Overview
- A peer-reviewed IEO–CSIC study in Bulletin of Volcanology reports the first multidisciplinary evidence of active hydrothermal circulation at the Enmedio seamount between Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
- Measurements show the water above the summit is about 0.5–0.6 °C warmer with temperature and turbidity anomalies from 1,600 to 2,200 meters, a marked rise in microorganisms, and dissolved ammonium roughly four times background levels.
- High-resolution data identify a major north–south fracture and a flank depression that focus hot fluid release, while rock samples exhibit iron-oxide alteration and filamentous microstructures typical of low-temperature hydrothermal systems.
- The authors state the findings do not indicate eruptive activity and are not linked to recent seismic swarms at Las Cañadas del Teide.
- The work draws on campaigns aboard the research vessels Ángeles Alvariño and Sarmiento de Gamboa with several Spanish institutions, and the national geophysical agency plans to expand terrestrial and submarine seismograph networks to probe regional seismicity.