A little known paradise in the middle of the ocean, the Azores islands are located on the exact point where three major tectonic plates meet, a condition that has shaped them as a curving chain of volcanic islands. Capelinhos is its living proof.
Between 1957 and 1958, an underwater eruption formed what today is known as the youngest piece of land in Europe, enlarging the size of the island of Faial by 2,4 squared kilometres.
But eventually, the strength of the Atlantic Ocean combined with the hard weather conditions on the island have eroded a large part of its original shape, turning a colony of yellow-legged gulls into one of the few hopes to stop the fragile piece of land from disappearing.
Their arrival to the barren landscape has accelerated the appearance of the first plants, which cling to the arid hills protecting part of the soil and could bring stability to the ecosystem in a near future.
