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Mosteiros Islets
The Mosteiros Islets (; literally, ''Islets of the Monasteries'') are four uninhabited rocky islets located about from the settlement of Mosteiros, off the extreme northwestern coast of the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. History and etymology The Mosteiros Islets gave the neighboring municipality of Mosteiros its name. According to Azorean chronicler Gaspar Frutuoso, the earliest settlers to the area thought the largest of the islets looked like a church or monastery, and therefore named the islets and their settlement Mosteiros. Frutuoso noted: :''"Between the large islet and Ponta Ruiva, by the cliffs, until the promontory of Escalvados, there are some large depressions and well made fumaroles, in the form of a church, or monasteries, or of both things, that older settlers called ''the monasteries'' osteiros situated on the fajã that ran from the peak in Sete Cidades''." Geography The Mosteiros Islets are the exposed remains of a sub ...
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Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for separating the New World of the Americas (North America and South America) from the Old World of Afro-Eurasia (Africa, Asia, and Europe). Through its separation of Afro-Eurasia from the Americas, the Atlantic Ocean has played a central role in the development of human society, globalization, and the histories of many nations. While the Norse colonization of North America, Norse were the first known humans to cross the Atlantic, it was the expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492 that proved to be the most consequential. Columbus's expedition ushered in an Age of Discovery, age of exploration and colonization of the Americas by European powers, most notably Portuguese Empire, Portugal, Spanish Empire, Sp ...
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Fajã
(, of unknown etymology) is a Portuguese term of obscure origin used to describe Supralittoral zone, supratidal scree, talus at the foot of coastal cliffs, caused by landslides or lava flows.G. Lameiras et al. (2009), p.827 Although relatively common world-wide, they are distinctive features of the Azores and Madeira, as well as of the Canary Islands, where the equivalent term in Canarian Spanish is (). The term also designates a small flat piece of land, generally cultivable and located by the sea, formed of materials fallen from cliffs. Another Canarian word for lava is , literally, "low island". Geology Fajãs are created from collapsing cliffs or lava flows and are identifiable along the coast as "flat" surfaces, relative to other geological forms. Tides and tidal currents have only minor influence on coastal morphology, and therefore sedimentation and deposits there became permanent. Composed of fertile soils, these Microclimate, microclimates allow the cultivation of ...
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Ponta Delgada
Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality (''concelho'') and executive capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67,287 inhabitants, in an area of . There are 17,629 residents in the three central Freguesia (Portugal), civil parishes that comprise the historical city: São Pedro (Ponta Delgada), São Pedro, São Sebastião (Ponta Delgada), São Sebastião, and São José (Ponta Delgada), São José. Ponta Delgada became the region's administrative capital under the Political status of the Autonomous Region of the Azores, revised constitution of 1976; the judiciary and Catholic episcopal see, See remained in the historical capital of Angra do Heroísmo while the Legislative Assembly of the Azores was established in Horta (Azores), Horta. History The origin of the placename Ponta Delgada (Portuguese for ''delicate or thin point'') was elaborated by the ...
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Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in ''Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770'', a practical book which instructed England's leisured travellers to examine "the face of a country by the rules of picturesque beauty". Picturesque, along with the aesthetic and cultural strands of Gothic and Celticism, was a part of the emerging Romantic sensibility of the 18th century. The term "picturesque" needs to be understood in relationship to two other aesthetic ideals: the '' beautiful'' and the '' sublime''. By the last third of the 18th century, Enlightenment and rationalist ideas about aesthetics were being challenged by accounts of the experiences of beauty and sublimity that involved non-rational elements. Aesthetic experience was not just a simply deliberate, conscious rational decision based on principles of, ...
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Palagonite
Palagonite is an alteration product from the interaction of water with volcanic glass of chemical composition similar to basalt. Palagonite can also result from the interaction between water and basalt melt. The water flashes to steam on contact with the hot lava and the small fragments of lava react with the steam to form the light-colored palagonite tuff cones common in areas of basaltic eruptions in contact with water. An example is found in the pyroclastic cones of the Galapagos Islands. Charles Darwin recognized the origin of these cones during his visit to the islands. Palagonite can also be formed by a slower weathering of lava into palagonite, resulting in a thin, yellow-orange rind on the surface of the rock. The process of conversion of lava to palagonite is called ''palagonitization.'' Palagonite soil is a light yellow-orange dust, comprising a mixture of particles ranging down to sub-micrometer sizes, usually found mixed with larger fragments of lava. The color ...
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Volcanic Cone
Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic landforms. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and size of the fragments ejected during the eruption. Types of volcanic cones include stratocones, spatter cones, tuff cones, and cinder cones. Stratocone Stratocones are large cone-shaped volcanoes made up of lava flows, explosively erupted pyroclastic rocks, and igneous intrusives that are typically centered around a cylindrical vent. Unlike shield volcanoes, they are characterized by a steep profile and periodic, often alternating, explosive eruptions and effusive eruptions. Some have collapsed craters called calderas. The central core of a stratocone is commonly dominated by a central core of intrusive rocks that range from around to over several kilometers in diameter. This central core is surrounded by multiple generations of lav ...
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Submarine Volcano
Submarine volcanoes are underwater vents or fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. Many submarine volcanoes are located near areas of tectonic plate formation, known as mid-ocean ridges. The volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges alone are estimated to account for 75% of the magma output on Earth.Martin R. Speight, Peter A. Henderson, "Marine Ecology: Concepts and Applications", John Wiley & Sons, 2013. . Although most submarine volcanoes are located in the depths of seas and oceans, some also exist in shallow water, and these can discharge material into the atmosphere during an eruption. The total number of submarine volcanoes is estimated to be over one million (most are now extinct) of which some 75,000 rise more than above the seabed. Only 119 submarine volcanoes in Earth's oceans and seas are known to have erupted during the last 11,700 years. Hydrothermal vents, sites of abundant biological activity, are commonly found near submarine volcanoes. Effect of ...
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Sete Cidades (Ponta Delgada)
Sete Cidades is a civil parish in the center of the municipality of Ponta Delgada, that is likewise located in the center of a massive volcanic crater across, also referred to as Sete Cidades. The population in 2011 was 793, in an area of 19.19 km2. It is one of the smallest parishes of Ponta Delgada by population, although the largest in area. It contains the localities Cerrado da Ladeira, Cerrado das Freiras and Sete Cidades. History Latin origins The region received its geographic nomenclature from the Latin ''Insula Septem Civitatum'', which means "Island of the Seven Tribes" or "Island of the Seven Peoples" (Portuguese: ''Ilha das Sete Tribos'' or ''Ilha dos Sete Povos''), but became a historical reference as the "Island of the Seven Cities". This comes from classical Latin, probably incorporated into the older traditions of Mediterranean peoples, through the navigators of European antiquity, or the Phoenicians. In Latin, ''civitas'' does not signify ''city'', but rat ...
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Fumarole
A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or another rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcanic activity, but fumarole activity can also precede a volcanic eruption and has been used for eruption prediction. Most fumaroles die down within a few days or weeks of the end of an eruption, but a few are persistent, lasting for decades or longer. An area containing fumaroles is known as a fumarole field. The predominant vapor emitted by fumaroles is steam, formed by the circulation of groundwater through heated rock. This is typically accompanied by volcanic gases given off by magma cooling deep below the surface. These volcanic gases include sulfur compounds, such as various sulfur oxides and hydrogen sulfide, and sometimes hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, and other gases. A fumarole that emits significant sulfur compounds is some ...
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Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it shares Portugal-Spain border, the longest uninterrupted border in the European Union; to the south and the west is the North Atlantic Ocean; and to the west and southwest lie the Macaronesia, Macaronesian archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, which are the two Autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous regions of Portugal. Lisbon is the Capital city, capital and List of largest cities in Portugal, largest city, followed by Porto, which is the only other Metropolitan areas in Portugal, metropolitan area. The western Iberian Peninsula has been continuously inhabited since Prehistoric Iberia, prehistoric times, with the earliest signs of Human settlement, settlement dating to 5500 BC. Celts, Celtic and List of the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberia ...
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Monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, Church (building), church, or temple, and may also serve as an Oratory (worship), oratory, or in the case of Cenobium, communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, Wiktionary:balneary, balneary and Hospital, infirmary and outlying Monastic grange, granges. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may also include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the commun ...
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Gaspar Frutuoso
Gaspar Frutuoso ( 1522 – 1591) was a Portuguese priest, historian and humanist from the island of São Miguel, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. His major contribution to Portuguese history was his detailed descriptions of the history and geography of the Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands and references to Cape Verde, which he published in his six-part tome '' Saudades da Terra'', as well as ''Saudades do Céu''. He is normally cited in settlement history of the islands of the Azores. Biography Gaspar Frutuoso was born in 1522,José Luís Brandão da Luz (1996), p. 475 on the island of São Miguel, son of Frutuoso Dias, a merchant and rural property-owner, and his wife Isabel Fernandes. Little is known of his childhood, apart from references to him working his father's lands during this period. The first trustworthy record about Frutuoso was his admission to the University of Salamanca (in 1548) where he later obtained an Arts certification. At the age of 31 (in 1554 ...
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