Lanzarote and the Chinijo Archipelago have become part of the Unesco Global Geoparks Network. The institution itself announced this decision on Monday in a statement, which was taken at the international conference held in Sain Kaigan, Japan. At that meeting it was also decided to incorporate into the network another eight sites in China, Cyprus, Greece, Indonesia, Iceland, Italy and Japan.
The distinction covers the entire island of Lanzarote, as well as the islets of La Graciosa, Montaña Clara, Roque del Este, Roque del Oeste and Alegranza, which make up the Chinijo archipelago, and also the abrasion platform that surrounds them due to its volcanic nature. It is a total of 2,500 square kilometers, of which 866 square kilometers are emerged land. Unesco pointed out that Lanzarote and its neighboring archipelago are made up almost entirely of basaltic materials and recalled that with the eruption of Timanfaya between 1730 and 1736, "the association of numerous volcanic structures along a very long fissure led to the creation of the largest lava fields in the world."
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