Candidatura Reserva da Biosfera - Santana Madeira Biosfera

Figure 44. Sea cliffs in Santana’s shoreline
As for the submarine relief, Madeira Island is characterized by the existence of a
narrow island platform, which on the southern side, has a slight slope to a depth of 100m
(IH, 2003). The bathymetry shows a roughly parallel relation to the coastline and the
submarine areas with 100 meters depth do not distance more than 3 km from the
coastline, with exception of the island’s westernmost sector, where this distance reaches
9 km ( IH, 2003). The island platform on the south coast of Madeira Island corresponds
roughly to a depth of 100 m succeeded after by a slope towards the abyssal depth that
surrounds the island (Fig. 5.3).
The soils of the Madeira Islands were featured in the production of the Charter of
Soils of Madeira, work completed in 1992. This work included the participation of various
entities, such as the Center for the Study of Pedology, Instituto Superior de Agronomia,
Pedology Center of the Technical University of Lisbon and the Regional Agriculture
Directorate of Madeira.
According to this letter, the most common soils on the island of Madeira are dystric rough
terrain and the dystric rocky terrain, which are associated with particular types of terrain,
and the umbric andosols.
80 Application of Santana, Madeira to Biosphere Reserve – UNESCO - MAB