São Tomé Island, at 854 km² (330 sq mi), is the largest island of São Tomé and Príncipe and is home in 2009 to about 157,000 or 96% of the nation's population. This island and smaller nearby islets make up São Tomé Province, which is divided into six districts. The main island is located 2 km (1¼ miles) north of the equator. It is about 48 km (30 mi) long (North-South) by 32 km (20 mi) wide (east-west). It rises to 2,024 m (6,639 ft) at Pico de São Tomé and includes the capital city, São Tomé, on the northeast coast. The nearest city on mainland Africa is the port city of Port Gentil in Gabon located 240 km (150 mi) to the east.

The main language is Portuguese, but there are many speakers of Forro and Angolar (Ngola), two Portuguese-based creole languages.

The entire island of São Tomé is a massive shield volcano which rises from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, over 3,000 m (10,000 ft) below sea level. It formed along the Cameroon line, a line of volcanoes extending from Cameroon southwest into the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the lava erupted on São Tomé over the last million years has been basalt. The youngest dated rock on the island is about 100,000 years old, but numerous more recent cinder cones are found on the southeast side of the island.

São Tomé (population 56,166 in 2005) is the capital city of São Tomé and Príncipe and is by far that nation's largest town. Its name is Portuguese for "Saint Thomas".

São Tomé was founded by Portugal in 1485. The Portuguese came to São Tomé in search of land to grow sugar. The island was uninhabited before the arrival of the Portuguese sometime around 1470. São Tomé was right on the equator and wet enough to grow sugar in wild abundance. Its proximity to the African Kingdom of Kongo provided an eventual source of slave laborers to work the sugar plantations. São Tomé is centred on a sixteenth century cathedral. Another early building is Fort São Sebastião, built in 1575 and now the São Tomé National Museum. In 1599, the city as well as the islands were taken by the Dutch for two days and again in 1641 for a year. It was the capital of the Portugues colony of São Tomé and Príncipe and, since São Tomé and Príncipe's independence in 1975, capital of the sovereign nation.

São Tomé is located at 0°20′10″N 6°40′53″E / 0.33611°N 6.68139°E / 0.33611; 6.68139Coordinates: 0°20′10″N 6°40′53″E / 0.33611°N 6.68139°E / 0.33611; 6.68139. [1]

Tomé is a port city and commune in the Biobío Region of Chile. It is bordered by Coelemu to the north, Ránquil and Florida to the east, Penco to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The local economy is based mainly on textile manufacturing and fishing industry.

The 8.8 magnitude 27 February 2010 earthquake greatly affected Tome, Constitucion, Concepcion, Talcahuano.

According to the 2002 census of the National Statistics Institute, Tomé spans an area of 494.5 km² (191 sq mi) and has 52,440 inhabitants (25,263 men and 27,177 women). Of these, 45,959 (87.6%) lived in urban areas and 6,481 (12.4%) in rural areas. The population grew by 6.4% (3,156 persons) between the 1992 and 2002 censuses.

The commune includes the localities of Rafael, Menque, Cocholgüe, Punta de Parra and Dichato.