Maria Helena Henriques

• PhD Paleontology and Stratigraphy
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Coimbra

The Cariri Stone (Araripe Basin; NE Brazil).

The Cariri Stone (Araripe Basin, NE Brazil)

Research and development activities of the Geoscu«iences Center 2018-2024

The "Atlantic Geopark" Project corresponds to the first stage of a broad project addressing a future application to the Global Geopark Network of a territory located in Portugal: "The Atlantic Geopark: 600 million of geological history". It covers six central littoral and rural municipalities (Cantanhede, Figueira da Foz, Mealhada, Mira, Montemor-o...

Many volcanic landscapes reflect the essence of volcanism and are particularly attractive to different kinds of visitors, featuring the concept of volcanic geoheritage. The expressiveness of volcanic processes is exacerbated in active volcanoes, which increasingly attracts geotourism, despite the natural hazards associated to such geological enviro...

This study characterizes the submerged geomorphology around Annobón, São Tomé, and Príncipe Islands, and the De Santarém–Escobar seamount in the Cameroon Volcanic Line or CVL (Gulf of Guinea, West Africa) through analyses of topographic relief and coastal bathymetry, and data from fieldwork and historical fossil collections. The clear relation betw...

In recent years, light isotope analysis in sediments has been used to reconstruct climatic variations in continental contexts. The aim of this study is to verify the usefulness of this analytical methodology in archaeological deposits, especially in the absence of other proxies. Sediments from different contexts (fluvial, colluvial and cave-fill)...

Considered by many to be one of the last hidden treasures, the Príncipe Island, off the coast of west-central Africa, is part of the twin-island state of São Tomé and Príncipe—the second smallest country in Africa. The islands are known as the “Galápagos of Africa” due to the high number of endemic plant and animal species, especially vascular plan...

A União Europeia é clara sobre a situação atual: o mundo continua a enfrentar uma crise de dimensão global, com múltiplos e complexos desafios que colocam em risco a concretização dos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) propostos na Agenda 2030. Desde logo, assiste-se ao maior número de conflitos violentos desde 1946, com cerca de um qua...

"Atlantic Geopark” Project (Portugal)

Geocaching as a geotourism tool to promote Ançã village (Atlantic Geopark Project, Portugal)

Earthcaches in the territory of the Atlantic Geopark Project (Portugal)

Geodiversity and geoheritage of the Príncipe Island (West Africa)

Educational resources within the Atlantic Geopark Project (Portugal)

Georoutes of the Atlantic Geopark Project: promoting the local heritage for the territorial development in Central Portugal.

Esta excursão pretende apresentar alguns dos geossítios que irão ser integrados no projeto a desenvolver para o futuro "Geoparque Atlântico". Este território apresenta uma grande e relevante geodiversidade, que nos permite aceder ao mais completo registo geológico dos últimos 600 milhões de anos (Ma) do território continental português, e que refle...

Geocaching is a worldwide platform used by millions of people interested in playing a treasure hunt outdoor game. It has been proven that this platform can be used as a great tool for promoting territories and knowledge, among others. Ançã is a small village in Coimbra district (central littoral of Portugal) displaying heritage of significant value...

Este trabalho analisa se os Geoparques Mundiais da UNESCO (UGGps) e Aspirantes a UGGps portugueses estão comprometidos com os objetivos do desenvolvimento sustentável, especificamente com o ODS 5, que preconiza a necessidade de alcançar a igualdade de género e a emancipação de todas as mulheres e meninas, garantindo a participação plena e efetiva d...

The Atlantic Geopark Project corresponds to an emergent stage of a broad project aiming the future establishment of a UNESCO Global Geopark in the central littoral and rural of Portugal (municipalities of Mira, Mealhada, Cantanhede, Penacova, Montemor-o-velho and Figueira da Foz). The geodiversity displayed by this region is special and singular an...

This work aims to determine the chemical composition of soils from Cabo Mondego area, allowing the establishment of the natural background and the identification of possible compositional variations arising from industrial activities that may have caused contamination. A total of 43 soil samples were collected near the abandoned industrial complex...

Curriculum documents for Sciences in Basic Education in Portuguese schools (ages 6 to 15) that currently guide teachers' practices integrate Sustainable Development concerns regarding soils. However, a large gap emerges between official documents and teachers' perceptions of how to address such issues. So, urgent measures are needed to bridge those...

Africa's rich geodiversity is underrepresented in what can be considered the Earth's geological heritage and its analysis and dissemination are of the utmost relevance. This requires inventorying and assessing geosites to protect them and evaluating and monitoring procedures to ensure their preservation and promote sustainable development through g...

Nos últimos anos, a análise de isótopos leves tem sido utilizada para reconstruir variações ambientais em contextos continentais. O nosso objetivo é verificar a possibilidade de aplicar esta metodologia analítica em depósitos de grutas que têm vestígios arqueológicos de ocupação humana. expressões artísticas na Península Ibérica. O projeto FIRST-A...

Science education plays a key role in promoting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) through the training of informed and participatory citizens committed to the management of our planet and its resources. This work presents the design and assessment of an In-Service Teacher Education Program (ISTEP) through an Educational Design Research ap...

Geodiversity refers to the variety of geological processes, forms, and materials that constitute and shape the Earth. Forms and materials displaying geoheritage contents are tangible objects, whether in situ like geosites, or ex situ like elements of geoheritage which include fossils, minerals, and rocks. They all result from geological processes,...

É mundialmente reconhecida a importância dos geoparques como estratégias de conservação do meio ambiente, de fomento das atividades econômicas no entorno e principalmente, a propagação dos conhecimentos relacionados, especialmente no que diz respeito às geociências, através do turismo pedagógico, que é um bom exemplo de educação informal. No entant...

The “Académica Start UC” is a project created in 2016 at the University of Coimbra (Portugal) aiming to train students for innovation and entrepreneurship, therefore contributing to accomplish several targets within the 2030 Agenda goals. It is in this context that an initiative came up involving graduation students of geology with the purpose of d...

The “Académica Start UC” is a project created in 2016 at the University of Coimbra (Portugal) aiming to train students for innovation and entrepreneurship, therefore contributing to accomplish several targets within the 2030 Agenda goals. It is in this context that an initiative came up involving graduation students of geology with the purpose of d...

The curricular documents for Basic Education Sciences in Portuguese schools (ages 6 to 15) that currently affect teachers and students across the world integrate Sustainable Development concerns regarding soils. A sharp gap emerges between the official documents and the teachers’ perceptions of how to approach such issues. Urgent measures are requi...

Due to the use of structural and seismic techniques an attempt has been made in this study to determine the hydrocarbon potential and future exploration in Pakistan's Lower Indus basin area and offshore region. In addition to the possibility of hydrocarbon accumulation, the major goals of this research are to analyze structural patterns in the subs...

The rich African geodiversity is underrepresented among the Earth's geoheritage and still remains to be analyzed and disclosed. This requires inventory and evaluation of geosites with the aim of being protected, as well as valuing and monitoring procedures fostering sustainable development through geoeducation and geotourism. This work presents the...

The Salgado and Consolação geosites are located on the Portuguese coast of the West Iberian Margin and represent two Upper Jurassic reference sections of the Amaral Formation interpreted as a barrier-lagoon depositional environment within a mixed carbonate platform context. Outcrops exposure and access conditions allow the detailed study of the suc...

This work reports an innovative event developed at the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and organized by undergraduate students of geology during the academic year 2020/2021 regarding geological heritage at risk outcropping in the Lusitanian Basin. Inspired by the current situation of vulnerability of two well-known geosites classified as Natural M...

The Lusitanian Basin is located in central western Portugal and is mainly composed of Jurassic sediments. The macro and microfossil biostratigraphy of this depocentre is well studied, but palynological works are scarce. We address this with a high-resolution palynostratigraphic study of a Lower and Middle Jurassic succession of the Lusitanian Basin...

Fossils are polysemic entities that attract people for very different reasons ranging from scientific to recreational ones. They can therefore display different heritage contents according to the meanings assigned by different social groups. This may endanger the integrity of the fossil record that grounds the development of paleontology (and relat...

This study aims to identify and characterize the understanding of the concept of Sustainable Development in the official scientific educational documents of basic education in Portugal. Methodologically, it is a qualitative study that fits into the interpretive paradigm; its implementation is based on an interpretative-descriptive strategy of explo...

This work reports the paleontological heritage of a reference section of the Amaral Formation (Kimmerdgian) of the Lusitanian Basin. The Amaral Formation outcrops throughout the West Iberian Margin representing different depositional environments within the context of a mixed carbonated platform. Three sectors within a SW-NE gulf opening to the sou...

The 5th goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims at promoting gender equality and empowering all women and girls at all levels of decision making. This includes editorial decisions in the frame of the dissemination of scientific knowledge as a result of research and development activities. This work analyses the women representation...

Os Geoparques Globais da UNESCO são territórios com uma área definida, cujos geossítios e paisagens de relevância geológica internacional são geridos com base num conceito holístico de proteção, educação e desenvolvimento sustentável. Devem implementar atividades educativas com vista a incrementar a consciencialização pública acerca do património g...

The Amaral Formation has a wide geographic distribution within the Lusitanian Basin, at the western Iberian Margin (Portugal). The different depositional contexts for this unit enabled the distinction of three sectors: lagoon, lagoon-barrier, and marine-distal. The integration of the evolutionary taphonomic analysis of its fossil assemblages with t...

Neste trabalho apresentam-se a concepção, elaboração, validação e estudo piloto de dois questionários (Questionário Inicial e Questionário Final) para a recolha de dados de apoio a um projeto de doutoramento em curso na Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal) sobre o educação de geociências no Ensino Básico (do 1.º ao 9.º ano), especificamente "Ensino de...

A mainly Middle Jurassic composite succession with 129 samples was examined palynologically. This spans the Toarcian–Aalenian transition to the lowermost Bathonian, exposed at Cabo Mondego (includes the GSSP and the ASSP for the Bajocian and Bathonian stages respectively) and São Gião in the northern Lusitanian Basin, western Portugal. The main goa...

The territory of the Araripe Geopark, located in Northeast Brazil, covers a wide range of aspects related to earth and life sciences, as well as other aspects in the socio-cultural sphere that result from a complex interaction linked to the geology of the region. A key element for this diversity is the paleontological heritage that exists in the ar...

Abstract: This project will investigate human adaptation during the climate changes in the Iberian Peninsula, specifically, in context with rock art, combining figurative evidence with deposits in caves and outdoors. All of this combining different disciplines and different scientific approaches, through the use of petrographic, geochemical and iso...

The development and implementation of appropriate geotourism resources (e.g., field guidebooks, websites, trails, leaflets, and interpretative panels) are technical applications of major importance in geoconservation that highlight the social importance of this emerging geoscience. Scientific research, training, and recreation are activities which...

AIMS: The aims of this study were to characterize the etiological investigation of genetic cause in the autism spectrum disorder and to determine the factors related to its identification.METHODS: A retrospective descriptive study, with an analytical component, included children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder followed in consultation...

One of the most widespread classifications of terrigenous sandstones was built based on the descriptive aspects of framework and matrix, having simplicity as its main characteristic. This article reviewed the classifications proposed by Gilbert (1954), Dott (1964), Pettijohn, Potter & Siever (1972) and Gilbert (1982), the types of sandstones ment...

O Museu de Minérios do Rio Grande do Norte no Ensino e Divulgação da Geodiversidade do Geoparque Seridó

Conservação da Geodiversidade Brasileira a partir da Base Nacional Comum Curricular

Petrofacies and taphofacies defined for the Morro do Chaves Formation (Late Barremian/Early Aptian) outcropping in the Sergipe-Alagoas Basin (NE Brazil) enable the interpretation of the biostratinomic and fossil-diagenetic processes that acted on the abundant bivalve shells and enclosing sediments. Such processes played an important role in the cir...

After being exploited from the Earth’s crust, raw materials and geodiversity elements of economic value are traditionally used for the benefit of society. However, geodiversity elements may provide other types of benefits to society, namely scientific, cultural, educational, and tourist services, as they currently happen in geoparks. Geoparks can b...

Here we report on recent developments on geochemical proxies derived from belemnite rostra from Cabo Mondego section in Portugal. Cabo Mondego is stratigraphically significant outcrop as the location of the GSSP and Point for the Bajocian and the ASSP for the Bathonian. Belemnite rostra of 118 individuals from across the Bajocian–Bathonian boundary...

The valuing of geological heritage is a crucial task in geoconservation, and particularly relevant in geoparks’ activities. In geoparks displaying a permanent tension between geological resources exploration and geoconservation, valuation practices based on community involvement represent an effective way of accomplishing the geoparks’ goals. This...

Objective: To present a case of bilateral gynecomastia in a prepubertal boy with autism spectrum disorder, diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy type 1. Case description: A 12-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder presented at a follow-up visit with bilateral breast growth. There was a family history of gynecomastia, cataracts at a young age, pub...

Workshop Report on the International Meeting on Paleoclimate: change and adaptation (Coimbra, 2019) - Portugal

The panoply of reasons that may attract people to fossils, which result from the meaning they attribute to these palaeontological objects, may contribute to endangering of the integrity of the fossil record. Semiotics can be of great help to assist geoconservation actions, usually based only on expertise statements, and are of particular relev...

This work reports the main results obtained through the analysis of the palynological assemblages recognized in the stratigraphic record of Meso-Cenozoic rocks outcropping in the southwest of the Acre Basin , at the National Park of Serra do Divisor and at the Juruá Valley.

The geological heritage corresponds to expressive representations of earth´s geodiversity over time, thus providing a temporal dimension to nature and extending the nature boundaries to ancient earth processes, as well to outer planetary space in the future.

The species Tubirhabdus patulus which first occurred in the earliest Jurassic and disappeared in the latest Jurassic is one of the most important constituents of the nannofossil assemblages of São Gião due to its high abundances, moderately-well preserved specimens and, a wide range size easily quantified by using a Light Microscope.

Foreword Climate is the planetary response of the atmospheric circulation to its changing composition, to the solar system configuration, to the Earth’s rotation and to the oceans’ and continents’ distributions. It displays, as a result, a restless moving pattern, expressed at a global scale by subsiding and uplifting convection cells. These change...

New paleontological and geochemistry data which are of great help to understand the complexities and heterogeneities of reservoir facies along the Morro do Chaves Formation.

A geoconservação configura-se, cada vez mais, como uma geociência autónoma no âmbito das Ciências da Terra e do Espaço, cujos objetivos e metodologias, bem como a produção e validação de conhecimento podem ser reconhecidos em meio académico; o conhecimento produzido permite fundamentar a elaboração de materiais e a conceção e implementação de métod...

A geoconservação configura-se, cada vez mais, como uma geociência autónoma no âmbito das Ciências da Terra e do Espaço, cujos objetivos e metodologias, bem como a produção e validação de conhecimento podem ser reconhecidos em meio académico; o conhecimento produzido permite fundamentar a elaboração de materiais e a conceção e implementação de métod...

This work aims at providing an overview regarding accessibility conditions for people with functional diversity among the 15 UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGs) located in the Iberian Peninsula – 4 in Portugal and 11 in Spain – from the point of view of a disabled user wishing to visit a Geopark. Website information and a questionnaire composed of close...

“Nature” is a polysemic word which has been used since pre-Socratic times with different senses. Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" often refers to geology and wildlife, and excludes in general those things that have not been substantially altered by human intervention, or which persist despite human intervention. Several ongoing i...

The aim of this work is to describe the benthic foraminiferal assemblages recorded across the Aalenian–Bajocian boundary (Middle Jurassic) in two sections of the Iberian and Basque-Cantabrian basins (North Spain), well calibrated with the standard ammonite zonation, in order to establish a biostratigraphic scale based on the foraminiferal record, a...

We aim to approach the aspects of hunter-gatherer activities and technological innovations that indicate dynamic developmental processes towards social stabilization in this speci�c ecological niche of Hu��la. While in the Kwanza Sul and Namibe provinces we have conducted research on cultural landscapes dominated by rock art and burial features, th...

Ética Aplicada é uma coleção constituída por 12 volumes dedicados a diversos domínios académico-profissionais, que identifica, reflete e problematiza as principais questões éticas que atualmente se colocam nos diferentes planos da atividade humana, e que exigem não só um pensamento crítico e uma deliberação ponderada por parte dos respetivos profis...

O presente trabalho refere-se ao estudo da composição das associações de nanofósseis calcários registadas ao longo da passagem Jurássico Inferior-Jurássico Médio no perfil de São Gião, localizado no Setor Norte da Bacia Lusitânica (Portugal). Os resultados obtidos permitiram o reconhecimento de unidades biostratigráficas estabelecidas com base em n...

This work presents results based on the analysis of gamma radiation data collected at the Aalenian - Bajocian boundary of two reference sections located in the northern sector of the Lusitanian Basin: Murtinheira and Serra da Boa Viagem II. Specifically, it aims at: 1) characterizing the variation trends of the total gamma ray log and of the spectr...

Este projeto visa desenvolver e validar uma sequência didática e respetivos recursos sobre solos, de suporte a práticas de ensino experimentaldas ciências, numa perspetiva de educação para desenvolvimento sustentável. Será implementado com professores de ciências dos três ciclos do ensino básico, em contexto de formação contínua. Como resultado esp...

Neste trabalho apresenta-se o quadro das unidades biostratigráficas estabelecidas para o Aaleniano das bacias ibéricas com base no registo de foraminíferos, calibradas com as unidades standard definidas através do registo de amonites. Foi igualmente possível reconhecer bioeventos definidos a partir da primeira ou última ocorrência de representantes...

Lower/Middle Jurassic boundary is represented in many sites of the Lusitanian Basin. The boundary interval, Toarcian/Aalenian, is best exposed in the outcrop of São Gião since it embraces a continuous and expanded succession. The biostratigraphic units based upon a detailed analysis of the ammonite faunas for this interval were established by Henri...