São Miguel Island

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Image:Sao Miguel satellite photo-NASA.jpg São Miguel Island (pron. IPA /Template:IPA/; Portuguese for Saint Michael), also known as the "Green Island," is the largest (759 km²; 293 sq mi) and most populous of the Azores Islands. The island has around 140,000 inhabitants; the largest town is Ponta Delgada, with about 30,000 inhabitants. The Sete Cidades lagoons are formed by two craters that have a perimeter of 12 km (7.5 miles). The inhabitants are known as Micaelense.

1 Geography
2 Cities and towns:
3 Municipalities
4 History
5 External links

Image:Sao Miguel-the green island.JPG

Image:Sete cidades twin lakes.JPG

Image:Furnas sao miguel.jpg

Image:Mosteiros sao miguel.jpg

Image:Azores-StMichael1845.jpg

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Geography

São Miguel is 90 km from east to west, and between 8 and 15 km wide. Named the "Green Island", São Miguel is largely covered with fields and meadows in the lowlands, and laurisilva forests in the hills. Geysers and hot springs (caldeiras) are spread over the island, which is composed of an old solid mass that stretches from Povoação to Nordeste. São Miguel has 3 stratovolcanoes and caldeiras, Sete Cidades, Fogo and Furnas. The volcanic masses are connected between the alignments of the cone-like mass that are made up of peaks.

The peak area which is located between Sete Cidades and Fogo is composed of 270 monogenic volcanoes. They are primarily made up of basaltic cones which were formed during Strombolian and Hawaiian-style eruptions. It is the most recent area of the island. The youngest volcanoes are relatively well dated. It possibly to count 19 eruptions which have occurred 3,000 years ago. One eruption was historical and is known as Fogo 2 and occurred in 1652.

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