United States Forces Azores Management Command Azores Detachment and the base's resident officer in charge of construction. There are approximately 425 U.S. military and 10 Department of Defense civilians assigned to the group. The total U.S. population, including dependents, is about 2,170. Department of Defense employs approximately 930 Portuguese civilians at Lajes Field. An Air Force colonel serves jointly as U.S. Forces Azores commander and as commander of the 65th Air Base Group, Air Combat Command. United States Forces Azores United States Forces Azores (USAFORAZ) is based at Lajes Field, Portugal near Lajes on Terceira Island in the Azores. In 1953, the U.S. Forces
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