Caving on Lanzarote

Tags: caving, Lanzarote, Monte Corona, Spain

Date: October 15, 2016

Lanzerote has a number of caves in the lava. When lava flows down a volcano, the surface layer sometimes solidifies first and the underlying lava keeps flowing like an underground river. Sometimes this river empties and a cavity forms - a lava tube. This happened on Monte Corona in the northern part of Lanzarote in its last eruption 4,000 years ago.

Here is Monte Corona:

It is only 609 meters high but the lava flowed a long way to the sea. It is a pretty barren landscape:

Here is an entrance to the lava tube:

We started by going toward the mountain in the cave. You can see many different types of volcanic rock here:

A deserved break before heading out again:

There were several entrances to this lava tube between the mountain and the coast. Here Félicie is standing in one of the lower entrances:

As you can see the cave is really big in places. Here you can see the entrance from the inside:

Here you can really sense how the lava has flowed through the tunnel:

Interestingly, this part of the cave ends at a fence behind which scientific work is taking place. Further along the tunnel, behind the fenced off part, there is yet another entrance which is set up as a tourist cave with lights and entrance fees. We didn't see that part.

Here is a nice picture of the lower entrance before walking back to the car after a hard days' work:

If you look closely, you can see some ropes in the left side of the entrance. They were used by some climbers practicing there.