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Corvo Island

Corvo
Island (Ilha)
Azoren Corvo.jpg
The island of Corvo as seen from the Corvo-Flores Channel
Official name: Ilha do Corvo
Name origin: corvo, Portuguese for crow; as in Island of the Crow
Nickname: Ilha Preta
Country  Portugal
Region  Azores
Islands Western Group
Location Azores Platform, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Atlantic Ocean
Municipalities Vila do Corvo
Landmark Caldeirão
Highest point Estreitinho
 - location Morro dos Homens, Vila do Corvo, Corvo Island
 - elevation 718 m (2,356 ft)
 - coordinates 39°42′6.75″N 31°6′6″W / 39.7018750°N 31.10167°W / 39.7018750; -31.10167
Lowest point Sea level
 - location Atlantic Ocean
 - elevation 0 m (0 ft)
Length 4 km (2 mi), West-East
Width 6.3 km (4 mi), North-South
Area 17.11 km2 (7 sq mi)
Biomes Temperate, Mediterranean
Geology Alkali basalt, Tephra, Trachyte, Trachybasalt
Orogeny Volcanism
Period
Demonym Corvino; Corvense
Ethnic groups Portuguese
Population 468 (2006)
Density 26.82 /km2 (69.46 /sq mi)
Largest city Vila do Corvo (pop. 468)
Corvo-pos.png
Location of the island of Corvo in the archipelago of the Azores
Corvo area map-en.png

Corvo Island (Portuguese: Ilha do Corvo, pronounced: [ˈiʎɐ du ˈkoɾvu]), literally the Island of the Crow, is the smallest and the northernmost island of the Azores archipelago and the northernmost in Macaronesia, with a population of approximately 468 inhabitants (in 2006) constituting the smallest single municipality in Azores and in Portugal. If considered part of insular North America, for it sits in the North American Plate, it is one of the easternmost points of the continent.

The history of the Azores is linked to non-official exploration during the period of the late 13th century, resulting in maps, such as the Genoves Atlas Medici from 1351, mentioning obscure islands in an undefined Atlantic archipelago. The Medici Atlas refers to an Insula Corvi Marini (Island of the Marine Crow; Marine Crow is the literal translation of "Corvo Marinho", which is the Portuguese name for Cormorant), in a seven island archipelago, but it is improbable that it refers specifically to Corvo, although the island's name could have originated from this atlas. It is likely that the name referred to the two islands of Corvo and Flores, which also appeared on the later Aragonese Mapa Catalão of 1375.

The navigator Diogo de Teive discovered both islands of the Western Group on his 1452 return from the Banks of Newfoundland following his second voyage of exploration. Subsequently, the Portuguese Court when referring to the new Ilhas das Flores(Islands of Flowers) began to identify Corvo as Ilha de Santa Iria (Island of Saint Irene), but other nautical charts continued to refer to this island as Ilhéu das Flores (Islet of Flowers), Ilha da Estátua (Island of the Statute), Ilha do Farol (Island of the Lighthouse) or Ilha de São Tomás (Island of Saint Thomas). For a while it was also known as Ilha do Marco (Island of the Mark), which was attributed to its reference as a geographic marker for sailors, or, likely, the location of a small promontory where a marker was placed, which received the name Ponta do Marco.


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