Tenerife volcano registers 90 earthquakes in an hour

What is behind volcano earthquakes and do they indicate an eruption?

A seismic swarm of more than 90 very low magnitude earthquakes was recorded in Mount Teide by the Canary Islands Seismic Network on Saturday afternoon.

The movements were recorded by the TNOR seismic station on the north face of Teide between 5.14 and 6.26pm local time.

According to the Canary Islands Volcanological Institute (INVOLCAN), these sorts of volcanic-tectonic events are caused by rocks fracturing inside Tenerife’s volcanic system.

It notes that this episode forms part of the recurring seismic activity that the island has been experiencing since June 2017, during which period over 120 seismic swarms have been recorded.

These have all been related to a process of depressurisation of Tenerife’s volcanic-hydrothermal system, as a result of injections of magmatic fluids.

INVOLVAN says this process has been repeatedly observed since 2016 and is supported by independent geochemical and geophysical data: firstly increased carbon dioxide emissions from Teide’s crater; and secondly slight deformation of the terrain detected since 2024 in the north-east sector of the Teide-Pico Viejo volcanic complex.

The institute notes that it has not detected evidence which suggests that the probability has increased of a volcanic eruption in the short or mid-term in Tenerife.

Although the earthquakes were very small, Spain’s National Geographic Institute (IGN) also detected 15 of them which had a magnitude of between 0.2 and 0.8.

Teide is Spain's highest mountain and the third highest volcano in the world.

The last eruption in the Teide volcanic complex was nearby Chinyero in 1909.

Image: Parque Nacional del Teide