The Regional Natural Monument of Pedreira do Campo , which singularly translated means field quarry, is an area located west of Pico do Facho and Ponta do Figueiral, in the municipality of Vila do Porto

Vila do Porto

Vila do Porto is the single municipality, the name of the main town and one of the civil parishes on the island of Santa Maria, in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of Azores...

, island of Santa Maria

Santa Maria Island

Santa Maria , Portuguese for Saint Mary, is an island located in the eastern group of the Azores archipelago and the southernmost island in the Azores...

 in the Eastern Group of the Azores

Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

. Along with other sites in Santa Maria, it is a region known for the discovery of oceanic fossils.

History

The first references to this area came from Gaspar Frutuoso

Gaspar Frutuoso

Gaspar Frutuoso was a Portuguese priest, historian and humanist from the island of São Miguel, in the Azores...

 who, in the 16th century, referring to calcareous sandstone deposits at a quarry near Figuerial, described that the sandstone "had seafood shells glued on it".

Even after the modern re-discovery of this zone by García-Talavera in 1997, it only attracted attention following the first international expedition Paleontology in Atlantic Islands (2002).

A workshop followed on Marine Fossils of the Azores: Perspectives on the Future (presented by the Marine Biology section of the University of the Azores

University of the Azores

The University of the Azores , or commonly abbreviated as UAç, is the only public university in the Autonomous Region of the Azores, It was founded on January 9, 1976, two years after the Carnation Revolution that ended several decades of dictatorship in Portugal, but before the Portuguese Third...

 and the Order of Biologists) which first suggested "a proposal for protection and classification of Pedreira do Campo as a Natural Regional Monument.

A technical report was published (M. Cahão, et. al, 2003) that eventually laid the foundation for the "Natural Monument" designation. On December 25, 2002 a resolution by council of the Regional Government designated Pedreira do Campo as a Regional Natural Monument (Resolution nº203/2002), and approved as Decree nº 11/2004/A on March 23, 2004.

Geography

It is a 200 m area that was associated with rock quarrying, but more importantly noted for the Regional Natural Monument of Pedreira do Campo, a protected area of exposed sediments, extrusive magmatic and fossil deposits 20 m deep, 120-130 m above sea level.

The rock formation is delimited by a composite of sedimentary rock from the Touril Volcanic Complex and magmatic rocks of the Facho-Pico Alto Volcanic Complex. These units are estimated at 5 Ma, dating from the Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 to Pliocene

Pliocene

The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...

epochs. The sedimentary deposits consist of horizontal layers intercalated in volcanic material of limestones, breccias, sandstones and conglomerates and sub-aerial deposits.

It is one of the areas where abundant fossilized bicarbonate rocks have been discovered, including micro- and macro-fossils of algae

Algae

Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...

, coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

, bi-valve mollusks, gastropods, echinoderms, as well as bio-erodedsponges and bi-valve skeletons.
In terms of natural biological species, the area is known for Myrifica faya, Myrtus communis and the endemic Scabiosa nitens. Migratory and marine bird species common to the area include the Common buzzard

Common Buzzard

The Common Buzzard is a medium to large bird of prey, whose range covers most of Europe and extends into Asia. It is usually resident all year, except in the coldest parts of its range, and in the case of one subspecies.-Description:...

(Buteo buteo rothschildi), the Columbia livia atlantis, Carduelis chloris aurantiiventris and Serinus canaria.