Lajes do Pico — Volcanic Wall

Off the southern tip of Pico, lava flows from Portugal's highest volcano have created a coastline of vertical walls, lava tubes and boulder arches that drop from 5 metres to beyond 60 metres in short horizontal distances. The walls are heavily colonised by black coral at 30 to 45 metres, pink and yellow gorgonians at shallower depths, and dense aggregations of Atlantic anthias that cloud around overhangs in warm months. Loggerhead sea turtles feed on jellyfish drifting along the wall face through summer. Pico itself is visible from the water on clear days — a 2,351-metre volcanic cone rising out of the Atlantic — and the contrast between the mountain above and the wall below is one of the most geographically dramatic dive briefings in Europe. Current varies with tide and depth; the wall's deeper sections are best at slack.

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