El Hierro

Of all the islands in the Canary Archipelagos, El Hierro is perhaps the least known. This seventh island has always remained on the sidelines of the comings and goings of tourists, to the great satisfaction of those who love it and wish to see it remain just as it is. El Hierro is the smallest of the Canaries and is located in the extreme southwest of the chain. Its 278 square kilometers offer a tremendous variety of scenery: from the arid slate-like landscape and the volcanic formations of the south and west to the fertile land in the valley of "El Golfo" with vineyards and plantations in the northwest, by way of the dense pine and evergreen forests of the island's central area. El Hierro's coasts are rocky and very steep, with inaccessible cliffs up to 1000 meters high and yet sheltering coves with natural swimming pools which beckon the visitor to take a refreshing swim in their cool waters.

On the Nisdafe plateau we come across fields and meadows, whilst up in the pine forest, fig and almond trees abound. On this island too, you can make the most of the well-known Eternal Spring' climate of the Canaries, with sub-tropical vegetation in the fertile areas contrasting with the fascinating volcanic landscape in other parts of the island. El Hierro's geological epic began around 100 million years ago, when the ocean floor began to swell up due to the unstoppable push of the earth's mantle. Finally, the earth's crust broke in a very characteristic fashion, cracking in the form of a three-pointed star. (If you wish, you can reproduce this sort of break on a domestic scale. Just press on a biscuit in the palm of your hand and you will find that it almost always breaks into three pieces, just like the "Mercedes-Benz" star). Through the cracks began to pour the magma, which after successive eruptions and piling of one layer on another built up the island edifice until it finally emerged from the ocean, forming an imposing triangular pyramid, crowned by a volcano of more than 2000 meters in height. The initial cracks turned into conduits for the up-surging lava which then became three mountain backbones along which numerous volcanic cones are found . As the magma cooled in these conduits, it solidified into vertical basalt walls, forming the characteristic dikes, so typical of El Hierro's geological architecture.

However, the island carried on growing, owing to volcanic activity concentrated in the area where the three backbones meet, until a point of critical instability was reached. Thus, only 50.000 years ago, in the tiny island of El Hierro, one of Natures's most violent and devastating phenomena took place: a land-slide on a gigantic scale.

In a matter of seconds, probably set off by some tremor, a large piece of the island broke off and slid down the marine slope to be scattered over the ocean floor. Like a wound from a giant claw, the impressive amphitheatre of the valley of El Golfo ("the Gulf") remains. It is difficult to imagine a land-slide of 300 cubic kilometers, something like 100 times the volume of the Mount Saint Helens explosion.

Even though more than 200 years have gone by since the last eruption, El Hierro has the highest density of volcanoes in the Canaries, with over 500 cones on the surface and another 300 covered by more recent lava flows. Although the volcanic caves and tubes on the island have yet to be investigated exhaustively, some 70 have been catalogued. Some of them are noted for the beauty of their stalactites or for their length; the different branches of the Don Justo cave add up to over 6 km.

The climate of the island is determined by the interaction of ocean currents from the Saharan Bank and the Trade Winds, so it is uniformly mild. Coastal temperatures are between 19ºC and 23ºC. (On higher ground, especially in the north and east, a few degrees have to be subtracted). Throughout the year there is a moderate to strong breeze.

Here the sun makes itself felt, both in the number of sunny days per year as well as in its intensity. Precautions against too much sun have to be taken very seriously, since the refreshing effect of the breeze makes you forget just how much sun you are getting. The nights tend to be clear and cloudless, a delight for romantics and astronomers alike. The sea temperature varies between some 19ºC in January and 23ºC in September. The rainy season is usually from November to March, but in the last few years the amount of rainfall has diminished somewhat. The Trade Winds also bring air with a high percentage of humidity which condenses on the mountainsides.