Geological field work, including detailed cartography and strict stratigraphic control together with
radicarbon ages, have confirmed the historical date of the volcanic eruption that Christopher Columbus
observed in the summits of the island of Tenerife in 1492. The last eruption of the Teide stratovolcano,
known as the «Black Lavas» and repeatedly associated to this historical reference, has been definitively
discarded in favour of Boca Cangrejo (Crab’s Mouth) volcano, located in the NW rift of the island, and
which can thus be considered to be the fifth historical eruption of Tenerife, confirming the annotation
written in the ship’s log of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to Americ
