PITON DEL TEIDE, CANARY ISLANDS
Photos and captions courtesy of Peter Mouginis-Mark
Location: 28.3 N, 16.6N, Elevation: 12,188.3 feet (3,715 m)
The Space Shuttle radar experiment called SIR-C/X-SAR, which flew in October 1994,
collected this radar image of Piton del Teide using 5.6 cm (C-Band) and
horizontally-transmitted, vertically-received (C-HV) measurements. Areas that are
topographically rough or scarps that face the radar are bright in this image. The different
numbers mark the locations of the other images presented here and, where given, the
arrows show the direction that we are looking.
The northern segment of Piton del Teide has experienced several major slumps into the
ocean during the past. Looking up from the coast towards the summit of the volcano,
one can see the major scarp that forms the edge of the Tigaiga Block.
Driving up to the volcano, one of the first view that one gets of the complete cone is quite
spectacular, since one can see many of the relatively young flows on the southern flank.
The summit of the volcano rises to an elevation of 3,715 meters.
Unlike some high volcanoes, it is easy to get to the summit of Piton del Teide as there is a
cable car that takes you from the caldera floor almost to the summit! From this vantage
point, one can look south towards the remnants of an old caldera wall (center) that has
now been surrounded by younger lava flows.
Next page.
To VolcanoWorld
