 The
Caldera de Taburiente Nacional Park is located in the Canary
Islands, specifically in the centre of La Palma Island.
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Parque Nacional
de la Caldera de Taburiente is a national park on the island of
La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, located at 28°43′N,
17°52′W. It contains the enormous expanse of the Caldera
de Taburiente, a large crater which dominates the northern part
of the island. It was designated as a national park in 1954.
The caldera is
about 10 km across, and in places the walls tower 2000 m over the
caldera floor. The highest point is the Roque de los Muchachos on
the northern wall, at 2423 m altitude. During the Spanish conquest
of the Canary Islands, it was the site of the last stand of the
indigenous people of the archipelago, the Guanches. It proved
impregnable to the invading Spaniards, and they only defeated the
Guanches by luring their leader out on the pretext of holding talks.
The summit is also
the site of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory.
The Cumbrecita
is a low point in the south-eastern part of the caldera's rim. In
the south-east the caldera opens to the sea, through a riverbed
known as Barranco de las Augustias.
The Cumbre Nueva is
a ridge that starts at the caldera and continues to the South.
The main flora of
the national park comprises a large forest of Canary Island Pine,
with important population of the endangered Canary Islands Juniper
also present.
Geological
origins
The word caldera
originated in the name of the Caldera de Taburiente and has since
been used to describe any very large volcanic crater. It originated
some 2 million years ago, with a massive shield volcano about 20 km
in diameter. The caldera was not formed by an explosion of that
volcano however, but by erosion starting from the volcano's original
crater.
Name
Taburiente
is not a Spanish word. It derives from the Guanche language and its
meaning has been lost. |
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