The book “A History with Many Millions of Years – From the Thetys Ocean to the Algarve Barrocal”, the result of research by geologist Delminda Moura, from the University of Algarve, supported by researcher Sónia Oliveira, was launched on the 6th, in a session which took place in the old school of Cerro d'Ouro, in Paderne.
The work, which has a preface by Nuno Pimentel, geologist and scientific coordinator of the aspiring West Geopark, tells, «in accessible language», the geological history of the Escarpão Plateau, located in the municipality of Albufeira, between Paderne and Ferreiras.
«This plateau was once the great ocean Thetys and the fossils tell a history of the territory with more than 150 million years. A true “gem of Geology”, “revealed” in a joint edition of the Municipality of Albufeira with the aspiring Algarvensis Geopark (aUGGp – aspiring UNESCO Global Geopark)», according to the Albufeira Chamber.
Delminda Moura, the geologist who signed this book, says that the work «allows an integrated view from the time when all this was the Thetys ocean, that is, from the time that Europe was a set of islands, to the action of man who made dry stone walls to break up the soil for agricultural purposes and, in this way, divide the territory”.
The author of the book recalled how, in the 80s, students from the University of Lisbon traveled to the Algarve for research on the Planalto do Escarpão, accompanied by their teachers.
«We came to see the fossil ocean to present works on the ecosystems existing on this coral platform, an immense set of microorganisms, because this top, this fold resulting from the rise of the salt masses, presents the last forms of the ancient continental beings, meanwhile disappeared» , he said, during the presentation of the book.
For José Carlos Rolo, mayor of Albufeira, it will be important to have «the UNESCO seal in this territory», a distinction that will bring added value to the Algarve «in the areas of science, geotourism and the enhancement of the territory».
Luís Pereira, coordinator in the municipality of Albufeira responsible for the Algarvensis candidacy for UNESCO, said, for his part, that «this book presents the evolution of geological time, since 4600 million years ago, and the concepts that were formed, thus presenting a more complete sequence of what was the Upper Jurassic. All in a simple and didactic language, which allows anyone to be a scientist».
The intention is that the new publication «comes to be a presence in the classrooms and an instrument of work and discoveries».
The digital edition of this book can be found on the websites of the Algarvensis Geopark aspirant e Ualg's Sapientia. The printed version is available at the Lídia Jorge Municipal Library and school libraries in Albufeira and, soon, at the University of Algarve, Centros de Ciência Viva do Algarve and libraries in the Municipalities of Loulé and Silves.
Also present at the session was Cristina Veiga-Pires, scientific director of Algarvensis – Loulé, Silves, Albufeira, aspiring UNESCO World Geopark, who invited two artisans from Paderngues, Noémia Domingues and Maria Inês, to reproduce some of the coral fossils found in the Plateau. , using the palm enterprise.
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