The Teide Journal

The mountain, in depth

Mount Teide has been a sacred peak, a scientific laboratory, a sulphur mine and a film set. These are the articles that go past the practicalities — how the volcano was built, what erupted and when, who climbed it first, and what manages to live at 3,000 metres.

Planning a visit instead? Start with the practical guides.

The floor of the Las Cañadas caldera with Teide rising behind it
Eruption history

Is Mount Teide Still Active?

Fixes unsourced numbers (11,700, 900,000, 160, 15, several hundred thousand), reduces em dashes to ≤7, adds a monitoring-instruments table, and rewrites…

Snow on Teide's summit cone lit by alpenglow
Reference

Mount Teide: The Highest Mountain in Spain

Mount Teide is Spain's highest peak, surpassing the Sierra Nevada and Pyrenees. This article explores the ranking, the volcanic origins, and the…

Panorama across the Las Cañadas caldera towards Teide
Places & landmarks

Pico Viejo: Teide's Overlooked Twin and Its 800 m Crater

Pico Viejo is Tenerife's second summit at 3,135 m with an 800 m crater far wider than Teide's own. Its overlooked trail gives a quieter high-altitude…

A viewpoint overlooking the caldera with Teide in the distance
Plants

Tajinaste Rojo: Teide's Three-Metre Red Tower

The red tajinaste (Echium wildpretii) is Teide's most dramatic endemic plant, a monocarpic tower of crimson flowers that blooms once before dying. This…

Stars over the caldera on a clear moonless night
Astronomy

Teide Observatory: Europe's Solar Telescope Capital

Europe's leading solar observatory sits at 2,390 m on Tenerife's caldera rim. Here's what its telescopes study and why the site was chosen.

The floor of the Las Cañadas caldera with Teide rising behind it
Geology

Los Huevos del Teide: How the Teide Eggs Formed

A short geological feature about the accretionary lava balls known as Los Huevos del Teide on Montaña Blanca.

The floor of the Las Cañadas caldera with Teide rising behind it
Geology

Measured From the Seabed, Teide Is 7,500 m Tall

Mount Teide stands 3,715 m above the Atlantic, the highest point in Spain. But stand on the summit and you are standing on roughly 7,500 m of volcanic…

Broken lava blocks around the rim of Teide's summit crater
Geology

Phonolite: The Ringing Rock That Built Teide's Cone

A geological explanation of why Mount Teide's summit cone is built of phonolite rather than basalt, and what that means for the mountain's shape and…

Broken lava blocks around the rim of Teide's summit crater
Geology

Reading Teide's Lava Flows: Aa, Pahoehoe and the Black Rivers

A practical guide to reading lava flows in Teide National Park — distinguishing ʻaʻā from pāhoehoe, estimating relative age from surface weathering, and…

Weathered volcanic rock on Teide's summit cone with pale sulphur staining
Geology

Teide vs Pico Viejo: Two Summits, One Complex

Stand on the rim of Pico Viejo at 3,135 m and you look across the Cañadas caldera floor at Teide, rising higher. Stand on Teide’s summit and you look down…

Broken lava blocks around the rim of Teide's summit crater
Geology

Teide's Fumaroles: The Sulphur Smell at the Summit

What Teide's summit fumaroles are, what the sulphur smell means, and why the warm ground at 3,715 m matters for volcano monitoring.

Weathered volcanic rock on Teide's summit cone with pale sulphur staining
Geology

Teide's Obsidian: Volcanic Glass and the Guanche Tool Trade

A journal article about obsidian on Mount Teide, covering its geological formation, where it appears on the mountain, Guanche tool use, archaeological…

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