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Volcano

Pico do Fogo

Cape Verde · Africa

Pico do Fogo

About

Pico do Fogo ([ˈpiku du ˈfoɡu], lit. 'Peak of Fire') is an active stratovolcano located on the island of Fogo, Cape Verde, rising to 2,829 metres (9, 281 ft) above sea level. The main cone last erupted in 1680, causing mass emigration from the island. A subsidiary vent erupted in 1995. The only deadly eruption was in 1847 when earthquakes killed several people. Fogo, which means "fire" in Portuguese, is a hotspot volcanic island. Its most recent eruptions occurred in 1951, 1995 and 2014. It is the youngest and most active volcano in the Cape Verde Islands, a short chain of volcanic islands that generally are younger at the western end, formed as the African Plate moved towards the east over the hotspot. Fogo consists of a single volcano, so the island is nearly round and about 25 kilometers (16 mi) in diameter. The large summit caldera (about 10 kilometers in the north–south direction and 7 kilometers in the east–west direction) is not located in the center of the island, but rather towards its northeastern corner. The caldera is bounded by steep near-vertical fault scarps on the north, west, and south sides but is breached to the east where lava can flow to the coast. North-northeast-trending eruptive fissures opened along the western flank of Pico, which formed inside the caldera between about 1500 and 1760. The last eruption from the top was in 1769. The current t

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.