Caldera de Taburiente National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente) is a protected area located on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. The park includes Caldera de Taburiente, a large volcanic crater that covers the northern part of the island. It was made a national park in 1954. The telescopes of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory are located near the top of the park's highest point.

Toponym

The word "caldera" means "cauldron" in Spanish. The word "Taburiente" is not a Spanish word but comes from the Guanche language and means "plain, level."

Geography

The Caldera de Taburiente is a large bowl-shaped area about 10 kilometers wide. In some places, the sides of the caldera rise 2000 meters above the bottom of the depression. The highest point is Roque de los Muchachos, located on the northern side, at a height of 2426 meters. This spot can be reached by car. Cumbrecita is a lower area on the southeastern edge of the caldera's rim. In the southwest, the caldera opens to the ocean through a valley called Barranco de las Angustias, which has a river running through it. This river is the only permanent stream in the Canary Islands. Cumbre Nueva is a ridge that begins at the caldera and extends toward the south.

Geology

The Caldera de Taburiente is an erosion caldera formed by a landslide and erosion, not by a volcanic eruption. It is not a collapse caldera caused by the removal of magma from beneath a volcano during an eruption, which leads to the collapse of the mountain's top.

About 4 million years ago, three shield volcanoes formed one after another in what is now northern La Palma. These volcanoes combined to create the "Northern Shield," a mountain about 20 kilometers wide and 3,000 meters tall. Around 525,000 years ago, the southwest side of the Northern Shield became unstable and collapsed in a large landslide called a debris avalanche. The rocks from the landslide moved down the slope toward the coast and even onto the ocean floor. Erosion later widened the valley created by the landslide.

Because of its importance in the study of volcanology, the "Taburiente volcanic Caldera" was added by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) to its list of 100 "geological heritage sites" worldwide in October 2022. The IUGS defines a "geological heritage site" as a place with important geological features or processes that help scientists understand Earth's history and have greatly contributed to the development of geological sciences.

Wildlife

The main plants in the national park include a large forest of Canary Island Pine, and there is a population of the endangered Canary Islands Juniper. The park is recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it has groups of laurel pigeons, red-billed choughs, and Atlantic canaries.

Human history

During the Spanish conquest of the Canary Islands in the 15th century, the caldera was the location of the final resistance by the indigenous people of the archipelago, a group called the Benahoaritas. The caldera was impossible for the Spanish soldiers to enter, and they only succeeded in defeating the Benahoaritas by tricking their leader into leaving the caldera under the false promise of peace talks.

In 1815, German geologist Christian Leopold von Buch visited the Canary Islands. He traveled to the island of Tenerife, where he saw the Caldera de las Cañadas. Later, he visited La Palma and wrote in his journal that he could clearly tell the difference between a caldera formed by volcanic activity and one formed by erosion, such as the caldera Taburiente. After returning to Germany, he published his journal and introduced the word "caldera" into geological language.

In the 1830s, the caldera inspired artwork that combined knowledge of geology and botany, such as the works of Sabin Berthelot and Felix-Achille St. Aulaire.