Rocas volcánicas submarinas en la base de la Formación Cañadas. Macizo de Tigaiga (N. de Tenerife)

Abstract

A volcanic submarine formation crops out in the north coast of Tenerife, east of San Juan de la Rambla. This unit is formed by massive and pil/owed lavas, pillow-breccias, hyaloc/astites and palagonitic tuffs and is interpreted as consisUng of subaerial lavas that flowed into shal/ow marine waters. The lavas are amphibolic trachybasalts. An unaltered sample coming fram the most massive zone has yielded a whole rack 2.60±0.17 Ma K-Ar age. These submarine lavas are underlying the oldest formations of the Las Cañadas Series dated at 1.24 Ma in that same area. The submarine lavas correspond to a time period for which very scarce information was yet available in Tenerife.