Municipality of Faro district.

Monchique is a Portuguese town in the district of Faro, in the Algarve region and sub-region. It is the seat of the Monchique municipality, which covers an area of 395.30 km² and is subdivided into three parishes: Marmelete, Monchique, and Alferce. The municipality is bordered to the north by Odemira, to the east by Silves, to the south by Portimão, to the southwest by Lagos, and to the west by Aljezur. The Monchique municipality was established in 1773, after being separated from the Silves municipality.

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Monchique is a significant producer of nepheline syenite, a rare rock in Portugal, found only in a few locations on the planet. This rock is extracted from the Nave Quarry and exported to several countries. Syenites have various geological applications, but currently, the nepheline syenite from Monchique is mainly used as ornamental stone and as cut stone for paving.
Commercially, this rock is known as "Monchique granite," but geologically, it is not a true granite because the chemical and mineralogical compositions of granites and nepheline syenites are quite different. For example, granites are very rich in the mineral quartz, while syenites are quite poor in it. In general, nepheline syenite has a grayish color, with visible brownish minerals corresponding to the nepheline minerals that give this rock its name.
What syenites and granites have in common is their magmatic origin, and the size and organization of their minerals indicate that they were formed deep within the Earth.
Translated and adapted from: Monchique Município https://visitmonchique.pt

Geochronology

Mineralization age: Late/Upper Cretaceous : 72 ± 2 Ma to 68.8 ± 1.0 Ma

Important note: This table is based only on rock and mineral ages recorded on mindat.org for this locality and is not necessarily a complete representation of the geochronology, but does give an indication of possible mineralization events relevant to this locality. As more age information is added this table may expand in the future. A break in the table simply indicates a lack of data entered here, not necessarily a break in the geologic sequence. Grey background entries are from different, related, localities.

Geologic Time				Rocks, Minerals and Events
Phanerozoic
	Mesozoic
		Cretaceous
			Late/Upper Cretaceous	ⓘ Titanite (youngest age) 68.8 ± 1.0 Ma Monchique Complex, Monchique, Faro, Portugal ⓘ Titanite (oldest age) 70.0 ± 2.9 Ma Monchique Complex, Monchique, Faro, Portugal ⓘ Nepheline 72 ± 2 Ma Monchique Complex, Monchique, Faro, Portugal ⓘ Feldspar Group 72 ± 2 Ma Monchique Complex, Monchique, Faro, Portugal

Fossils

This region is too big or complex to display the fossil list, try looking at smaller subregions.

Other Databases

Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monchique
Wikidata ID:	Q957663
GeoNames ID:	8010520

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas that Intersect

References