Rita Carmo

IVAR - Instituto de Investigação em Vulcanologia e Avaliação de Riscos

Volcano Observatories (VOs) around the world are required to maintain surveillance of their volcanoes and inform civil protection and aviation authorities about impending eruptions. They often work through consolidated procedures to respond to volcanic crises in a timely manner and provide a service to the community aimed at reducing the potential...

Ground deformation at São Miguel Island, Azores, has been mapped with GPS (Global Positioning System) geodetic measurements for understanding volcanic unrest. We use yearly measurements from 52 GPS stations covering the central part of the island, recorded between 2004 and 2016. The results show disturbances in the velocity field, with periods of i...

The Azores are an active volcanic region that offers exceptional conditions for nature-based tourism, one of the main axes of economic growth in the archipelago. A future volcanic eruption may have long-term consequences to this economic sector. Therefore, it is fundamental to assess its vulnerability to volcanic hazards in order to try to mitigate...

The Azores is an active volcanic region that offers exceptional conditions for nature-based tourism, one of the main axes of economic growth in this region. A future volcanic eruption in the archipelago may have long-term consequences to this economic sector. Therefore, it is fundamental to assess its vulnerability to volcanic hazards in order to t...

Presentation from 3-D broadband MT survey on Sao Miguel Island. Stay tuned for the publication of the final results!

The Azores archipelago is located in the North Atlantic Ocean and consists of nine volcanic islands distributed along a general WNW-ESE trend, crossing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) in the zone where three lithospheric plates (Eurasian, Nubian and North American plates) come across. To the west of the MAR, at the North American plate, Corvo and Flor...

New magnetotelluric results from our work on two Volcanoes located on Sao Miguel Island, Azores, Portugal

Accurate geophysical imaging of shallow subsurface features provides crucial constraints on understanding the dynamics of volcanic systems. The island of São Miguel, Azores (Portugal) is dominated by volcanic systems and can pose a threat to human populations in terms of elevated CO2 and radon degassing, and also seismic swarm activity. At Furnas V...

Active volcanic regions, such as the Azores islands, offer exceptional conditions that favor the development of nature-based activities, such as tourism, one of the main priorities of economic growth of this region. A future volcanic event here may have important consequences in this sector. Therefore, it is fundamental to assess its vulnerability...

Nowadays volcanic manifestations in the Azores archipelago are represented by several permanent gas emissions that include hydrothermal fumaroles, thermal and cold CO2-rich springs, as well as diffuse degassing areas. Visible manifestations of volcanism are found out in most of the islands and their isotopic imprints give clues both to understand t...

The assessment of volcanic hazards in oceanic islands with active volcanoes is vital for land management and emergency planning. The volcanic history of São Miguel shows that it is the most active island of the Azores, with the highest eruptive frequency of subplinian and plinian events, counting at least 33 explosive eruptions in the last 5000 yea...

O arquipélago dos Açores está localizado na junção tripla entre as placas litosféricas Eurasiática, Núbia e Norte-Americana. A Crista Médio Atlântica define o limite entre a placa Norte-Americana e as placas Eurasiática e Núbia, enquanto que a Zona de Fratura Açores-Gibraltar delimita a fronteira entre as placas Eurasiática e Núbia. No domínio dos...

Accurate geophysical imaging of shallow subsurface features provides crucial constraints on understanding the dynamics of volcanic systems. At Furnas Volcano (Azores), intense circulation of volcanic fluids at depth leading to high CO2 outgassing and flank destabilisation poses considerable threat to the local population. Presented is a novel 3-D e...

São Miguel island is located at the southeastern part of the Terceira Rift (s.l.), a complex and diffuse deformation zone sheared by a dextral transtensile regime, corresponding to the western sector of the Eurasia-Nubia plate boundary. Tectonic features are relatively well expressed in this island by fault scarps and linear volcanic structures in...

The Azores archipelago is located at the triple junction between the Eurasian, Nubian and North American lithospheric plates. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge defines the boundary between North American, and Eurasian and Nubian plates, while the Azores-Gibraltar Fault Zone delimits the boundary between the Eurasian and Nubian plates. In the Azores domain, th...

São Miguel, the largest island of the Azores, corresponds to one of the most seismically active areas within the archipelago. During historical times it was affected at least six times by destructive earthquakes, which were responsible for thousands of deaths. Several seismic crises are related both to volcanic eruptions and unrest episodes, being...

The Azores archipelago is located at the triple junction between the Eurasia, Nubia and North America lithospheric plates. São Miguel Island, situated at the southeastern part of the western segment of the Azores–Gibraltar Fracture Zone, presents an east–west elongated shape, comprising three quiescent central volcanoes with summit calderas linked...

The geodynamic setting of the Azores archipelago, straddling the triple junction between the North America, Eurasia and Nubia plates, is reflected in frequent volcanic and tectonic activity. A review of neotectonics is presented for the islands forming the central and eastern groups of the Azores (Faial, Pico, São Jorge, Graciosa, Terceira, São Mig...

S. Miguel, the largest island of the Azores, corresponds to one of the most seismically active areas within the archipelago. During historical times it was affected at least six times by destructive earthquakes, which were responsible for thousands of deaths. Several seismic crises are related both to volcanic eruptions and unrest episodes, being t...

S. Miguel island is located at the SE end of the Terceira Rift (s.l.), a complex and diffuse deformation zone sheared by a dextral transtensile regime, corresponding to the western sector of the Eurasia-Nubia boundary. Deformation is accommodated by a large number of active faults along which seismic and volcanic activity occur. S. Miguel island re...

Graciosa is a mid-Pleistocene to Holocene volcanic island that lies in a complex plate boundary between the North American, Eurasian, and Nubian plates. Large fault scarps displace the oldest (Middle Pleistocene) volcanic units, but in the younger areas recent volcanism (Holocene to Upper Pleistocene) conceals the surface expression of faulting, li...

The Azores archipelago is located at the triple junction between the Eurasian, Nubian and North American lithospheric plates, whose boundaries are the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Azores-Gibraltar Fault Zone. Sao Miguel is the largest island of the archipelago and is located on the eastern part of the western segment of the Azores-Gibraltar Fault Zon...

The Azores archipelago is located in the triple junction between the Eurasian, Nubian and North American lithospheric plates. The Achada das Furnas plateau, located in the central part of S. Miguel Island, between Fogo and Furnas volcanoes, is dominated by several basaltic cinder cones that define several WNW-ESE and E-W alignments. Two E-W trendin...

Graciosa is a mid-Pleistocene to Holocene volcanic island that lies on a complex plate boundary between the North American, Eurasian and Nubian plates. Large fault scarps displace the oldest volcanic units, but in the younger areas recent volcanism hides the surface expression of faulting, limiting neotectonic observations. Slip-rates deduced from...

The Achada das Furnas plateau, located in the central part of S. Miguel Island, between Fogo and Furnas volcanoes, is dominated by several basaltic cinder cones and associated lava flows, mantled by trachytic fall deposits from the two adjacent central volcanoes. The cones define WNW-ESE, NW-SE and NNE-SSW alignments. Two E-W trending scarps were i...

In volcanic areas, where the sedimentation rates are higher than fault-slip rate, neotectonic surveys are even more difficult due to topography mantling by thick and non cohesive recent fall deposits preventing the surface expression recognition of tectonic structures by traditional field works. In Azores Archipelago adding to this limitation is th...

A identificação e caracterização de falhas activas propiciam a determinação do regime tectónico patente numa dada região e subsequente elaboração de modelos geodinâmicos. Nesta perspectiva, procedeu-se à realização da cartografia estrutural da ilha Graciosa (Açores), respectiva caracterização geométrica e cinemática dos acidentes tectónicos cartogr...

The Azores geodynamic setting, its geological, geochemical and geophysical characteristics, and the frequent seismic and volcanic activity, motivated the development of multidisciplinary studies aiming at the creation of a coherent model explaining the geodynamic and kinematic particularities that characterize the Azores triple junction – the conta...

The Azores region comprises a zone of anomalously shallow topography, often related with the presence of a mantle plume, lying in the triple junction between North American (NA), Eurasian (EU) and Nubian (NU) tectonic plates. The location of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) is well defined, characterizing the boundary between the NA and EU/NU plates. I...

The Azores archipelago is located at the triple junction between Eurasia, North America and Africa lithospheric plates, whose boundaries are the Mid Atlantic Ridge (MAR) and Azores-Gibraltar Fault Zone. The American plate is located west of the MAR, while the Eurasian and African plates are situated in the east of this structure and are separated b...

This paper presents the results of the tectonic survey of Povoação-Nordeste region, in eastern S. Miguel Island. Faults with three directions cut the studied area. The most abundant structures trend NW-SE to WNW-ESE, while the other directions are NNW-SSE and NE-SW. Kinematic data show the presence of two sets of conjugated faults: one composed of...

The Povoação-Nordeste region corresponds to the eastern part of S. Miguel Island. Three groups of faults with different directions were identified in this area. The dom-inant structures have NW-SE to WNW-ESE directions, while the less representative ones have NNW-SSE and NE-SW directions. The kinematical data reveal two distinct groups of conjugate...

This paper reports the preliminary results of a geological survey performed to study the tectonics of Povoação and Nordeste Volcanic Complexes at S. Miguel Island. The main systems of faults and dykes trend WNW-ESE to NW-SE with the principal faults presenting normal and left lateral strike-slip components. Some WNW-ESE to NW-SE structures show eit...