How tall is Teide? We once learned that Spain’s highest mountain is three thousand seven hundred eighteen meters high. This figure has always been the benchmark on Wikipedia, on all websites about and related to Tenerife, including those of various governments and the Parque Nacional del Teide.
However, this information is incorrect. During the last official measurement by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional de Canarias (IGN), carried out in 1983, it was determined that the total height of Spain’s largest mountain is 3,715 meters, a finding supported by a 2011 measurement by Grafcan, an official cartographic company.
Juan Tous Meliá
The measurements from both institutes conclude that the volcano is three meters shorter than was commonly assumed.
We’ve all been misled, and now the burning question on everyone’s lips is: How did we end up with 3,718 meters, and more importantly, how has this figure been used as the truth for decades everywhere?
Juan Tous Meliá, a former professor of topography at the Academia Militar General, explained the origin of the confusion in his book ‘La medida del Teide’ which describes the history, eruptions, and cartography of the mountain.
Various Measurements
In April 1983, the Instituto Geográfico Nacional de Canarias measured Teide using the geometric techniques available at the time. To do this, a column was built on the summit to serve as a geodetic vertex. The measured height was 3,715 meters.
Shortly after this measurement, the vertex was destroyed by vandalism, and the column could no longer be used as a measuring point. With the advancement of GPS technology, it later became possible to perform the measurement via the global positioning system.
The problem was that the geodetic vertex used for the first measurement no longer existed, so in 1994, IGN built a new vertex. This was located in the western part of the crater, slightly below the highest point, and in this case, the result was 3,707 meters.
This measurement could not be formalized because it was taken from a slope, so IGN established an interval: Teide was between 3,707 and 3,718 meters high.
Savvy Professor
The geographical institute assures that it has maintained the height of 3,715 meters as the correct height since 1983, and this height appears in its cartography. But the Canary government, the island government, the Las Cañadas natural park, and various ministries continue, inexplicably, to adhere to 3,718 meters.
Faced with this inaccuracy, Professor Juan Tous Meliá contacted IGN and inquired about the possibility of making an exact measurement.
The response he received was negative due to the complexity of the task to be carried out. He then contacted Grafcan, a public limited company that manages geographic and territorial information on the Canary Archipelago. They told him that what is missing to determine the data is the distance between the geodetic point and the highest point of Teide. Grafcan relies on this for their measurement.
New Measurement
On December 2, 2011, four Grafcan technicians began their ascent to Teide. Two GPS teams were set up, one at the geodetic point on the western slope and one at the highest point of the peak. The result, after applying the corrections, matched the IGN’s 1983 result: namely 3,715 meters.
That an incorrect measurement has become popular seems more a matter of chance than anything else. In practice, this difference of three meters will not have any real consequences. Teide remains the highest mountain in Spain and the third-highest volcano in the world, measured from its base on the ocean floor.
Besides, this does not mean that Teide has shrunk by three meters. It’s simply a matter of technology. And the more technology, the more precision. Someday, we’ll be able to measure down to the millimetre!
Correcting the references to the new height might take a while. There are 11,8 million references to the height of Teide on Google alone, the vast majority of which point to an incorrect number.
How tall is Teide? We’ve already started to help correct this discrepancy.
More day trips are listed under Excursions.
Johan Hermans © Photography
How tall is Teide? ©
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