Historical disasters

3.3. Portugal

In continental Portugal there are no cases of active volcanism besides thermal springs (secondary volcanism) that are pretty common. However, there are volcanic events in the Azores islands. That's because they’re volcanic islands and 9 of the volcanoes that formed them are still active. Submarine eruptions are not rare and there are plenty of cases of secondary volcanism on the islands like fumaroles or thermal springs.

T he Capelinhos eruption

This is the most intense volcanic eruption to have ever happened in Portugal. It occurred in Faial, one of the islands of the Azores archipelago. It happened on 27th September 1953. This eruption was of the explosive type. These eruptions are characterized by the big quantities of pyroclastic material (varying from rocks to dust) and gas released. Following a 2 day intense seismic period with more than 200 earthquakes, of an intensity not exceeding V of the Mercalli intensity scale. There were a lot of buildings affected: broken windows, tiles falling from roofs. Cultivated fields were covered with a thick layer of ash. However, there were no victims. The affected people were forced to migrate significantly between 1957 and 1960.