Cova-avenc del Picarol

The entrance, of small dimensions (0.40 x 0.50 m), gives way to a small 7.5 metre pit that leads to the lower gallery of the cavity. On taking the first turn, we find ourselves in a gallery that ends after a few metres at a step that gives way on one side to a crawl and on the other to a room with a steep slope. Towards the middle of the aforementioned gallery we can see in the ceiling a window that will take us to what we shall call the second level; thus, after climbing the 5 metres separating the window from the floor by opposition, we reach a room in which we can see in front a flat-out passage that gives way to a small room with a very low ceiling; on the left, a gallery that leads to the entrance pit and on the right, a crawl through which the cavity continues. This crawl, which is rather a flat-out passage about 35 centimetres high, opens after a few metres into a low but wider gallery, where on the right we find another crawl, narrow and of little length. Towards the front and after a step one reaches the third level of the cavity, situated at a lower level than the aforementioned one. On entering, we already find a gallery that crosses the one we are following, giving on one side to another that ends choked by sediments and on the other to one that joins the one we are following. After taking a turn to the right, it leads to a crossing of galleries, where we find on one side the aforementioned gallery; in front, a crawl that ends right there and on the left another crawl through which the cavity continues. This crawl will lead us, after passing numerous side passages, to the final pit of the cavity. It should be noted that at the end of this gallery one can observe up to three levels of galleries. Of those we find, only two stand out, emerging on the right-hand side, one leading to a series of galleries of little importance and to a small room with a sloping floor, and the other to a small room with a low ceiling covered in blocks. The room into which the final pit leads is of large dimensions if compared with the dimensions of the rest of the cavity.

It seems to have a direct relationship with the Avenc de Castellsapera as regards the role played by megajoints and interjoints in the processes linked to infiltration and how horizontal circulation levels become established from more carbonate-rich levels, but in this case it remains confined by the sandstone or lutite levels that infiltrating waters can only cross through the megajoints affecting them, at the same time as the upper levels.