El Hierro

LOMO NEGRO´S VIEWPOINT

We are in the extreme of one out of three volcanic ridges that have produced most of the eruptive activity of the last phase of formation in El Hierro, the North-East ridge.

The spectacular yellowish colors of the rock that emerge from the cliff are a testimony of an eruption in which the water of the sea or underground contacted the magma. Scientists called these eruptions phreatomagmatic; their first characteristic is their explosivity, due to the water’s vaporization that contacts the magma. The intense yellowish tonality that’s attracts our sight is the result of the fast cooling of the magma, which produces greenish and yellowish rocks, due to the presence of vitrified products. We can also observe how annular structures are created in the rock, expressed in horizontal lines of the strata we observe.

From here we only see one of the two outcrops of this eruption, which has been half-buried by the Lomo Negro volcano on top of which we are standing, whose eruption is more recent. The second rock of similar features is on the other side of this volcano because the phreatomagmatic eruptions cause very large and open craters, which explains the distance of more than eight hundred meters between the two yellowish rocks.

IT CONTAINS:

  • Viewpoint
  • Touristic information
  • Protected space (rural park)
  • Trekking route
  • Parking
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