El Hierro: Shaping of an Oceanic Island by Mass Wasting

Abstract

The flanks of the Canary Islands, a hotspot-generated oceanic island chain, have suffered huge slope failures. Such failures are inherent to the process of oceanic island construction, and typically represent a distinct stage in the evolution of such islands (Fig. 1) (Moore et al. 1994; Watts and Masson 1995; Funck and Schmincke 1998).Fig. 1.Giant landslides in the Canary Islands area. 1 Canary debris flow (17–10 ka); 2 Saharan debris flow (15 ka); 3 El Golfo debris ava1anche (l36–21 ka); 4 El lulán debris avalanche (160 ka); 5 Las Playas debris avalanche (250 ka): 6 Cumbre Nueva debris avalanche (536–135 ka); 7 La Playa de la Veta debris avalanche complex (1 Ma — 0.8 Ma); 8 Teno debris avalanche (≧ 0.5 Ma); 9 Icod debris avalanche (∼0.17 Ma); 10 La Orotava debris avalanche (0.65-0.35 Ma); 11 Anaga debris ava1anche (≧ 0.5 Ma); 12 Güimar debris avalanche (0.69-?Ma) and Gran Canaria debris avalanches; 13 12–14 Ma; 14 14 Ma; 15>14 Ma; 16 3.5 Ma. Data from authors cited in main text