Caldera de Taburiente National Park

The National Park Caldera de Taburiente, Spanish Parque Nacional de La Caldera de Taburiente, located on the Canary Island of La Palma. He forms an open to the west crater or calderaähnliche depression in the northern part of the island.

Since 1981 he is also European bird sanctuary ( ZEPA / SPA / SPA) in the Natura 2000 network ( ES0000043 ). Since 2009 he is part of the La Palma Reserva Starlight ( SF/2009 )

Genesis

Scientists now think that the present form of Taburiente has essentially formed by erosion. As outflow was and still serves the Barranco de las Anguish (Spanish for: Ravine of the fears, anxiety ) on the southwestern edge of the caldera. The northeastern edge of the Caldera de Taburiente together with the Cumbre Nueva back the tear-off edge ( " amphitheater " ) a huge debris avalanche ( Cumbre Nueva Debris Avalanche ) whose deposits now lie west of La Palma at the foot of the island in 2500-4000 m water depth. This debris avalanche covers an area of 780 km ² and has about ³ a volume of 95 km. The age of the Cumbre Nueva Debris Avalanche is, however, difficult to determine ( 530000-125000 years ). This amphitheater was later filled with younger volcanic deposits and partially eroded again. The present structure is thus the product of the Cumbre Nueva Debris Avalanche, later backfilling and erosion. It is therefore contrary to the name of any caldera in the volcanological sense. In 1954, the area was declared a national park, Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente.

Roque Idafe

Colored by minerals waterfall in the Caldera

View from the Roque de los Muchachos in the Barranco de las Anguish

Dimensions

Today the crater measures about nine kilometers in diameter and has a circumference of about 28 kilometers. Its deepest point is about 430 meters above sea level. Sea level. The highest point of 2,426 meters above sea level. Sea level reached the crater rim to the north with the same highest point of La Palma, Roque de los Muchachos. Available to the National Park is essentially the Park Administration ICONA maintains through the Barranco de las Angustias or at the viewpoint La Cumbrecita, near which a visitor center. Here also guided hikes are offered.

History

The natives of La Palma, the Auritas, or commonly called, for all the natives of the Canary Islands, the Guanches, the crater basin served as the last refuge, as in the 15th century the Spanish conquest by Alonso Fernández de Lugo began.

In the midst of the crater there are between two ravines a mountain ridge, at which a hundred yards high pinnacle of volcanic basalt elevates the Roque Idafe ( 28.7125 N, 17.8807 W28.712498 - 17.880671 ). This stone has been of great importance according to tradition, the original inhabitants of the island. Him were animal sacrifices to prevent a collapse of the rock and thus a large disaster, since he was probably viewed as a support between heaven and earth. Archaeological findings in this area could, however, not to be made.

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