The Canto Marinho Magmatic Drops Geosite, classified as a Local Natural Monument, is a stretch of coastline in Carreço where there are more than 700 salt pans – the largest known group in the north-west of the peninsula, indicating ancient coastlines – and where some camboas can be seen. However, one of the most extraordinary phenomena (and which gives the geosite its name) is known as magma drops: granite spheres rounded by weathering, which illustrate the diffuse migration of magma during the formation of the Serra de Santa Luzia. This region also features rare metamorphic minerals, such as garnet and staurolite, as a result of contact with nearby granite intrusion. The monument preserves geological evidence from various periods: flattened rocky tops (remains of beaches from an interglacial climate 125,000 years ago) and sediments from an ancient lagoon (18,000 to 11,000 years ago), fed by melting ice.
Canto Marinho Magmatic Drops Geosite