What will you discover around Sintra and Cascais?

On one single day, see oceans being formed, continents drifting and mountains being formed. Witness basins infilling, coastlines evolving, eroding and reshaping.

See rocks changing, being intruded, being carved and deformed, tilting and faulting. See dinosaurs walking that left their marks behind. See a planet in constant change!

    • Rocks & minerals,

    • Fossils & dinosaurs,

    • Volcanism & magmatism,

    • Faults & folds,

    • Formation of oceans & mountains

    • Past climate change

    • Geology & culture

    • Places you will visit *

    • Praia da Cresmina (Beach)

    • Praia do Guincho (Beach)

    • Peninha Monastery

    • Cabo da Roca (Cape)

    • Praia da Ursa (Beach)

    • Praia da Adraga (Beach)

    • Praia Grande do Rodízio (Beach)

  • Easy to moderate depending on/adjusted to the participants physical capabilities.

    Travel between field stops will essentially be done by car. Participants will only be required a maximum of 10 minutes walk (less than 1 km) in each locality on easy to moderate terrain conditions.

    Suitable for children and senior participants.

    • Door to door field trip transportation*

    • Highly qualified and specialised geological field tour guide

    • Digital tour guidebook and GPS locations with description (.kmz format)

    • Lunch, snacks and water (several options)*

    • Geo Logica t-shirt made in Portugal

    • Personal insurance*

    • Carbon offset*

    • A day full geo memories to remember for the rest of your life

  • Prices vary depending on the number of participants and travelling comfort chosen.

    Fill in the field trip form using the button below to get a quote*

More about what you will discover on this trip

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  • Compare the age of our planet to a road trip. It has been already a 4500 km long journey in which mankind only came aboard 3,6 kilometres ago.

    Come with us to understand how old is our planet and imagine this age when comparing with the timescale of human existence. Learn the different Eons, Eras, Periods, Ages and Stages of the Earth’s history. In the process understand how Earth’s dating is done, through practical experiences to explain the main geological principles.

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  • We all recognise many different types of rocks.But how can we distinguish them?

    How are rocks classified? What do they mean? How were they first formed? How were they transformed throughout geological time? How can they tell us the history of our planet?

    Answer all these questions while experiencing how the pioneering scientists came up with the main geological concepts.

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  • Everything has a beginning and an end. Oceans are no exception. Geologists call this the Wilson cycle.

    There are many evidences of this process called oceanization or rifting along the Portuguese Atlantic coast. Witness the 200 Million years old history of the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Understand how the American and European plates broke apart during the fragmentation of Pangea Super-continent.

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  • Mountains are created by several different processes. One of them derives from the different ways magma arises from the mantle to the surface. We all know how volcanoes extrude lava to create mountains, but this is not the only process in which magma can create mountains. Often, when magma intruding the crust fails to reach the surface, creates magmatic chambers at depth. Magma then slowly solidifies and crystallizes forming batholiths and other intrusive geometries. Later these bodies are eroded and exposed at the surface forming mountains. It is possible to observe these processes at several places in Portugal.

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  • All of us have heard about earthquakes. Many of us have heard about plate tectonics. Yet, only few of us have ever been able to recognise in the rocks direct evidence of these phenomena. The marks left behind by earth processes are all around us in the form of faults and folds in the rocks.

    Understand how to recognise and identify the plate tectonic processes behind the many faults and folds that helped create the most amazing landscapes in our planet.

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  • Have you ever seen dinosaur footprints? There are many places in Portugal where it’s possible to visit and observe the steps of these ancient giants. Here, between 252 to 66 Millions years ago dinosaurs walked along Mesozoic beaches and deltas, leaving their footprints behind. Alone or in groups, hunting or simply passing-by, their marks were recorded on the sediments. Come with us not only to learn how to recognise these so called icnofossils, but also discover how marked sediments were buried and solidified and now exposed in such weird places such as cliffs, quarries and beaches.

  • Although usually unaware, we are all fascinated by geology. Kings, clergy, philosophers, artists, architects, engineers at some point, all the greatest minds looked into breathtaking landscapes, amazing geological locations, and realised how powerful, inspirational and singular these were. That is why so often geowonders are involved in popular myths and crowned by the ingenuity of human minds in the form of great monuments. Discover the geohistory behind history.