The dominantly basaltic São Jorge Island is 55 km long and 6.5 km wide. It was formed by fissure eruptions beginning in the eastern part of the island. The western two-thirds of the island contains youthful, fissure-fed lava flows resembling those on neighboring Pico Island. Lava effused from three locations above the south-central coast during 1580, producing flows that reached the ocean. In 1808 a series of explosions took place from vents along the south-central crest of the island; one of the vents produced a lava flow that reached the southern coast. Submarine eruptions have also been reported on several occasions from a submarine ridge to the SE. The 1964 event offshore W of Velas was considered "probable" by Madiera and Brum da Silveira (2003), who also provided 14C dates for several other Holocene eruptions.