Erosion from differences in local relief between old and young submarine parts of volcanic islands

What is it about?

The submarine slope of the northeast end of Tenerife Island (the Anaga peninsula) contains many gullies deviating around small hills, while the slope of El Hierro in contrast still has volcanic structures and lacks such deep gullies. Assuming that the difference in local relief of the 6-8 Ma Anaga slope and the young (<1 Ma?) El Hierro slope is caused only by erosion and that the original local relief of Anaga was similar to that of El Hierro, this study sought to quantify the erosion. A surface was interpolated across the small hills around both submarine slope areas and relief relative to that interpolated surface was quantified. Accordingly, ~100 m of material on average was estimated to have been removed from Anaga's slope, suggesting modest long-term erosion rates roughly comparable with those of subaerial lowlands.

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Photo by Rich Martello on Unsplash

Photo by Rich Martello on Unsplash