Cape Verde Rise
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Cape Verde Rise is an oceanic feature that includes the
Cape Verde Islands , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
and the areas north and east of the islands and west of the African Continental Shelf as well as Mauritania and
Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣� ...
.


Geography

The rise are bounded by the Canary Basin to the north and the Cape Verde Basin to the south. Numerous seamounts are located in the rise including the Cape Verde (or Cabo Verde) (Latin: sometimes as ''Extracapitis'' being off the cape),
Cadamosto Alvise Cadamosto or Alvise da Ca' da Mosto (, also known in Portuguese as ''Luís Cadamosto''; c. 1432 – 18 July 1488) was a Venetian explorer and slave trader, who was hired by the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator and undertook two known ...
, Boa Vista, Nola and Senghor. The third and fourth are named after explorers of Cape Verde, the other, the founding father of Senegal. The highest point is 2,220 meters below sea level and the deepest is in the range of over 3,000 meters deep. In the east end of the rise is the Dakar Canyon. It ranges between the 14 and the 22° parallels north and is 900 km long. Near the rise is the westernmost point in Africa,
Cap-Vert Cap-Vert, or the Cape Verde Peninsula, is a peninsula in Senegal and the westernmost point of the continent of Africa and of the Afro-Eurasia mainland. Portuguese explorers called it Cabo Verde or "Green Cape". The Cape Verde islands, further ...
, northwest of the rise is the Santo Antão Ridge. In the waters above the Cape Verde Rise is the Canary (or Canarian) Current to the north and the Equatorial Atlantic Current around the south of the rise. Nola Seamount may be the tallest seamount within Cape Verde with its elevation ranging from 60–70 meters deep, and probably the Cape Verde Rise.


Fracture zones

Over 1,500 km west of the rise are two fracture zones located at the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North A ...
, the
Kane Kane or KANE may refer to: Art, entertainment and media Fictional entities *Kane (comics), the main character of the eponymous comic book series by Paul Grist * Kane (''Command & Conquer''), character in the ''Command & Conquer'' video game series ...
, the Fifteen-Twenty and
Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the c ...
. In the rise there are 13 smaller fracture zones, three extends as far as the Cape Verde Basin and another extends north into the Canary Basin and within the Canary Islands.


Deep sea exploration

In the course of the
Deep Sea Drilling Project The Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) was an ocean drilling project operated from 1968 to 1983. The program was a success, as evidenced by the data and publications that have resulted from it. The data are now hosted by Texas A&M University, alth ...
and the
Ocean Drilling Program The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) was a multinational effort to explore and study the composition and structure of the Earth's oceanic basins. ODP, which began in 1985, was the successor to the Deep Sea Drilling Project initiated in 1968 by ...
, two research drillings were done so far, the DSDP 368 and the ODP 659. At the DSDP 368 location which was drilled 985 meters deep, it is divided into three units, the first unit composes of marls and oozes, the second composes of turbidites and the third composes of black shales, they lie above pelagic limestones and the oceanic crust. In that area are five basaltic sills. DSDP 368 is east of the island of Boa Vista.


Geology

The oldest rocks dates back to 155 million years ago during the
Kimmeridgian In the geologic timescale, the Kimmeridgian is an age in the Late Jurassic Epoch and a stage in the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 157.3 ± 1.0 Ma and 152.1 ± 0.9 Ma (million years ago). The Kimmeridgian follows the Oxford ...
era in the area what is now the east of the rise, around 131 to 128 million years ago, the seamounts of Maio and Santiago were formed, at the time they were closer to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The spreading rate was slow and moved a centimeter a year. Between 15 and 7 million years ago, they were volcanically active. Its only volcanic activities in the basin are in Fogo,
Brava Brava or La Brava may refer to: Geography *Brava, Cape Verde, a volcanic island *Brava, Costa Rica, an island of Costa Rica (Isla Brava) *Costa Brava, a coastal area Mediterranean of northeast Spain *Barawa, a town in Somalia commonly known as '' ...
and the Cadamosto Seamount. Brava's last eruption was in the Holocene era.


Fauna

In the waters above the rise, eighteen species of whales and dolphins have been recorded in the waters of the Cape Verde archipelago. The area is cited as one of two known breeding grounds for the humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') of the Northern Hemisphere. Humpback whales migrate annually from the North Sea to winter around Cape Verde from January to mid-May. The humpback whale population became limited due to severe overfishing during the 19th century and, although the total North Atlantic population of humpbacks had rebounded to more than 10,000 individuals by 1993, the Cape Verde population remained uncertain as of 2009. Molluscs (Mollusks) in the deep waters within the Cape Verde islands include ''
Tiberia apicifusca ''Tiberia apicifusca'' is a species of minute sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Pyramidellidae, the pyrams and their allies.Rolán E., 2005. Malacological Fauna From The Cape Verde Archipelago. Part 1, Polyplacophora and Gastr ...
'' at depths between 273 m and 970 m below sea level.


References

{{Reflist Atlantic Ocean