Pico Island destination. Because of this award, Pico has been selected for inclusion in the global atlas for sustainable tourism DestiNet. Pico Island Pico Island ("Ilha do Pico," ), is an island in the Central Group of the Portuguese Azores. The landscape features an eponymous volcano, Ponta do Pico, which is the highest mountain in Portugal, the Azores, and the highest elevation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In the tradition of the Portuguese poet, Raul Brandão, Pico is referred to as the Ilha Preta ("Black Island"), for its black volcanic earth, responsible for its UNESCO-designated historical vineyards that allowed the development of the
Azores hotspot from Azores Plateau, which is an area of thickened oceanic crust and is thought to be formed from the Azores hotspot 20 Mya. This has been shown through mapping negative velocity S-wave anomalies beneath the Azores. This has shown that beneath the Azores Plateau there is a negative anomaly limited in the upper 250–300 km which is suggestive to be a signature to a present-day dying plume which would have created the Azores Plateau. The Mid Atlantic Ridge offers a different perspective and insight into hotspots. The ridge acts as a cross section through the mantle plume. Anomalies on the