Porto Santo Island, Madeira, Portugali

Regional Level Types
Porto Santo Island	Island
Madeira	Autonomous Region
Portugal	Country

Porto Santo Island is a Portuguese island 42.48 kilometres (27 mi) northeast of Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean; it is the northernmost and easternmost island of the archipelago of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Ocean west of Europe and Africa.

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The Island of Porto Santo, with its major islets, covers an area that slightly exceeds 42 km2, thus being much smaller than the Island of Madeira. In morphological terms, there is also a strong contrast between these islands. The Island of Porto Santo has a much lower altitude, approximately 518m above sea level at its highest point, Pico do Facho. In relative terms, the Northern region of the island, where the highest peak is located, is relatively rugged, unlike the rest of the island where the altitude of 200 meters is rarely exceeded.

Another important morphological difference in relation to Madeira is the existence of a large central area, slightly tilted to the east. This area, covered by fine-grained sediment mainly deposited by the wind, separates the Northern and Southern regions of the island, where volcanic rocks crop out.

The morphological contrast between the two islands has been interpreted to result mainly from the different lengths of exposure to the erosive agents. Indeed, the geochronological dating of rocks from the Island of Porto Santo has shown that its emergence has occurred more than 14 million years ago and, although its volcanic activity continued until about 8 million years, erosion began to act immediately.

in: Maria Luisa Ribeiro and Miguel Magalhães Ramalho: A Geological tour of the Archipelago of Madeira, LNEG, Lisbon, August 2010.

Fossils

There are 4 fossil localities from the PaleoBioDB database within this region.

BETA TEST - These data are provided on an experimental basis and are taken from external databases. Mindat.org has no control currently over the accuracy of these data.

Occurrences	17
Youngest Fossil Listed	0.01 Ma (Pleistocene)
Oldest Fossil Listed	11.6 Ma (Miocene)
Fossils from Region	Click here to show the list.
Accepted Name Hierarchy Age Astrocoenia genus Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Astrocoeniidae : Astrocoenia 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Balanophyllia genus Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Dendrophylliidae : Balanophyllia 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Caryophyllia genus Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Caryophylliidae : Caryophyllia 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Dendrophyllia genus Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Dendrophylliidae : Dendrophyllia 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Ceratotrochus (Edwardsotrochus) subgenus Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Caryophylliidae : Ceratotrochus : Ceratotrochus (Edwardsotrochus) 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Isophyllia genus Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Faviidae : Isophyllia 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Madracis genus Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Pocilloporidae : Madracis 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Montastraea genus Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Montastraeidae : Montastraea 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Porites genus Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Poritidae : Porites 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Stylophora genus Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Pocilloporidae : Stylophora 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Faviidae family Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Faviidae 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Tarbellastraea reussiana species Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Faviidae : Tarbellastraea : Tarbellastraea reussiana 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Pocillopora madreporacea species Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Pocilloporidae : Pocillopora : Pocillopora madreporacea 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Palaeoplesiastraea turonensis species Animalia : Cnidaria : Anthozoa : Scleractinia : Columastreidae : Palaeoplesiastraea : Palaeoplesiastraea turonensis 11.608 - 5.333 Ma Miocene Pinguinus impennis species Animalia : Chordata : Aves : Charadriiformes : Alcidae : Pinguinus : Pinguinus impennis 2.588 - 0.0117 Ma Pleistocene Otus mauli species Animalia : Chordata : Aves : Strigiformes : Strigidae : Otus : Otus mauli 0.781 - 0 Ma Quaternary
Fossil Localities	Click to show 4 fossil localities

Other Databases

Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porto_Santo_(Madeira)
Wikidata ID:	Q14206042
GeoNames ID:	8010683

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas that Intersect

References