Mainland Spain lies near the convergent boundary between the African and Eurasian plates, whose slow collision drives moderate seismicity across the south and southeast, from the Betic Cordillera to the Alboran Sea. While rarely catastrophic, this setting has produced damaging events such as the 1884 Andalusia earthquake and the 2011 Lorca quake, which caused deaths and heavy damage despite its modest magnitude.
Spain's active volcanism is concentrated in the Canary Islands, a hotspot archipelago off northwest Africa. Tenerife's Teide is Spain's highest peak and an active stratovolcano, while La Palma's Cumbre Vieja erupted dramatically in 2021, burying homes and reshaping the island's coastline with fresh lava.