Monte Brasil

Mountain in Portugal

Monte Brasil is the remnants of a tuff volcano (and peninsula) connecting the south coast of Terceira in the central Azores, overlooking the city of Angra do Heroísmo. Monte Brasil is flanked by two bays: the Bay of Angra (named for the city) to its east, and the Bay of Fanal to its west, and was used as a defensive point during the history of Angra, resulting in the construction of various forts and redoubts, including the Fortress of São João Baptista overlooking the city.

With its imposing point over the city, there are several lookouts situated along its edges that provide panoramic views of the island, including: the Angra marina, the coasts of Porto Judeu and Ribeirinha, the islets in the east, and to the west from the Bay of Fanal, towards Villa Maria until the parish of São Mateus da Calheta. From its summit, on exceptionally clear days it is possible to view São Jorge and Pico, while towards the interior, apart from the various parishes that comprise the city of Angra, there are views of the volcano of Santa Bárbara (the highest point on the island), near the Serra do Morião. Geologically, Monte Brasil is a wide, tuff cone resulting from a basaltic submarine eruption. The internal structure of this volcano, which is in height above sea level (at Pico das Cruzinhas), is marked by layers of basaltic pyroclasts of various thicknesses (between centimetres and metres thick) forming a lithificated palagonite tuff.

The island's temperate climate and Monte Brasil's micro climate allows the growth of a rich vegetation and woody plants, including Azores laurel (Laurus azorica), local heather (Erica azorica), Faya (Myrica faya), African boxwood (Myrsine africana) and the common Azorean juniper (Juniperus brevifolia). The introduction of new species on the island, the resulting deforestation of local areas for shelter and agriculture during settlement, meant that many endemic plants were overrun by exotic species. Due to great trans Atlantic distances from the islands few natural mammals species exist on the islands of the Azores. Those animals that live on Monte Brasil, therefore were stowaways on ancient ships from Europe, introduced into the islands for game food or species that were blown out to sea: these include rat (Rattus rattus), least weasels (Mustela nivalis), rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and the endemic Azorean bat (Nyctalus azoreumi). Of the sedentary bird species the hawk (Buteo buteo rothschild) is the most notable, along with the Atlantic canary (Serinus canaria), common House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), Rock Dove (Columba livia), Atlantic European Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis parva) and the Azorean subspecies of Common blackbird (Turdus merula azorensis). Migratory and marine birds are more common in the islands of the Azores, resulting in the identification of several species including approximately 37 nesting species on Monte Brasil annually (28 land and eight marine species). During the summer, and especially along the mount's southern coast there are large bands of nesting species of Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), and the ubiquitous Caspian Gull (Larus cachinnans).