Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands erupted in September 2021 after a week of seismic activity, producing lava flows that destroyed hundreds of buildings and covered agricultural land. The eruption lasted nearly three months and became a major tourist attraction despite the destruction. No fatalities occurred, but economic losses were substantial for local farmers and residents.

The Cumbre Vieja eruption influenced contemporary Spanish and Canarian poetry addressing the aesthetics of destruction, tourism's ambivalent relationship with disaster, and island identity. Canarian poets like Pedro Lezcano and younger voices have explored the eruption in works examining the tension between witnessing beauty in lava flows and mourning lost homes and livelihoods, contributing to Spanish literary traditions that engage with volcanic landscapes as sites of both creative inspiration and material devastation.