The active volcanic island of Fogo
Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features Fogo, an active volcanic island located 400 miles off the coast of West Africa.
Fogo, which means fire in Portugese, is part of the island nation of Cabo Verde in the central Atlantic Ocean.
The active volcanic island of Fogo Pico de Fogo is the cone at the summit of the volcano that forms the island. With an altitude of 9,280 feet above sea level, it is the highest peak in West Africa.
Experts have determined that the entire east side of the Fogo volcano slid into the ocean around 80,000 years ago, which formed the caldera. Fogo Island is a town located on Fogo Island, the largest of the offshore islands in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The town was incorporated on March 1, 2011 following the amalgamation of the towns of Fogo, Joe Batt’s Arm-Barr’d Islands-Shoal Bay, Seldom-Little Seldom and Tilting and a portion of the Fogo Island Region.
According to NASA, so much material slid off the volcano flank that the debris field covers an area larger than the area of the island itself.
The image was captured on July 23, 2020 by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station.
Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer
