Centralization, Territorial Vulnerability and the Sustainability of the Archipelago
(continued)
By Arnaldo Ourique
Volcanism, seismicity and territorial risk
Any discussion of the territorial organization of the Azores must take account of the archipelago’s geological reality. The Azores form a geologically active region of the North Atlantic. Throughout their history, the islands have been subject to numerous seismic and volcanic events with significant effects on their populations.
This circumstance has institutional consequences.
A territory exposed to natural hazards and, at the same time, characterized by dispersed strategic capacities faces an objective vulnerability—one that is all the more pronounced when these factors coincide. The point is not to identify one island as more vulnerable than another. Every Azorean island faces some degree of seismic risk; even Santa Maria, the oldest island, whose volcanism is extinct, is subject to seismic activity associated with the Terceira Rift and the movement of tectonic plates, as is the entire world.
The islands differ in their degrees of exposure to natural phenomena. The central islands, in particular, are subject to a range of geological hazards. São Miguel has the greatest potential for human impact among the Azorean islands, owing to the explosive nature of its volcanic systems and their proximity to populated areas. The island has greater geological vulnerability than the others because it contains three major volcanic systems: Furnas, Fogo and Sete Cidades. These systems experience frequent seismic activity, display intense hydrothermal activity and have produced historic explosive eruptions with significant consequences for human life. The combination of this high level of geological hazard and the archipelago’s greatest population concentration makes São Miguel the most critical island (see final note).
The more relevant political conclusion, however, is this:
A) The excessive concentration of critical functions increases the overall vulnerability of the regional system.
B) The rational, regionally distributed organization of those functions increases its resilience.
Centralization and autonomy
The phenomena examined above allow us to draw three important observations and conclusions:
- Not every form of centralization is incompatible with autonomy.
- No political system can function without some degree of administrative concentration.
- The problem arises when centralization ceases to serve as an instrument of efficiency and begins to compromise the system’s fundamental objectives.
In the Azores, those objectives necessarily include solidarity among the islands; the harmonious development of the territory—despite the contradiction between the Political Statute, the Constitution and constitutional reality—and material equality: in constitutional terms, the real equality of citizens, regardless of where they live.
When these principles begin to be undermined, the matter ceases to be merely administrative and becomes a question of autonomy—and more than autonomy alone.
Note: Classification of data
São Miguel: “very high hazard”;
Terceira, Faial and São Jorge: “high hazard”;
Pico: “moderate to high hazard”;
Graciosa, Flores and Corvo: “moderate hazard”;
Santa Maria: “very low hazard.”
All nine Azorean islands are volcanic. The archipelago contains 26 identified terrestrial volcanic systems, approximately 16 of them active and about 10 inactive or extinct. Some 30 eruptions have occurred since the fifteenth century. See Pacheco, J.; Aguiar, S.; Pimentel, A.; Ferreira, T.; Gaspar, J. L.; Queiroz, G.; and Goulart, Avaliação da suscetibilidade da ilha Terceira (Açores) a perigos vulcânicos, LNEG, 2025, http://hdl.handle.net/10400.9/5845; and the Institute for Volcanology and Risk Assessment (IVAR), University of the Azores, “Vulcões Ativos dos Açores,” https://ivar.uac.pt/vulcoes-ativos/?utm_source=chatgpt.com, accessed June 2026.
Arnaldo Ourique is a reasercher and writer specialing on the Azorean Autonomy.
Translated by Diniz Borges