Alto do Carvalho viewpoint

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From this place, at the northern end of the Santo António plateau, you can see the view on the depression where the city of Porto de Mós is. It has essentially correspondence with the enlargement of the Rio Maior - Porto de Mós fault space occupied by marls from the inferior Jurassic rich in evaporite rocks (gypsum and salt), very susceptible to erosion.

To the west, the narrow valley where that failure develops before its enlargement, establishing the border with the mountain range of Candeeiros. This one is NNE-SSW and ends abruptly more to the north.

In this eastern slope of the Candeeiros mountain, is a track corresponding to the old Lena railway line, which connected the coal mines of Bezerra and Alcanadas to the Martingança station on the Oeste line. It was used between 1917 and 1949, when the shortage of good quality imported coal justified the mining of Couto Mineiro do Lena with poor quality lignite.

Depression – landform sunken or depressed below the surrounding area.

Evaporite - mineral or rock deposited directly from a solution (commonly seawater) during evaporation. For example, gypsum and halite are evaporite minerals.

Fault –cracks in the Earth's crust where movement occurs on at least one side.

Fault space - when on a fault, the two blocks moved away from each other and the space between them was filled with crushed or altered material.

Jurassic - geological period in which the dinosaurs dominated and the development of vegetation was abundant. It lasted about 54 million years, roughly between 208 to 144 million years ago.

Lignite coal - a soft coal (black or brown) showing traces of plant structures.

Marl - sedimentary rock that has a carbonate and a clay component in more or less equal parts.