Mid-Atlantic Ridge

I visited the "Algar do Carvao" on octobre the 16th,2024.

The Azores are home to no fewer than around 1700 volcanoes! Algar de Carvão is one of them. However, this volcano is no longer active. Today it is a 90 meter deep cave that was created thousands of years ago by volcanic activity. It is a volcanic vent that you enter. The upper part is covered in greenery due to the incidence of light and humidity. You descend up to 90 meters underground, where there is a small but up to 15 meter deep lake. Several platforms offer a view of various rock formations. The most beautiful thing, however, is the view outside. The sun shines through the large hole in the ceiling and ensures that a large edge of the chimney is lush with bushes, mosses, lichens and ferns. Some endemic species are also said to grow in the volcanic vent. 
Algar de Carvão is located just 12 kilometers from the capital of Terceira, Angra do Heroísmo. You can buy a combination ticket for the Algar do Carvao and the Gruta Natal (pretty boring) for €15.

I for my part wasnt very impressed and after around 20 minutes I ended my visit there. I didnt see any endemic life form nor any life form at all inside the Algar apart from some fellow tourists.

I then left the Algar do Carvao and when on the way back to the parking lots I spotted a hiking trail …

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) has been part of the Tentative list of Portugal since this year. At this geographical location three tectonic plates have been moving away from each other and the void has been filled by magma from the inner earth. The MAR actually extends from the Antarctic to the Arctic, but this possible future nomination only comprises the Portuguese Azores section. It replaces the earlier single tentative sites Algar do Carvão and Furna do Enxofre, and now seems to incorporate all inhabited and uninhabited islands plus the terrestrial waters of the Plateau of the Azores.

It is not difficult to see or experience geological features of the MAR during a visit to the Azores. My stay at the three islands of Terceira, Pico and Faial provided numerous up-and-close views of results of volcanic events that took place here. One of the main tourist attractions of the island of Terceira for example is Algar do Carvão, a “volcanic chimney”. While I found tourism very low-key in general on the Azores and local costs only a fraction of those of the mainland, entrance to Algar do Carvão costs 10 EUR. For that sum you’ll have to descend a long flight of stairs, until the bottom of the volcano where there is a lake created by rainwater and stalactites/stalagmites on the walls. I did not find it very spectacular.

On the island of Faial the site of Capelinhos can be visited. The landscape here is the result of a submarine volcanic …

Algar do Carvao is on Terceira island. It is a ancient lava tube in which we enter through a small tunnel under the visitors center. Entering the tube, you can look up to the vent 45 meter higher and see the sky. The tube to the vent is covered with a green forest made of several species of moss and fern, some endemic to the Azores. It is inhabited by endemic beetles and spider.

After the entrance, a serie of steps are going done the cone, and the forest gives way to black volcanic walls, with silica deposits forming white stalagmites and stalagtites. At the end of the cave is a 15 meter deep crystal lake.

Algar do Carvao can be reach by car or taxi from Terceira airport or from Angro do Herosimo (20 minutes). It is open in the afternoon with a fee.

Altogether, I enjoyed Algar do Carvao even though I am not a big fan of caves. I am skeptical about OUV however.