HYDROGEOLOGY
An oasis of freshness located in the valley of the Ribeira de Menalva, the Fonte Benémola is one of the freshwater outflows of the Querença-Silves aquifer system.
The greatest wealth of this Local Protected Landscape lies in the water that flows from some of the springs, namely "the eye", the "spring" and Fonte Benémola itself, even during the summer period, and which allows the flow of the Ribeira da Fonte Menalva to be maintained, which, together with the Ribeira das Mercês , originates the Ribeira de Algibre. These springs correspond to karst structures linked to the underground hydrogeological system which has influenced the built heritage of this protected area and its history, namely the water mill, the “levadas”, the norias and the weirs. Other karst structures, namely caves with horizontal development, also exist near this geosite. Finally, the high and verdant riparian biodiversity contrasts with the typically Mediterranean vegetation, consisting of cork-oaks and holm-oaks or carob-trees and mastic-trees, and covering the metamorphic rocks of the Carboniferous or the limestones of the Jurassic, respectively.
Location: Querença, Tôr - Loulé
Coordinates: 37.198731, -8.004272