Azores

The Azores (Portuguese: Açores, IPAɐ'soɾɨʃɐ'soɾʃ]) are a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km (930 mi.) from Lisbon and about 3,900 km (2,418 mi.) from the east coast of North America. The westernmost island (Flores) actually lies on the North American plate and is only 1,925 km (1,194 mi.) from St. John's in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Azores' most significant industry is tourism.

The nine major Azorean Islands and the eight small Formigas extend for more than 600 km, and lie in a northwest-southeast direction. The vast extension of the islands defines an immense exclusive economic zone of 1.1 million km². The westernmost point of this area is 3,380 km from the North American continent. All of the islands have volcanic origins, though Santa Maria also has some reef contribution. The mountain of Pico on Pico Island, at 2,351 m in altitude, is the highest in all of Portugal. The Azores are actually the tops of some of the tallest mountains on the planet, as measured from their base at the bottom of the ocean. The archipelago forms the Autonomous Region of Azores, one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal.

Though it is commonly said that the archipelago is named after the goshawk (Açor in Portuguese), because it was supposed to be a common bird at the time of the discovery, the bird actually never existed on the islands. Some historians indicate the archaic Portuguese word "azures" (the plural of blue) because of the color of the islands when seen from afar (due to the profusion of hydrangea bushes on each island). Most, however, insist that the name is derived from birds, pointing to a local subspecies of the buzzard (Buteo buteo), as the animal the first explorers erroneously identified as goshawks.