Serra de Santa Bárbara is the peak of an

dormant volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often ...

in the western part of the island of

Terceira Terceira () is a volcanic island in the Azores archipelago, about a third of the way across the North Atlantic Ocean at a similar latitude to Portugal's capital Lisbon, with the island group forming an insular part of Portugal. It is one of the ...

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

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 share ...

. At elevation, it is the highest point of the island. It is named after the village located on the coast to the south, Santa Bárbara in the municipality of

Angra do Heroísmo Angra do Heroísmo (), or simply Angra, is a city and municipality on Terceira Island, Portugal, and one of the three capital cities of the Azores. Founded in 1478, Angra was historically the most important city in the Azores, as seat of the Roma ...

. The peak lies on the south rim of the Santa Barbara Caldera which is approximately one kilometer wide, having two smaller peaks in the center of the

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcanic eruption. An eruption that ejects large volumes of magma over a short period of time can cause significant detriment to the str ...

. The upper slopes and the floor of the caldera are covered by holly and juniper forests, almost all of which are protected in the Nature Reserve of Serra de Santa Barbara e dos Mistérios Negros. In 1761 a portion of the volcano erupted, and according to local religious lore, the villagers took a holy relic up to the erupting lava, and the lava stopped.Quando no sítio conhecido por "Entre o Pico e a Serra" rebentou um vulcão cujos fumos densos desceram da cumeada da Serra de Santa Bárbara, a coroa do Império do Outeiro foi levada ao local e as lavas não avançaram mais para além do sítio onde depois foi construído o Império.

Notes and references

Angra do Heroísmo Mountain ranges of Portugal Inactive volcanoes {{Azores-geo-stub