GEOLOGY
The serra gelada is a continuation of the Beetic Cordilleras that are more to the south so to know their formation we have to know the formation of the Betic Cordilleras.
The Betic Cordilleras were formed in the general context of progressive rapprochement between the African and Indo-European plates. This approach caused the clamping of the block of Alboran (or Mesomediterranean), located east of Iberia, which was expelled to the west during the lower Miocene (about 21 Ma). About 18 million years ago, said block contacted and located on the South-Iberian margin (on the future External Zones of the Bética), on which it slid about 400 km until, 10 million years ago (Tortoniense), it stopped definitively and was soldier to Iberia.
From the Serra Gelada we can observe the mountains of Cabeçó d'or (1206m.), Sierra Cortina (529m.), Puig Campana (1408m.), Ponoig (1181m.), Serrella (1361m.), Aixortà (1218m. ), Serra Bèrnia (1129m.), The Serra d'Oltà (568m.), Morro de Toix (299m.) And the Penyón d'Ifach (328m.)
In the Serra Gelada and the islands that are found around it we can find sedimentary rocks and marine fossils.
What is a fossil? When an organism dies it begins to decompose. If it remains
imprisoned between the rocks, there is an exchange between the organic components of the
be alive and the minerals of the rock, thus giving rise to a fossil over time.
In the Serra Gelada you can find fossils of bivalve molluscs, the chondrodonts.
These strange animals, already extinct, were more than 100 million years ago on the seabed of the Serra Gelada. They lived half-buried vertically in mounds of mud, similar to the current nacre.
The fossils have different orientations. This is due to the fact that some shells, after their death, were buried lying down and others in life position, vertical ...
The magmatic outcrops of Cap Negret were formed because it was a volcano that was under water and that finally came out with the break of Pangea because magma broke out in its breaks and Cap Negret was in one of its corners, it was formed about 225 millions of years.
From the Torre de Seguró you can see the Mitjana Island. Its marine escarpment represents the original position of the great fault, responsible for the formation of the original cliff, which 8 million years ago sank the block located today under the waters (the same rocks that constitute the sierra are submerged towards the east, sunken for a fault).
On the cliff we can see the largest climbing dune building in the world.
It was formed this way: Wind dunes accumulated during the Quaternary, more exactly during the Upper Pleistocene (less than 75,000 years ago). They are attached to the sea cliff of the Serra Gelada, which is a relief located in the External Zone of the Bética Mountain Range, more precisely in the Prebetic.
The slopes at the foot of the cliff of the Serra Gelada are covered by large accumulations of sand 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.
A great climate change is detected since now it would be impossible to think that in this area there could be winds of these speeds.
