Will Teide Erupt?Will Teide erupt? It's difficult to think of it spewing out red-hot lava when you see it draped in a beautiful blanket of snow!
Teide and its neighbour, Pico Viejo (old peak) are both stratovolcanoes. Teide is the higher, at just over 12,000 feet. Indeed, it is the loftiest peak in Spain! 
It all started about five million years ago, with the formation of the Las Caņadas volcano, which, about 200,000 years ago, eventually collapsed, resulting in the Las Caņadas caldera.Subsequently and more recently, material spewed from the Teide-Pico Viejo stratovolcanoes and partially filled in the caldera. Teide is, you'll be pleased to note, currently dormant. However, don't get too complacent, for Teide is still considered to be "unstable". Let's look at the years in which previous eruptions took place. 1492, which was reported by Christopher Columbus, as he sailed past Tenerife on his voyage of exploration to find the New World, 1706, 1798 and, most recently, 1909. Does something strike you? Aren't all the dates around the turn of the century? Hmm! What year is it now? 2009. Are we due another eruption? There are no reports of unusual seismic activity at the moment, but, in 2003, the mountain did do a bit of grumbling! If you still want to risk the ascent of El Pico del Teide after all that, see my page on visiting Teide for information.
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