Editing Teide (section)

===The Canary Islands===
Teide is a [[stratovolcano]] created by the same forces which formed the Canary Islands. The islands are aligned relatively east to west, but continue to the northeast in a series of [[undersea mountains]] which are part of the same volcanic region as the Canary Islands.<ref name=whproposal /> Dating indicates that the age of these islands changes from east to west, with the older islands and undersea mountains ([[seamount]]s) to the east and more recent ones to the west. This makes [[Fuerteventura]] and [[Lanzarote]] the oldest islands, from 20.2 [[Mya (unit)|Mya]], and [[El Hierro]] the youngest, from 1.1 Mya. Counting the undersea mountains, Lars (a seamount) is the oldest, from 68 Mya. The [[Madeira islands]], located not far to the north of the Canary islands and also volcanic, have many islands and undersea mountains aligned in the same general direction and with similar dates. This pattern is consistent with archipelagoes which have formed over a [[hotspot (geology)|hotspot]] such as the Hawaiian Islands. However, there are many differences with Hawaii. First, the Hawaiian Islands are sinking rapidly (in geological time) into the ocean, forming [[atolls]], yet the rate of subsidence is insignificant in the Canary Islands. If the Canary islands were sinking at the same rate as the Hawaiian islands, Teide would be actually below sea-level. But one of the most fundamental differences, and which lends doubt to the theory of a hotspot, is the fact that the volcanic activity is not constrained to the most recent island, but continues through all the islands in the chain. This has aroused an intense debate in the scientific community, which continues to a certain extent today. One hypothesis which allows reconciliation of these observations is the presence in the [[Earth's mantle]] of a [[convection cell]] which enters one part of the magma more towards the east, thus activating the old islands. According to this hypothesis, the magma would be also responsible for scattered volcanic activity to the northwest of the African continent to the south of Spain.<ref name=carratroll />