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2
Orografia e batimetria
e ne of the most striking features of this chart is the conspicuous difference between
the orographical characteristics of the north of Portugal, and those of the south. In fact,
on the northern side of the Tagus plateaus and mountains often reach up to levels higher than
1, 200 metres, whereas the highest levels of the southern side, which emerge from the wide
peneplains like the waves of a large solidified ocean, seldom surpass 500 metres.
As striking as the contrast between North and South is that between the hinterland,
with its high plateaus, and the wide zone extending from the coast to the contour line of
JOO metres. Of the two peninsular countries, Portugal is the one which exhibits more extensive
coastal plains. The whole country or at least its northern half rises like an amphitheatre
facing the Atlantic.
Comparison of this chart with the preceding one shows how far the surface accidents
reflect the features of the underground layers. One soon realizes that the large orographical
zones correspond to the blocks of variable height formed when the Hesperic Massif cracked
owing to lines of fault.
If the orography of the dry/and is considered in conjunction with that of the submarine
regions, it will be seen that a sort of second coast line appears at some distance from the real
one. It is a fact that Portugal leans over the great sea depths of the Atlantic as if though it
were a lofty balcony rising from a platform situated at a low depth (0 - 200 metres) below
the sea surface. This platform, wide in the north and narrower in the south, is divided in several
stretches by submarine valleys such as that appearing off Nazare, and those near the mouth
of the Tagus and the mouth of the Sado, as well as that of the Cape of St. Vincent.
It is worth noting that most of these valleys originate from the mouth of a river. One
should also notice the interesting way in which the dominant features of the tectonics of dryland
( N. 1) are faithfully reproduced on the most outstanding of these submarine valleys.
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