Lagoa do Fogo
Interesting facts
- The volcano's last eruption began on 29 June 1563 and raged until 3 July, accompanied by violent earthquakes that wrought widespread destruction on São Miguel.
- Volcanologists estimate the 1563 eruption column rose about 18 kilometres, and the wind spread its pumice and ash over the east of the island.
- Almost at the same time, very fluid basaltic lava poured from Pico do Sapateiro on the volcano's northern flank near Ribeira Seca.
- A further, smaller eruption broke out in the caldera on 13 February 1564 and lasted only a few days.
- The lake sits in an inner caldera that lies within a much older outer caldera, formed between about 30,000 and 45,000 years ago.
- The inner walls of the crater plunge to the water in cliffs as steep as about 48 degrees.
- In 2005 a seismic swarm beneath the Fogo area produced more than 40,000 recorded earthquakes and set off landslides on the volcano's flanks.
- Hot springs on the volcano's north-western slopes, such as Caldeira Velha, are tapped for geothermal energy and used for thermal bathing.
- The lake is shared by two municipalities, Ribeira Grande and Vila Franca do Campo, whose parish boundaries meet within the crater.
Why it is worth it
Lagoa do Fogo, the "Lake of Fire", fills the summit caldera of the Água de Pau volcano in the middle of São Miguel, the largest island of the Azores. The lake surface lies at 575 m, sunk deep inside steep crater walls that climb to about 947 m at Pico da Barrosa, and from the rim the view drops straight onto an elliptical sheet of very blue water, some 3 by 2.5 km and up to 30 m deep, with a sandy beach along its shore. On misty days the lake appears and vanishes as clouds drift across the crater.
The name recalls a violent past. The volcano is the youngest on São Miguel: it began to form about 15,000 years ago, its summit collapsed into the present caldera around 5,000 years ago, and it last erupted in 1563. Since then the crater has been left to nature. Nothing has been built inside it, and there are no settlements; the lake is fed by rain and runoff and in turn supplies drinking water to the villages on the southern flanks.
The crater is one of the best places in the archipelago to see native Azorean vegetation, : Azores juniper, Azores laurel, the island buckthorn, Azores heather and the shrubby Euphorbia stygiana. The Azorean buzzard, a local subspecies of wood pigeon and yellow-legged gulls circle above the water. The area has been a nature reserve since 1974 and now belongs to the São Miguel Nature Park and the Natura 2000 network. Its beach was named one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal in the wild-beach category in 2012.
Getting there
The lake lies in the centre of São Miguel, about 18 km from Ponta Delgada, the island's capital, and about 20 km from João Paulo II Airport (PDL). Viewpoints on the crater rim, such as the Miradouro da Serra da Barrosa, look down onto the lake.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- São Miguel Island 4.8 km · island
- Ilhéu de Vila Franca 6.8 km · island
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Lagoa do Fogo is a crater lake within the Água de Pau Massif stratovolcano in the center of the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The highest lake located on the island of São Miguel, the region is protected by governmental regulation that does not permit any constructions around the lake.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
37.76333, -25.47139per Wikidata