 The
Azores are a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500
km (950 mi) from Lisbon and about 3,900 km (2,400 mi) from the east coast
of North America. The two westernmost Azorean islands (Flores and Corvo)
actually lie on the North American plate and are only 1,925 km (1,200 mi)
from St. John's in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Azores' most significant industry is tourism.
The nine major Azorean Islands
and the eight small Formigas extend for more than 600 km (373 mi), and
lie in a north west-south east direction. The vast extension of the islands
defines an immense exclusive economic zone of 1.1 million km². The
westernmost point of this area is 3,380 km (2,100 mi) from the North American
continent. All of the islands have volcanic origins, though Santa Maria
also has some reef contribution. The mountain of Pico on Pico Island, at
2,351 m (7,713 ft) in altitude, is the highest in all of Portugal. The
Azores are actually the tops of some of the tallest mountains on the planet,
as measured from their base at the bottom of the ocean. The archipelago
forms the Autonomous Region of Azores, one of the two autonomous regions
of Portugal.
Though it is commonly said
that the archipelago is named after the goshawk (Açor in Portuguese),
because it was supposed to be a common bird at the time of the discovery,
the bird actually never existed on the islands. Some historians indicate
the archaic Portuguese word "azules" (the plural of blue) because of the
colour of the islands when seen from afar. Most, however, insist that the
name is derived from birds, pointing to a local subspecies of the buzzard
(Buteo buteo), as the animal the first explorers erroneously identified
as goshawks. |
