Santiago, Cape Verde
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Santiago is the largest of the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic.
Geography
Santiago is part of the southern Ilhas de Sotavento (English: " Leeward Islands "). On the largest floor area ( 991 km ²) and most populous ( 290,000 pop. ) Of the Cape Verde Islands and the capital Praia is located ( 132,000 inhabitants ).
The island is of volcanic origin with hochgebirgigem relief, extra wide valleys, plateaus and mountains witnesses. The highest point is the Pico da Antónia ( 1,394 m). The mountainous center of the island is relatively rainy and Santiago makes for productive agricultural island, while the low coastal regions are desert -like dry.
Administratively, the island is divided into eight Concelhos ( counties ): Praia Ribeira Grande, São Domingos, São Lourenço dos Órgãos, São Salvador do Mundo, Santa Cruz, Santa Catarina, São Miguel and Tarrafal.
Geology
The geology of Santiago can be stratigraphically divided into six formations ( from young to old)
- Monte - the - Vacas Formation
- Assomada lineup
- Pico da Antónia lineup
- Orgãos lineup
- Flamengo's lineup
- Age Eruptivkomplex
Except for the sedimentary Orgãos Formation ( lahars ) and some Kalkarenithorizonte in the Pico da Antónia lineup is here exclusively volcanics. The in the center and south of the island pending, so-called Old Eruptivkomplex is in reality plutonic nature and represents a Miocene ( Burdigalian ) age of approximately 20 million years BP as the underlying basement foundation Santiago dar. He was then exposed in a period of intense erosion. Between 5,5 bis 4.5 million years BP ( Pliocene / Zancleum ) then followed unconformably over the submarine and Flamengo's lineup, which is composed of lavas, breccias and Pyroklastiten. After a lull in the volcanic activity, there was a renewed erosion phase with intense relief leveling. It emerged the lahars and laharähnlichen deposits of Orgãos lineup. The 3.3 to 2.3 million years BP ( Piacenzium to Gelasian ) formed Pico da Antónia formation expresses the sign stage of Santiago. It is characterized by a massive, submarine or subaerial volcanism of the Hawaiian type. The formation can be divided into two, with 2.9 to 2.8 million years ago, submarine lavas in the lower section and 2.6 to 2.3 million years ago, subaerial lavas in the Upper. The Assomada Formation in the central part of the island consists of subaerisch ausgedrungenen lava flows. The uppermost Monte - the - Vacas Formation is built up from deposits of Strombolityps with about 50 spatter and cinder cones and lava flows smaller, spread over the whole island. The last two formations are already in the post- shield stage and 1.1 bis 0.7 million years BP were promoted in the Early Pleistocene in the interval.
Petrological prevail among the lavas of Santiago before primitive, strongly undersaturated Mafite as basanites, nephelinites, Melanephelinite and Melilithite, more differentiated rocks such as trachyte and phonolite, however, are also to be found. The mafic lavas differ only slightly in the different formations, Melanephelinite prevail generally before. The rocks are porphyritic, which is present in submarine varieties of glass in the groundmass. Phenocrysts of olivine and clinopyroxene are usually that change depending on the rock type in their proportions.
History
The first lord of the island, Antonio da Noli, left in 1460 to build a tiny garrison in Cidade Velha, which still was then called Ribeira Grande. By creolization the oldest Creole society of colonial history with Creole emerged as a separate language. The transcontinental slave trade made Cidade Velha in the 16th century for a century as the second richest city of the Portuguese Empire. However, Portugal was unable to protect its colonial possessions sufficient. English, Dutch, French and Spaniards tore the slave trade in and Santiago was repeatedly attacked by pirates. After a devastating raid by Jacques Cassard in 1712 the importance decreased from Cidade Velha and ultimately the capital was moved to the more easily defensible and healthier plateau of Praia. The demand of the slave ships for food was a market-oriented agriculture on the island created and the number of slaves grow stronger than on the other islands. Into the mountainous interior of the island escaped ( altport.: vadios ) slaves, prisoners and exiles founded the culture of Badius with strong cultural, religious and identity of arts. The most disadvantaged by the Portuguese colonial system population of Santiago has supported the fight Amilcar Cabral and the PAIGC to the country's independence (1975). Santiago was repeatedly hosted conferences on topics Creole cultures.
Since independence, the infrastructure of the island (schools, port, airport, roads, etc. ) are preferably expanded to compensate for the historically disadvantaged the main island.
Economy and Tourism
The main economic activities are agriculture (corn, sugar cane, bananas, cassava and mango) and fishing. Larger areas with irrigation can be found eg near the town of Pedra Badejo on the east coast. The island offers excellent opportunities for hiking ( nature reserves Pico da Antónia and Serra da Malagueta ), swimming ( Tarrafal, Praia Baixo São Francisco) and for cultural and historical sightseeing ( Cidade Velha, Praia ).