ATLANTIS & the Atlantic Ocean

   Terceira 



Terceira Island, seen here from the Space Shuttle, contains four stratovolcanoes constructed along a prominent ESE-WNW-trending fissure zone cutting across the island. The summit caldera of Santa Barbara, the westernmost volcano (and the only one active during historical time) is the dark-colored area at the left. Cinco Picos caldera can be faintly seen at the center, with the broad Guilherme Moniz caldera at the right. Historical eruptions have taken place from the rift zone and offshore vents.

NASA Space Shuttle image ISS004-E-10890, 2002 (http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/).



 Country: Portugal
Subregion Name: Azores and Madeira
Volcano Number: 1802-05=
Volcano Type: Stratovolcanoes
Volcano Status: Historical
Last Known Eruption: 2000   
Summit Elevation: 1023 m 3,356 feet
Latitude: 38.73°N  38°44'0"N
Longitude: 27.32°W 27°19'0"W
Terceira Island contains four stratovolcanoes constructed along a prominent ESE-WNW-trending fissure zone that cuts across the island. Historically active Santa Barbara volcano at the western end of the island is truncated by two calderas. The youngest of these formed about 15,000 years ago. Comenditic lava domes fill and surround the caldera. Pico Alto lies north of the fissure zone in the north-central part of the island and contains a Pleistocene caldera largely filled by lava domes and lava flows. Guilherme Moniz caldera lies along the fissure zone immediately to the south, and 7-km-wide Cinquio Picos caldera at the SE end of the island is the largest in the Azores. Historical eruptions have occurred from Pico Alto, the fissure zone between Pico Alto and Santa Barbara, and from submarine vents west of Santa Barbara. Most Holocene eruptions have produced basaltic-to-rhyolitic lava flows from the fissure zone transecting the island.