The Canary Islands, though part of the continent of Africa, are actually part of Spain. There are two interesting things going on in the Canary Islands that make them notable.
There is currently an underwater volcanic eruption happening off the coast of the island of El Hierro. Scientists believe that the lava spewing out from the volcano will sooner or later break the surface of the ocean, and form a new island. Click here for an excellent article (with lots of awesome pictures!).
The other interesting thing about the Canary Islands is that they have the potential to create a giant super-tsunami. If the side of the volcano on the island of La Palma were to collapse into the ocean (it's already showing signs of instability), the volume of water displaced could create a huge tsunami hundreds of feet high. Even better (not) this potential tsunami would hit the east coast of the US. Click here for the scientific paper published on the model predictions.
A volcano is like a phoenix: birth from the ashes. That would be great if another island would form: New niches are always awesome!
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