Canyon of Nazareth in the central coast of Portugal
The Nazaré Canyon is an underwater canyon that, as the name suggests, is located in the vicinity of Nazaré, on the coasts of Portugal. It is the largest underwater gorge in Europe, with an extension of 230 km and reaches a depth of 5000 meters. It is a rich and diverse place in marine life, having been object of study by the Portuguese Navy and other institutions of the country and foreigners both as an objective and as an argument for the expansion of the Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone.
The cannon is being studied by the Hermes project of the European Union using vehicles operated by remote control. This project investigates the ecosystems that form the canyon, as well as the sediments, their transport and deposition. The influence of the canyon and how it affects the circulation of the marine current in this point of the ocean is also studied. Surf
The depth of the Nazaré Canyon and its relative proximity to the coast causes very high waves. This makes Nazaré one of the best places to practice surfing. The cannon creates a constructive interference between the incoming waves so it tends to make the waves much larger than normal.
In November 2011, Hawaiian surfer Garrett McNamara surfed a record giant 24-meter wave from the channel to the ridge in Nazareth. In January 2013 it was estimated that a wave had measured a maximum height of 30 meters in the same place and possibly exceed the size of its previous record wave. In August 2012, a giant wave killed a 5-year-old British girl and her grandfather walking along Salgado Beach.
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