another invaluable website here gives a good overview on all trails on La Palma.

TEIDE OFFERS ANOTHER CALDERAN EXAMPLE

A quick note regarding the other maybe more famous – more visited, at least – caldera on Tenerife.  Teide actually rises from within an older caldera – Las Cañadas Caldera.  Las Cañadas collapsed between 160 and 220 thousand years ago though the mechanism of collapse is still not clear.  Teide then built up from within the caldera into what the volcano of today.  The caldera floor is about 2,190 meters (7,190 feet) from which Teide another 1000 meters above.  Teide remains an active volcano with its most recent event in 1909.  The park is the most visited of all national parks in Spain and is a World Heritage Site.

A cable car extends from 2,356 meters (7,73o feet) to 3,555 meters (11,663 feet).  Access to the top is free but you have to have a permit of which only 200 are given out a day.  For Teide, be very careful of altitude sickness going up so high so quickly.

We did see the top of Teide while driving to Garachico for a day excursion on the west side of Tenerife.  Teide is a long way up from the sea!