Monte Pico

The conical Pico stratovolcano occupies the western end of Pico Island and is the highest volcano in the Azores. The dominantly basaltic edifice lies west of on an older linear volcano with numerous flank cones that forms most of the 46-km-long island. It was constructed over the Montanha volcanic complex on the eastern side of the island and is capped by a 500-m-wide summit crater that is overtopped by a small steep-sided cone. An eruption beginning in 1562 from the Sao Roque Piedade/Planalto da Achada fissure zone produced lava flows that reached the northern coast. Two fissures erupted on the NNW flank and SE flank of Pico volcano in 1718, with lavas reaching the north and south coasts. Lava flows from a fissure on the SE flank in 1720 reached the ocean.