Tenerife ignimbrite

Ignimbrite is a common rock in southern Tenerife. It has a characteristic light-colored look and seems to contain vesicules which are actually pseudovesicules. Tenerife ignimbrite does not look like ignimbrite from neighbor island Gran Canaria (pictures of Gran Canaria ignimbrite). Tenerife ignimbrite is unwelded and does not contain fiamme (flattened pumice clasts). There are numerous outcrops of ignimbrite in Tenerife. Here are some pictures of this beautiful rock formation.

Unwelded pumiceous ignimbrite in a quarry face. It was deposited approximately 600,000 years ago¹.

Coordinates of the quarry: 28° 08′ 22″ N 16° 31′ 48″ W.

It may seem that ignimbrite is vesicular here but these holes were actually formerly filled with pumice clasts that have fallen off. You can see that many “vesicules” are still partly filled with pumice. Width of view is 40 cm.

There is a layer of pumiceous lapillistone below the ignimbrite and a layer of tuff (thickness 15-20 cm) separating them. All three layers are closely related and have the same phonolitic composition¹. There are no soil layers between them. They were probably deposited from the same eruption column. I have written a separate post about the lapillistone: Granadilla pumice.

Ignimbrite may contain lots of lithic clasts. It is a different location which I described here: Block-and-ash flow deposit or lithic breccia?

Ignimbrite on the southern coast of Tenerife.

Close-up of the coastal ignimbrite reveales that it is quite rich in lithic clasts. Width of view is 24 cm.

Ignimbrite is locally used as a building material. It is light-weight and easy to cut and shape.

This wall seems to be made of artificial bricks but they are actually entirely natural blocks of ignimbrite. Quite possibly from the quarry shown above. See more stone walls in my building stone gallery.