Trindade (island)

From Freepedia

Trindade
Image caption
Elevation:	600+ m (1,968 feet)
Coordinates:	20° 30′ 52″ S, 29° 19′ 50″ W
Location:	Atlantic ocean
Range:
Type:	Stratovolcano

This article is on the island of Trindade. For the city of the same name, see Trindade.

The small island of Trindade, with an area of 10.3 km², lies at the eastern end of an E-W-trending chain of submarine volcanoes and guyots extending about 1100 km from the continental shelf off the Brazilian coast. The island lies more than halfway between Brazil and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near the eastern end of the submarine Vitória-Trindade Ridge.

Trindade is a mountainous, dissected volcanic island with numerous phonolitic lava domes and steep-sided volcanic plugs. The highest summit is Pico Desejado, near the center, about 600 meters high. Pico Monumento, a remarkable peak in the form of a slightly inclined cylinder, rises from the west coast. The youngest volcanism, at Vulcao de Paredao on the SE tip of the island, constructed a pyroclastic cone with lava flows that are no older than the Holocene (Almeida, 1961). Remnants of the crater of the 200-m-high cinder cone are still preserved. Lava flows traveled from the cone to the north, where they form an irregular shoreline and offshore islands. Smaller volcanic centers of the latest volcanic stage are found in the Morro Vermelho area in the south-central part of the island.

From 1890 to 1896, Trindade was occupied by the United Kingdom, until an accord with Brazil was reached.

There is a small settlement in the south on Enseada dos Portugueses, supporting a garrison of the Brazilian Navy, 32 strong.

Sources

• Siebert, L. and T. Simkin (2002-). Volcanoes of the World: an Illustrated Catalog of Holocene Volcanoes and their Eruptions. Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information Series, GVP-3. URL: http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/

See also

• Trindade and Martim Vaz