EarthRef.org Digital Archive (ERDA) -- Field Guide: The Pliocene Seamount Series of La Palma

Description
The Seamount Series of the Basement Complex on Island of La Palma, Canary Islands is exposed in the Barranco de Las Angustias (¿Canyon of the Anguishes¿) and in the Caldera de Taburiente National Park. The Seamount Series is made up of 3.6 km of submarine extrusives and intrusives dipping 50° to the Southwest and the Barranco de Las Angustias offers a well-exposed, continuous section through the seamount. This section offers unparalleled exposure of diverse seamount lithologies, from pillow lavas to volcaniclastics and sheeted dikes and plutonics. The geochemistry of submarine extrusives includes a suite of alkali basalts ranging from very mafic Picrite/Ankaramite to rather silicic mugearites and trachytes. The section also provides a prograde metamorphic sequence that ranges from smectite/analcite at the top of the section and greenschist facies towards its base. This field trip guide, authored by Dr. Hubert Staudigel from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, provides all the information for a one-day hike along the Barranco de Las Angustias from the parking area on the Southern side of the canyon to Dos Aguas and back. The net hiking time is approximately five hours and the complete field trip takes about nine hours.