Chemical monitoring of water quality on a total of 16 rivers in the Azores archipelago (Portugal), since 2003, made it possible to identify the major pressures and spatial geochemical variations along main course of the rivers. River water pollution is to a large extent associated to point sources, namely domestic wastewater discharges, especially in urban areas, and diffuse sources, associated with pasture land, and explain the high values on BOD(5) and nutrients (P and N). Heavy metals and metalloids, as well as hydrocarbons and pesticides, are generally under the detection limits of the analytical methods. Generally, river water reflects pollution loads according to a simple model, derived from land use in the watershed: in the upper part conditions are pristine, in the intermediate portion of the basin pasture land dominates and near the coast urban discharges are increasingly important. Results stress the role that an approach based on the watershed scale, coupled with land use management measures, are crucial to water management procedures and a successful WFD implementation in small river basin districts like the Azores. The paper also shows the need for full compliance regarding EU directives on urban wastewater and nitrate pollution due to agriculture.

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Portugal, located in the southwest region of the Eurasian plate, has been affected by several destructive earthquakes throughout its history, the most well-known being the 1755 Great Lisbon earthquake. The seismicity of the territory, both in the mainland and in the Azores and Madeira islands, has prompted the continuous development of seismic monitoring, from the first known macroseismic inquiry, following the 1755 Great Lisbon earthquake, to the current state-of-the-art seismic network. Once scattered in separate efforts, at present, most seismic stations in Portugal relay its data to a common data center, at Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera, where data are automatically processed for the downstream generation of both manually revised and automatically generated products and services. In this article, we summarize the evolution of the permanent seismic network, its current status, the products and services that are publicly available, a recent effort of rapid deployment of a dense network following a mainshock, and state-of-the-art ocean-bottom seismometer developments.

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Resumen. La historia del archipiélago de Azores, desde el descubrimiento y colonización en la primera mitad del siglo XV hasta ahora, está marcada por los impactos sociales y económicos producidos por los terremotos, principalmente los de alta intensidad. La información compilada nos lleva a concluir que en este periodo 33 terremotos han afectado las islas de Azores con una intensidad igual o superior a VII, causando unas 6.300 muertes y la destrucción generalizada en algunas Islas del Archipiélago, principalmente en S. Miguel, Terceira, Graciosa, Faial, S. Jorge y Pico. La acomodación de los movimientos diferenciales que se producen debido al límite entre las placas eurasiática (EA), africana (AF) y norteamericana (NA) y también al volcanismo que ocurre en la región, son los principales responsables de la intensa actividad sísmica que ocurre en este archipiélago. Este trabajo revisa los temas científicos de los terremotos conocidos que han interferido severamente con la vida del pueblo azoreano a lo largo de su historia, a esos terremotos llamamos grandes terremotos. Palabras clave: Terremotos de Azores; Sismotectónica de Azores; Mecanismo focal de los terremotos de Azores.[en] Large earthquakes in the Azores Abstract. The history of the Azores archipelago, from its discovery and settlement in the first half of the 15th century through the present, is marked by the social and economic impacts produced by earthquakes, mainly the high-intensity ones. Information that has been compiled leads to the conclusion that in this period, 33 earthquakes with intensity equal to or greater than VII have affected the Azores, which caused approximately 6,300 deaths and widespread destruction on some islands of the archipelago, principally S. Miguel, Terceira, Graciosa, Faial, S. Jorge and Pico Islands. The accommodation of strain resulting from the dynamics of the Azores triple junction (ATJ) plate boundary and volcanism, which also occurs in the region, are the main factors responsible for the intense seismic activity in this archipelago. This work reviews the scientific issues of the known earthquakes that have severely interfered with the lives of the Azorean people throughout their history, which we call large earthquakes. Key words: Azores earthquakes; historical earthquakes; seismotectonics of Azores; focal mechanisms.

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