The volcanic origin of the Madeira Archipelago has conditioned the submarine salience of the islands, resulting in an almost non-existent continental platform and, few meters from the coastline, the beginning of an enormous slope with a highly accentuated inclination that ends at the abyssal plain.

The water masses of the archipelago are typical of the North Atlantic, where the existing superficial oceanic currents are partly conditioned by the Azoresanticyclone.

By the coast, the water temperatures usually vary between 18ºC in the winter (February and March) and 24ºC in the summer (September), but temperatures of 16ºC and/or 26ºC may exceptionally be registered. The waves may reach a maximum height of 5m and the current may be of 0,2m/s; the salinity at 35 does not chanhe much during the year and the waters right by the coast are crystalline, they only become turbid during the hard winter rainfalls.