Capelinhos

Overview

Capelinhos is the volcano that rose from the sea at the western tip of Faial between 27 September 1957 and 24 October 1958, added 2.4 km² to the island, buried the lighthouse to its upper storeys under ash, destroyed 300 houses and sent 2,000 people to America under an act of Congress that a young Senator Kennedy sponsored; it was the first submarine eruption ever documented from beginning to end, and it is still a grey desert of ash and cinder on which, half a century later, not one tree or bush has grown.

The half-buried lighthouse, an interpretation centre dug into the ground beside it, and the walk over the cinder cone to the cliffs where the new land meets the old are the visit; in 2022 the International Union of Geological Sciences put it among the hundred geological heritage sites of the world.

Visiting

The road from Horta runs west along the south coast to Capelo and out to the lighthouse, a stone tower now standing in ash to its balcony; the interpretation centre beside it is underground so as not to disturb the landscape, with exhibits on the eruption, the films and photographs of 1957 and 1958, and a lift up inside the lighthouse to the lantern for the view.

Then walk: paths lead over the cone and along the cliff edge on to the new peninsula, black and ochre cinder falling into a turquoise sea, with the old cliff of Costado da Nau behind, where the whale spotters first saw the water churn; a longer trail climbs the chain of cones inland towards the Cabeço do Fogo and the caldera. There is no shade and the ash reflects the light.

History

Two hundred earthquakes shook the Capelo parish between 16 and 27 September 1957; on the 23rd the sea began to boil a kilometre off the lighthouse, and on the 27th the eruption broke the surface 300 m from the cape, throwing black ash 1,400 m and steam 4,000 m into the air. By 10 October a new island 600 m across had formed, which the locals named Ilha Nova; three journalists and a boatman landed on it and planted a flag before it sank on 30 October. A second island rose on 4 November and joined Faial by an isthmus on 12 November, the ash buried the villages of Norte Pequeno and Canto and filled the lighthouse, and the eruption ran through explosive and lava phases, with an eruptive column of 1,450 m in December, until the last lava on 21 October 1958 and the last projectiles three days later. Fumaroles opened in the island’s central caldera in May 1958.

No one died, though one man nearly fell into the crater; 164 families lost their land and homes, and the Azorean Refugee Act of 2 September 1958, sponsored by John Pastore and John F. Kennedy, let 1,500 people emigrate, halving the population of Capelo. The volcano is the end of a line of twenty cinder cones running from the island’s central caldera, and a vent at Cabeço Norte still releases steam at 180 to 200 degrees.

Tips

• The centre and lighthouse are ticketed and close on Monday; the volcano itself is open ground and free at any hour.
• Wind here is constant and the ash gets everywhere; sunglasses and a scarf.
• Late afternoon puts the sun on the cone and the cliffs from the sea side; the morning view is from the lighthouse balcony.
• Faial is 30 minutes by ferry from Madalena on Pico, and the whole island can be circled by car in a day with Capelinhos as its far end.

Nearby

• Capelo village: 3 km.
• Caldeira do Faial, the central crater: 15 km inland.
• Horta and its marina: 25 km east.
• Mount Pico: across the channel.