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- Troll, Valentin, et al.
(author)
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Nannofossils: the smoking gun for the Canarian hotspot
- 2015
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In: Geology Today. - : Wiley. - 0266-6979 .- 1365-2451. ; 31:4, s. 137-145
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The origin of volcanism in the Canary Islands has been a matter of controversy for several decades. Discussions have hinged on whether the Canaries owe their origin to seafloor fractures associated with the Atlas Mountain range or to an underlying plume or hotspot of superheated mantle material. However, the debate has recently come to a conclusion following the discovery of nannofossils preserved in the products of the 2011–2012 submarine eruption at El Hierro, which tell us about the age and growth history of the western-most island of the archipelago. Light coloured, pumice-like ‘floating rocks’ were found on the sea surface during the first days of the eruption and have been shown to contain fragments of pre-island sedimentary strata. These sedimentary rock fragments were picked up by ascending magma and transported to the surface during the eruption, and remarkably retained specimens of pre-island Upper Cretaceous to Pliocene calcareous nannofossils (e.g. coccolithophores). These marine microorganisms are well known biostratigraphical markers and now provide crucial evidence that the westernmost and youngest island in the Canaries is underlain by the youngest sediment relative to the other islands in the archipelago. This finding supports an age progression for the onset of volcanism at the individual islands of the archipeligo. Importantly, as fracture-related volcanism is known to produce non-systematic age-distributions within volcanic alignments, the now-confirmed age progression corroberates to the relative motion of the African plate over an underlying mantle plume or hotspot as the cause for the present-day Canary volcanism.
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- Troll, Valentin R., et al.
(author)
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Sacred ground; the Maipés necropolis of north-west Gran Canaria : the Maipés necropolis of north-west Gran Canaria
- 2019
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In: Geology Today. - : Wiley. - 0266-6979. ; 35:2, s. 55-62
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Gran Canaria, like most of the Canary Islands, shows evidence for young basaltic volcanism in the form of cinder cones and valley-hugging lava flows. These landforms were of no particular use to the aboriginal population, nor to the subsequent Spanish settlers, and young lava flows and lava fields are still referred to as ‘malpaÃs’ (badlands) in the Canary Islands. In north-west Gran Canaria, one such lava flow fills the bottom of a steep-sided valley, which reaches the sea at the present day village of Agaete. The lava flow erupted c. 3030 ± 90 yr bp and displays a total length of ∌ 11 km. At its distal end, just outside Agaete, it hosts one of Europe’s largest and most important pre-historic burial sites constructed of volcanic rock: the Maipés necropolis. Over 700 pre-historic tombs (or tumuli) constructed from the aa-type clinker materials have been identified on top of the valley-filling lava flow. The up to soccer-ball sized vesicular clinker fragments are sufficiently low in density to provide abundant, workable basalt blocks for the construction of the tumuli, allowing the pre-hispanic aboriginal population to create a large and magnificent ‘sacred ground’ in an otherwise barren landscape.
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- Zaczek, Kirsten, et al.
(author)
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Nannofossils in 2011 El Hierro eruptive products reinstate plume model for Canary Islands
- 2015
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In: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 5, s. 7945-
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The origin and life cycle of ocean islands have been debated since the early days of Geology. In the case of the Canary archipelago, its proximity to the Atlas orogen led to initial fracture-controlled models for island genesis, while later workers cited a Miocene-Quaternary east-west age-progression to support an underlying mantle-plume. The recent discovery of submarine Cretaceous volcanic rocks near the westernmost island of El Hierro now questions this systematic age-progression within the archipelago. If a mantle-plume is indeed responsible for the Canaries, the onshore volcanic age-progression should be complemented by progressively younger pre-island sedimentary strata towards the west, however, direct age constraints for the westernmost pre-island sediments are lacking. Here we report on new age data obtained from calcareous nannofossils in sedimentary xenoliths erupted during the 2011 El Hierro events, which date the sub-island sedimentary rocks to between late Cretaceous and Pliocene in age. This age-range includes substantially younger pre-volcanic sedimentary rocks than the Jurassic to Miocene strata known from the older eastern islands and now reinstate the mantle-plume hypothesis as the most plausible explanation for Canary volcanism. The recently discovered Cretaceous submarine volcanic rocks in the region are, in turn, part of an older, fracture-related tectonic episode.
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