Fogo
- ISS004-E-10728
- 27 April 2002
- 18:58 UTC
Located 18 km east from the small island of Brava and 55 km west from São Tiago (Santiago), the island is approximately circular in shape with a maximum diameter (from north to south) of 26 km, covering an area of 476 km².
The island is formed by the emergent summit of an active stratovolcano that rises over 5,000 m from the seabed below. The upper levels of the island (at 1,600 m) are truncated by the spectacular, 9 km wide, Cha Caldera formation. The Cha caldera is breached on its eastern side (see 3D perspective view) and as a result, lava flows are channeled through here to the eastern slopes of the island. The caldera itself is backed by a sheer headwall (known as the the Bordeira Scarp) of some 1,000 m in height that casts the flat floor of the caldera — home to one of the islands main settlements — into deep shadow in the above image. Also visible in the image is the extremely young peak of Pico de Fogo (the islands highest point, at 2,829 m) catching the sunlight as it emerges around 140 m higher than the Bordeira Scarp. Pico contains a 150 m deep summit caldera of 500 m in width; the last volcanic activity on the island took place on the western slopes of Pico in April 1995.
kml for Google Earth
view on Google Maps