• ...four moments important:

 

Fracturing: Towards the end of the folding the rocks of Serra Gelada suffered extension that caused the occurrence of normal faults that began to sink blocks of rocks causing a staggered relief. Most of Serra Gelada constitutes the top rung of this rock-block staircase. At the ends of the sierra (Punta de les Cales and Punta Bombarda) two more lower steps are observed, but most are immersed and covered by the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

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Erosion: Since the staggered relief of Serra Gelan was formed, water has been in charge of sculpting and modeling the rocks, reducing the height and extent of the saw to acquire the current dimensions and morphology. It's a very slow process but constant, without interruptions. In the marine façade is the sea water which is responsible for erode the rocks, slowly receding the cliffs. On its hillside northwest, the one that gives ashore, has been rainwater, runoff water, which little to little has been eroding the rocks and has been digging small ravines. Mitjana Island represents a surviving remnant, still not wholly eroded by the
Waters, of the original Paleoacantilado and Mark most likely his position in this sector. The distance between Island and the current cliff provides an estimate of the erosive retrogression experienced by the cliff in this sector since the time of its formation about 8 million years ago, until the Middle Pleistocene (about 200,000 years ago) in which it acquires its current position.

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• Which mountain ranges we see from the way of the lighthouse?

 

The mountain ranges that we see from the lighthouse are:

Cabeçó d'or, Sierra cortina, Puig Campana, Ponoig, Serrella, Aixortà, Sierra de Bernia, Sierra de Oltá, Morro de Toix, Peñon de Ifach.

 

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• Of the three types of rocks you know (magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary), what kind of rocks form the mountain range and the islands?

 

All the reliefs of the serra gelada are sedimentary rocks with marine fossils.

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• In the same way as the lighthouse we can see some fossils, what are they and where did they live?

 

The fossils you can see lived more than 100 million years ago in the seabed of the Serra Gelada. They lived half-buried vertically in mounds of mud, similar to the current nacra. Their names were chondrodontos and the Pseudotoucasia.

 

 

• Around the park, specifically in the Cap Negret de Altea, there are magmatic outcrops of great importance. When and how did they form? What relation does it have with the supercontinent Pangea?

 

There are some magmatic outcrops in Cap Negret de Altea which is very important because they occurred 225 million years ago, just when the supercontinent Pangea began to separate. As one of those lithospheric fractures occurred near the coast, it caused the breakage of the terrain leaving the lava to escape.

 

• How did the cliffs of the Sierra have been formed? It has to do with the formation of faults, do you know what they are?

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Towards the end of the folding the Serra Gelada rocks underwent extension (stretching) that caused the appearance of normal faults that began to sink blocks of rocks causing a stepped relief. Most of Serra Gelada it constitutes the upper rung of this ladder of rock blocks. It is these steps, formed during the Upper Miocene and Lower Pliocene that have caused the current morphology of Serra Gelada, its terminations in the Puntas de les Caletes and Bombarda, and also its impressive cliffs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• In the cliff we find the best building of remuntants dunes of the world. Research how they have formatted and how they relate to climate change

 

The Aeolian dunes were accumulated during the Quaternary Are found attached to the sea cliff of the Serra Gelada, which is a relief located in the External Zone of the Baetic Mountains, The slopes at the foot of the cliff of the Serra Gelada are covered by large accumulations of sands whose volume approaches 16 million m3. These sandy materials were transported by the wind and originated climbing dunes capable of ascending on slopes as high as the slope of the mountain range and reaching 200 m above sea level.

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