Highest Elevation in Portugal

So the highest elevation in Portugal is not on mainland Europe. It exhibits an unexpected twist of Strange Geography. Actually, it sits on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, some 1,500 kilometers (950 miles) from the Portuguese capital city of Lisbon. The island of Pico (literally “peak”) with its dominant stratovolcano of the same name rises 2,351 meters (7,713 feet) above the Atlantic plain in the Azores archipelago.

Portugal’s Azores Autonomous Region rides atop the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. There, two massive tectonic plates, the North American and Eurasian Plates, pull slowly apart. Magma then forced its way to the surface to form the island chain.  The process continues and active volcanoes can still be found. Thus, Pico fits the stereotype of what a volcano “should look like,” erupting as recently as 1720.

Pico, Portugal. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

This is a photograph I took of the amazing Pico volcano when I traveled there a number of years ago.


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