Atalaia (peak)
Original title: Atalaia (Pico da)
The highest point of Selvagem Grande, a 150-metre eroded volcanic cone whose geology is described.
2 The highest eminence on Selvagem Grande (‘great wild island’), rising one hundred and fifty metres above the sea and falling sheer to the island’s western coast. It is a volcanic cone cut open on the west side. According to recent observations, its geological make-up includes various rocks. At the base, decomposed phonolites, overlain by compact basalts, stand out on one side, and on the other perfect phonolites, supporting horizontal strata of volcanic tuffs. On top of this assemblage lie masses of more or less scoriaceous, reddish limburgite, which form the summit of Pico (‘peak’). The appearance of this cone, much of it already collapsed, seems to lead to the conclusion that in very remote ages it was one of the craters from which the materials that now form Selvagem Grande were ejected.
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Place
Places mentioned · 04- Pico da Atalaia · Subject
Funchal · Selvagens
Pico da Atalaia is the highest point of Selvagem Grande, an eroded volcanic cone of about 150 metres on the west of the island. The Elucidário describes its geology.
- Pico da Atalaia · Subject
Porto Santo
Pico da Atalaia is one of the main peaks of Porto Santo, rising to 492 m and also called Gandaia. The headword entry, however, describes a peak of the same name on Selvagem Grande, a 150-metre eroded volcanic cone.
- Selvagem Grande
Funchal · Selvagens. Island on which the Pico da Atalaia is the highest point.
Selvagem Grande is the largest island of the Selvagens group, with cisterns, springs and shelters; its highest point is the Pico da Atalaia and the two Palheiros rocks lie nearby. The Elucidário notes its limestone and selenite deposits and characteristic volcanic bombs, and records that it is the only locality of the fossil genus Cabralia. Its geology was studied by Adolfo César de Noronha and in a 1911 paper by Gagel, it was the subject of one of Somerville's 1915 charts, and rodents there prey on seabird eggs.