Landslide Processes on Volcanic Edifices in the Northeastern Part of the Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

In the northeastern Atlantic (from south to north) the archipelagoes of the volcanic islands of Cape Verde, Canary, Selvagens, Madeira, and Azores occur. These were formed on the oceanic crust in the Miocene-Quaternary times. The analysis of the geological structure of the thirty islands leads to the conclusion that half of them were destroyed at different times in the course of their evolution by catastrophic landslide processes. Some of these islands were affected by such events repeatedly. These events caused tsunamis and formed large landslide masses in the adjacent parts of the ocean. Based on the data, volcanic edifices that might have been destroyed by landslide processes are proposed. A prerequisite for landslides to appear on a volcanic edifice could be a shift of its center of gravity.