The Northwest portuguese coast: a longitudinal coastline and its diversity

Abstract

The coastline of northwest Portugal shows a remarkable regional homogeneity with a very consistent NNW-SSE orientation from Cape Silleiro in Galicia to Espinho, 14 km south of Oporto. It is a ca. 122 km stretch of rocky coast covered, in most places, by recent beach and dune sands. Besides its straight appearance, another important feature is the presence of the so-called littoral platform, which develops as an erosional surface adjacent to the coast, generally separated from the interior by an abrupt escarpment. The littoral platform shows several outcrops of Plio-Quaternary deposits, which may be the key to understand its origin and evolution. In this chapter, the general evolution of the coastline of northwest Portugal is discussed. The area between the rivers Leça and Espinho is analysed in more detail. Along these 39 km of coastline, Cenozoic deposits covering the coastal platform are frequent and well exposed, which make it an interesting area for the understanding of its paleogeographical and geomorphological evolution.