Boa Vista (Cape Verde)
| Boa Vista | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Atlantic Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Ilhas de Barlavento | |
| Geographical location | 16 ° 6 ′ N , 22 ° 49 ′ W | |
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| length | 31 km | |
| width | 29 km | |
| surface | 620 km² | |
| Highest elevation |
Monte Estância 387 m |
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| Residents | 12,000 (2013) 19 inhabitants / km² |
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| main place | Sal Rei | |
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Boa Vista ( German : " Beautiful view "), also written Boavista , is the third largest of the Cape Verde Islands in the eastern Central Atlantic . The "pearl" of Cape Verde, called the desert island, has been a tourist destination for some time. Well-known European investors have built luxurious holiday apartments and hotels in the Moorish style in recent years . The most beautiful and longest beaches in Cape Verde are said to be here.
geography
Boa Vista belongs to the Ilhas de Barlavento archipelago (German: " Islands above the wind "). It is located south of the island of Sal and north of Maio and with a distance of 455 km to Cap Vert in Senegal it is closest to the African mainland. The main town of the island is the port city of Sal Rei .
In the interior of the island, some weathered volcanic vents tower over the limestone base on which the otherwise flat island rests. The interior of the island, which is quite large at 620 km², is desert-like. Extensive date groves alternate with dune fields, mountainous stone desert and wide gravel fields in the mostly flat dry valleys . The island is surrounded by a chain of bright sandy beaches.
The climate has only slight seasonal fluctuations with temperatures between 20 and 32 ° C, extremely rare rainfall and mostly a strong breeze from the north-east.
geology
Geomorphologically , Boa Vista is one of the best examples of a volcanic structure abraded by the sea in Cape Verde. The extensive quaternary erosion , from which only a few, almost 390 meters high, phonolithic elevations were spared, allows a unique insight into the interior of a volcanic island . Thus arose as a result of abrasion in the Pleistocene extensive terraces systems and in the Holocene widespread marine sand deposits .
The geological structure of the island can be broken down as follows (from young to old):
- Holocene sediments
- Pleistocene sediments
- Modern pyroclastic volcanic cones
- Chão de Calheta formation
- Intermediate sediments
- Pico forcado formation
- Monte Caçador formation
- Monte Passarão complex
- Old eruptive complex
- Ankaramite lavas
The geological development on Boa Vista starts in the early Miocene ( Burdigalium ) with more than 16 million years BP old ankaramitischen lavas in the northeast of the island ( Fundo de Figueiras lineup ?).
The second age group of the Middle Miocene ( Langhium and Serravallium ) spanning 15.0 to 12.5 million years BP consists of differentiated volcanic rocks of the Phonolite - Trachyte series, a large volume of which was extracted. These include:
- the old eruptive complex that occupies much of the interior of Boa Vista. It consists mainly of phonoliths, which are intruded intensely by gangshanks and large nests of nepheline syenite . The nepheline syenites are very rich in exotic minerals .
- the Monte Passarão complex , which is also of a phonolithic nature and is made up of subaeric lava flows , veins, breccias and ignimbrites . It surrounds the old eruptive complex in the interior of the island, but the respective contact relationships have not yet been clarified in detail. The entire complex is likely to have arisen subaerically.
- the Monte Caçador Formation , which lies discordantly over the phonoliths of the Monte Passarão Complex and the Ankaramites of the Fundo de Figueiras Formation. It is built entirely from effusive phonolites that have protruded from the surface.
- the discordant following, phonolithic Pico-Forcado formation ; mostly subaeric lava flows and some pyroclastic deposits. Much of the elevations on Boa Vista belong to this formation, especially the hills in the east of the island.
After the Pico Forcado Formation had been deposited, there was a pause in volcanism. The intermediate sediments are of both terrigenous and marine origin. Its marine part is mainly exposed along the coast, but can be traced further into the interior of the island via incised valleys. The marine sediments consist of up to ten meters thick calcarenites and compact fossil limestone which were deposited in the shallow water area.
The third age group spans the period from 9.5 to 4.5 million years BP ( Tortonium to Zancleum ). It consists of the Chão de Calheta Formation , the most important basaltic formation Boa Vistas ( Basanites and Nephelinites ). It also occurs both submarine and subaeric and is found exclusively along the periphery of the island. At the base of the formation are nine million year old subaeric mafites. The lying area is then occupied by very powerful, about seven million years old, submarine lava flows ( pillow lavas ), which merge into subaeric basalt rocks in the hanging wall. The latter are exposed along the coast, especially in the east of the island, where they deposit marine sediments. With the completion of the Chão de Calheta Formation, volcanic activity on Boa Vista was essentially over. In retrospect, isolated, basaltic, pyroclastic cones with the associated lava outlets were created. Like the Morro Negro, they are in the interior of the island.
During the Pleistocene, intensive marine abrasion created extensive terrace systems and areas of erosion created by the swell. Up to ten individual terrace levels can be separated, with the highest level reaching 130 meters above the current sea level. Dune bodies can also be associated with the terraces . The terraces are mostly flat, calcareous sediment bodies (bioclastic grainstones, boundstones, wackestones and mudstones with occasional calcrete formations), but also steeper sloping offshore deposits can be found. Some terraces also show signs of reconditioning. Good examples of terraces can be found on the south coast of Boa Vista, on the Rabil-Lajedos ridge , near Bofareira and near Vigia . In the Holocene , mostly sands were left behind by the sea.
history
The island was given the name Boa Vista (German: " Beautiful sight ") in the dispute over the discovery of the archipelago. The first describer Antonio da Noli named it São Cristovão after the patron saint of Genoese sailors in 1458 . The Venetian Alvise Cadamosto, on the other hand, reported in his report, written around 1464, that he had already discovered the island together with Antoniotto Usodimare in 1456 , when their ships were driven southwest from Cape Blanc in a storm. They would have named the island "boa vista" because it was the first land view in this area. Henry the Navigator , on whose behalf both captains were en route, had the island taken into Portuguese possession by the da Noli brothers in 1460 .
The first settlement took place by shepherd slaves similar to the island of Maio . Christopher Columbus visited her on his third trip to America in 1498 and describes a leprosy settlement.
From 1620 the salt trade flourished with mainly English captains. The salt pans were created and worked by slaves. Because of constant pirate attacks, the first settlements were built in mountainous areas that were difficult to see. After the flourishing, at that time most important city, Cape Verdes, Sal Rei was razed to the ground by pirates in 1818, a cannon-armored fort was built on the offshore island of Ilhéu de Sal Rei .
In 1843 an Anglo-Portuguese commission for the abolition of slavery began its work, as a result of which in 1878 the slaves were released.
A devastating yellow fever epidemic in 1845 ended the primacy of boa vistas in Cape Verde. To date, the population has not returned to its pre-epidemic level. Influential English traders withdrew from salt and Boa Vista and made their fortune as coal traders in Mindelo .
Jewish traders gave the island a modest boost in the 1880s. They built u. a. a modern brick factory , whose hunger for energy was sacrificed to the dense tamarisk undergrowth of the island's interior and in a few years left behind the desert landscape that looks so natural today .
Wealthy traders and captains gave the island a comparatively high level of education and a pan-Atlantic worldview early on, so that the island produced influential artists, musicians, writers and politicians.
Around September 27, 2019, over 160 broad-billed dolphins stranded here , 136 of which died on the beach. The cause is to be researched by the Spanish University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
administration
The island belongs to the northern group of the Cape Verde Islands, the Ilhas de Barlavento . The capital of the island is Sal Rei .
Administratively, Boa Vista is divided into a district of the same name ( concelho ) with two communities ( freguesias ).
| Concelho (circle) | Freguesia (Municipality) |
|---|---|
| Boa Vista | Santa Isabel |
| São João Baptista |
Economy and tourism
Since the 1990s, the island, which has suffered from the drought and has been languishing since independence, has transformed into a small tourist attraction. Predominantly western and southern European guests and investors liven up the scene. Boa Vista is one of the safest strong wind areas for surfers and sailors.
As a means of earning a living, cattle breeding and fishing faded into the background with the tourist development of the island, while handicrafts (especially the ceramic production facility in Rabil) could also benefit from tourism. Thanks to tourism, Boa Vista offers new jobs and the population is rising again.
Even after the airport was expanded to accommodate international traffic in October 2007, the kilometers of fine, light sandy beaches and rocky coastlines are largely lonely. Hikes and excursions into the interior of the island offer a change from water sports and beach life. Another attraction is the João Valente reef .
Attractions
The chimney of the former brick factory near Rabil , the former capital of the island and seat of the airport and ceramic workshops in the west, is considered the island's landmark . Today's main town, Sal Rei, has a lovely church and a harbor, from which you can cross over to the Ilhéu de Sal Rei , which is now heavily littered. North of Sal Rei is the headland of Cabo de Santa Maria with the wreckage of a freighter, which has been lying close to the beach since 1968, but can only be reached via unmarked sand tracks. The lighthouse on the Morro Negro in the east of the island , which is no longer in operation, is also difficult to find . On the way there from Sal Rei are the small sandy desert of the island and the original villages of João Galego , Fundo das Figueiras and Cabeço dos Tarafes . In the south of the island is Povoação Velha , the oldest town on the island, with a famous church; A few kilometers away is the Praia Santa Monica with miles of white beaches.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ RIU Hotels & Resorts ( Memento from July 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.kapverdischeinseln.com/inseln/boa_vista.php
- ↑ A. Serralheiro et al.: Note preliminaire sur la géologie de l'île de Boa Vista (Cap-Vert) . tape 1 (3) . Garcia de Orta, Serviços Geológicos, 1974, p. 53-60 .
- ↑ Ramalho, R. et al .: Tracers of uplift and subsidence in the Cape Verde Archipelago . 2010.
- ↑ CT Dyhr and PM Holm: A volcanological and geochemical investigation of Boa Vista, Cape Verde Islands; 40 Ar / 39 Ar geochronology and field constraints . In: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research . tape 189 , 2009, pp. 19-32 .
- ↑ Over 130 stranded dolphins: cause open orf.at, September 28, 2019, accessed September 28, 2019.
- ↑ Mysterious dolphin deaths on the African west coast rtl.de, September 30, 2019, accessed October 12, 2019.
Ilhas de Barlavento : Boa Vista | Ilhéu Sal Rei | Ilhéu Branco | Ilhéu Raso | Sal | Ilhéu Rabo de Junco | Santa Luzia | Santo Antão | São Nicolau | São Vicente | Ilhéu dos Pássaros
Ilhas de Sotavento : Brava | Fogo | Ilhéus do Rombo : Ilhéu Grande | Ilhéu de Cima | Maio | Ilhéu Laja Branca | Santiago