Teide

Teide is a volcano. It stands inside a giant bowl with steep, rocky walls.

Its rocks help scientists learn how ocean islands grow.

Teide is a stratovolcano, a steep volcano built up from layers of lava and ash. It stands inside a huge volcanic bowl called Las Cañadas, marked by a jagged escarpment, a long wall of cliffs. UNESCO says that, measured from the ocean floor, the volcano rises about 7,500 meters, and that it makes Tenerife the third-tallest volcanic structure in the world.

UNESCO calls Teide an old, slow-moving and complex volcanic system. Its landforms show different stages of building up and reshaping, which helps scientists understand how ocean islands grow and change.

MITECO describes the park's centerpiece as the large Circo de Las Cañadas caldera, inside which rises the composite Teide-Pico Viejo stratovolcano. UNESCO's criterion (vii) cites the jagged Las Cañadas escarpment and a suite of landforms recording different phases of construction and remodeling of the volcanic complex; criterion (viii) calls Teide an exceptional example of a relatively old, slow-moving, geologically complex and mature volcanic system, of global importance for the processes that underpin the evolution of oceanic islands.

UNESCO also notes Teide's place in the history of volcanology, through the work of Alexander von Humboldt, Leopold von Buch and Charles Lyell.

The last eruption in the park was more than 200 years ago.

It came from the side of Pico Viejo, the volcano next to Teide. Gas still puffs out of the ground.

The most recent eruption inside the national park began on 9 June 1798 at Chamorra, on the western slope of Pico Viejo, the volcano beside Teide. It lasted three months, until 8 September, the longest eruption in Tenerife's recorded history, and lava spread across the southern part of Las Cañadas.

Spain's geological survey says Chamorra has not erupted since, but its record adds that gas vents called solfataras show the volcano is still alive.

The IGME (Spanish Geological Survey) geosite record TMP153 places the park's last eruption at the Chamorra vent, popularly called 'las Narices del Teide', on the western flank of Pico Viejo. It ran from 9 June to 8 September 1798, the longest of Tenerife's historical eruptions, and emitted about 12 million m³ of lava over the southern Las Cañadas. The record adds that the solfataras still emitting gas are evidence that the system remains active.

Teide's park is dry and windy. Snow can fall there in winter.

Red flowers and a violet grow there. Lizards and blue finches live there too.

In Teide National Park the climate is dry, the wind is often strong, and day and night are very different. Rain is scarce, though snow can fall on some winter days. The plants that grow there are adapted to these hard mountain conditions.

The most common plant community is summit shrubland, led by the Teide broom. The park also has the red tajinaste and the Teide violet, which grows above 2,200 meters on cinders and pumice. Animals include lizards, geckos, skinks and a kind of blue chaffinch found only on Tenerife.

MITECO describes a dry high-mountain climate with strong day-night contrasts, low humidity, often intense winds and scarce, irregular rainfall, with snow on some winter days. The most representative vegetation is summit shrubland dominated by Teide broom (Cytisus supranubius); notable species include red tajinaste (Echium wildpretii) and the Teide violet (Viola cheiranthifolia), which grows above 2,200 m on cinders and pumice.

Invertebrates are of high scientific interest: according to MITECO, 44% of the species are Macaronesian endemics and 7% are found only in the national park. Vertebrates include the lagarto tizón (Gallotia galloti), the perenquén gecko (Tarentola delalandii delalandii), the skink Chalcides viridanus viridanus and the blue chaffinch Fringilla teydea teydea, a subspecies exclusive to Tenerife.

The top of Teide is very high. The air there has less oxygen.

Go up slowly and rest. Tell a grown-up if your head hurts.

High mountains have thin air. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says altitude illness often comes from going too high too fast, that children can get it just as easily as adults, and that the best protection is to go up gradually.

PlayOwl's advice: stay on marked paths, leave the flowers for everyone to see, and bring water and warm layers, because the park is dry and windy, with big changes between day and night.

The CDC's Yellow Book notes that any unacclimatized traveler sleeping at 2,450 m or higher, and sometimes lower, is at risk of altitude illness, that children are as susceptible as adults, that fitness does not affect risk, and that gradual ascent is the key protection. Teide's summit, at about 3,715 m, is well above that level.

PlayOwl's own advice: keep to marked paths so the summit shrubland and its endemic flowers are not trampled, and prepare for MITECO's description of the climate: dry, windy and with large swings between day and night.