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Geography

The Madeira archipelago is located 520 km (280 nmi) from the African coast, 805 km (430 nmi) from the closest point in the European coast (the Portuguese town of Sagres, in Algarve) and 1,000 km (540 nmi) from the capital of Portugal, Lisbon (approximately a one-and-a-half-hour flight). Madeira inhabits the extreme south of the Tore-Madeira Ridge, a bathymetric structure oriented along a north-northeast to south-southwest axis that extends for 1,000 kilometres (540 nmi). This structure consists of long geomorphological relief that extends from the abyssal plain to 3,500 m (11,500 ft); its highest submersed point reaches a depth of about 150 m (490 ft) (around latitude 36°N). The origins of the Tore-Madeira Ridge are not clearly established, but may have resulted from a buckling of the lithosphere.