Gran Canaria, Spain, December 2021 - Jan & Jan-Jan's Rejseklubben

Fuente de los Azulejos are located in the southwest of the island of Gran Canaria. The name of this formation gave the typical blue-painted mostly Spanish ceramic tiles (azulejos), based on the color of the rock formation. On the road between Mogan and San Nicolas de Tolentino, they are seen from afar. It is volcanic rock, which appears in several layers in many colors. A change from dark to light rock with deep purple rock and intermediate layers of greenish-turquoise and red and yellow rocks. The result is this bizarre play of colors through various deposits, and by posing different rock types. While the lighter area consisting of the softer pumice, are the dark and the purple of the very hard basalt. The colors in the yellow areas are due to sulfur inclusions, while the greenish-turquoise layers are formed by the emplacement of iron hydrate. Hydrothermal alteration is responsible for the genesis of the rock formations. This is change of the rock in certain areas, which is due to the flow of fluid within the volcanic activity. In addition to the composition of the liquid (chemical liquid) plays the temperature, pressure, composition of primary rocks and the relationship between rock and fluid play an important role. So, for example, an accumulation of fluid with iron hydrate in conjunction with the other parameters led to a greenish-turquoise color.