Timanfaya lava flows geosite: a historical and educational approach
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GEOSITES
Timanfaya lava flows geosite: a historical and educational approach
The Timanfaya eruption was a geological and historical event that took place in Lanzarote, Canary Islands. The incident occurred in 1730 and it lasted until 1736. The lava flows covered an area of approximately 172 k m2 and have thicknesses of up to 100 m deep according to geotechnical studies carried out in the late 1990s. In them, we find basaltic materials and structures with morphologies such as pipes, channels, stoves and jameos, a pre-Hispanic word that refers to a hole in the volcanic landscape, where the roof has collapsed into a volcanic cave (Fig. 1). The perfect differentiation between aa and pahoehoe lavas is noticeable at first glance. These lavas not only are the reflection of the island’s volcanic activity, but also provide a historical panorama about the destruction of cultivated areas and towns. In fact, they remain still buried under a sterile and unproductive malpaís (Canary term analog to aa). The striking change of the landscape and soils of the island made the inhabitants have the necessity to find new ways to cultivate the ground, thus creating the so-called enarenados, in which the soil’s humidity is maintained by surrounding it with volcanic materials such as lapilli (Carmelo and Leon 2006). Timanfaya lava flows are one of the key geosites of the UNESCO World Geopark “Lanzarote and Archipelago
Chinijo” (Lanzarote and Chinijo islands Geopark 2014). The main educational importance of the Timanfaya lava flows geosite (Martinez-Martin 2017) resides in the multidisciplinary nature of aspects which can be understood (natural risks and hazards, human history, social-economic effects and, of course, geosciences). From a geological point of view, it is considered one of the largest lava fields in the world. The idea of understanding how our planet works is essential to learn how to care about it and how to protect it (FernandezMartinez et al. 2014). The great quantity of rocks, minerals and morphologies turns the flow into an open book that shows the depths of the Earth (Olalla et al 2010), which allows us to get a little closer to its entrails. On the other hand, being volcanism the most common process in the Solar System (Patrick and Howe 1994), all the studies carried out on these materials can also help to understand similar processes on Earth-like planets (Martinez-Frias et al. 2016; Mateo-Martí et al. 2019). Socially speaking, volcanic activity and its consequences are factors that we must recognize, not only to be aware of their historic impact, but also to manage situations in which eruptions could have similar results.
* Jesús Enrique Martínez [email protected] Pilar Ester Mariñoso [email protected] 1
Facultad de Educación, Universidad Camilo José Cela, Urb. Villafranca del Castillo, Calle Castillo de Alarcón, 49, 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
Received: 21 July 2020 / Accepted: 13 August 2020 © Geologische Vereinigung e.V. (GV) 2020
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International Journal
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