Conservation of volcanic caves at Azores islands, Portugal

All the Azorean islands are of volcanic origin and correspond to the elevations of the ocean floor due to the accumulation of volcanic products. The archipelago is located in a very active seismic and volcanic area that corresponds to an area where the American, Eurasian and African lithospheric plates meet (Gaspar et al., 2007; Costa et al., 2008), and this translates in the existence of important fault systems (Fig. 1).