**Author details**

*Updates in Volcanology – Transdisciplinary Nature of Volcano Science*

formation of an avalanche debris and a blast.

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

There are no conflicts of interest.

collapse previous to an important change in the eruptive dynamics is quite significant since it occurred at a time of important stress changes that notably affected the Timanfaya eruption and led to the formation of a large (>13 km) eruptive fissure along which the eruption developed from that moment on. The existence of faults affecting Timanfaya volcanic products demonstrate that there was an important structural control during the eruption. Thus, the eruptive processes produced during the first six months of this eruption, which is the best recorded in contemporary documentation, show that the previously established geological history constitutes a simplification of the events that took place in this area and that a reinterpretation of the historical chronicles and new field work should be carried out to clarify the evolution of the whole Timanfaya eruption, the largest historical eruption of the Canary Islands, and one of the most important in recent times in the world.

The example of Mazo illustrates that flank collapses are not processes uniquely linked to stratovolcanoes. Mazo is an example that during the construction of a scoria cone volcano-tectonic process might trigger a flank collapse as well, although the size of the amphitheater and the avalanche deposits are significantly smaller than those developed in stratovolcanoes. Mazo deposits display features and morphologies similar to those described to characterize volcanic instability processes generated in large volcanic structures, being the main difference the scale. This research emphasizes that mafic monogenetic volcanic eruptions can result in rafting or flank collapse. In both processes, morphology and structures in the cone can be similar, being the main difference the impact of the phenomena: while rafting is a relatively quiet emission of lavas with rafts, during a flank collapse occurs a sudden dramatic

Understanding the causes of syn-eruptive collapses in monogenetic mafic eruptions is essential to correctly interpret the signs of active volcanoes during risk management for land planning and risk reduction in this type of eruptions. In addition to its implications for the Timanfaya eruption comprehension, the morphology of Mazo volcano, and its well exposed DAD deposits make it an ideal case study to characterize flank collapses and formation of DAD in monogenetic edifice, reason why it has been proposed as a geosite in the Canary Islands geoheritage inventory, being suitable to be proposed as a Global Geosite of international relevance for Spain.

This research is part of LIGCANARIAS Project (ProID2017010159) that has been partially funded by the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI) of the Government of the Canary Islands, cofinanced by the Operational Programs FEDER and FSE of Canarias 2014-2020. The initial study was carried out within the framework of a Specific Agreement between Lanzarote Council and the Spanish Geological Survey (IGME). We would also like to highlight the collaboration of the Environmental Agents staffs from Timanfaya National Park, the National Parks Autonomous Organism, and the UNESCO Global Geopark of Lanzarote and Chinijo Islands. We appreciate the work done by Alberto Acosta thanks to a stay as a fellow of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) in the Unit of Canary Islands of the Spanish Geological Survey. We appreciate the review and comments made by the editor and reviewers of the manuscript.

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Carmen Romero1 , Inés Galindo2 \*, Nieves Sánchez<sup>2</sup> , Esther Martín-González<sup>3</sup> and Juana Vegas4


\*Address all correspondence to: i.galindo@igme.es

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
