Geological Formation
Going back to the separation of the continents and the formation of the islands and seas, we would have to look at the Cretaceous Period (between 144 and 66 million years ago) and to the Eocene Period (between 56 and 34 million years ago), the time when Europe was separating successively from Africa and from America, giving rise in turn to the emergence of the Atlantic islands, to see the formation of the first of the islands of this archipelago, Maio, the only one with sedimentary outcrops, followed by the appearance of the others, in the geological fault known as Vema, which extends through the Cayar Canyon to Dakar.
It is tempting to evoke the mythical scenery of Atlantis to situate this archipelago, which emerges from depths of 4,000 metres, in the open shell in the west, which separates the islands of Barlavento from those of Sotavento, the most southerly of the four that make up Macaronesia, with the Canaries to the north, followed by Madeira and Porto Santo (both at the latitude of Morocco), still further north, and the Azores (next to continental Portugal), making up a total of 28 larger islands and further smaller ones, including the Selvagens, 165 km north of the Canaries, which is part of Madeira archipelago.
Going back to the separation of the continents and the formation of the islands and seas, we would have to look at the Cretaceous Period (between 144 and 66 million years ago) and to the Eocene Period (between 56 and 34 million years ago), the time when Europe was separating successively from Africa and from America, giving rise in turn to the emergence of the Atlantic islands, to see the formation of the first of the islands of this archipelago, Maio, the only one with sedimentary outcrops, followed by the appearance of the others, in the geological fault known as Vema, which extends through the Cayar Canyon to Dakar.
It is tempting to evoke the mythical scenery of Atlantis to situate this archipelago, which emerges from depths of 4,000 metres, in the open shell in the west, which separates the islands of Barlavento from those of Sotavento, the most southerly of the four that make up Macaronesia, with the Canaries to the north, followed by Madeira and Porto Santo (both at the latitude of Morocco), still further north, and the Azores (next to continental Portugal), making up a total of 28 larger islands and further smaller ones, including the Selvagens, 165 km north of the Canaries, which is part of Madeira archipelago.
