Nota preliminar sobre las características estructurales del Rift NE de Tenerife = Preliminary results about structural features of the NE rift of Tenerife

Rifts are the most relevant structures in the geology of oceanic volcanic islands. The NW and NEt rifts of Tenerife differ in age, recent eruptive activity and erosion. Spatial and temporal distribution of volcanism has been defined in the young (mainly Holocene) NW rift. The NE rift, deeply eroded, shows the dense dyke swarm forming its internal structure. Deeper access to the core of the rift can be reached using groundwater galeries. Dyke mapping and geomagnetic polarity determination shows that dykes arrange in groups of a predominant polarity, suggesting that intrusions concentrate in short periods separated by long spans of quiescence. At least three lateral massive collapses have mass-wasted the NE rift, the Orotava, Guimar and the Micheque landslides, the last, not mentioned previously, mass-wasted the northwest flank of the rift. Continued volcanism filled the Micheque collapse depression, evolving to construct the Micheque central (differentiated) volcano, nested in the collapse embayment.