Grallera de l'Obac de Marcús

A 15-metre-deep pit on the mountain of Alinyà (Fígols i Alinyà), a single subcylindrical shaft with a small access funnel.

Fígols i Alinyà • Alt Urgell 18m 15m

EspeleoWorld

A 15-metre-deep pit on the mountain of Alinyà (Fígols i Alinyà), a single subcylindrical shaft with a small access funnel.

Fígols i Alinyà · Alt Urgell

Length: 18 m · Depth: 15 m

Updated record

https://espeleoworld.com/en/c/grallera-de-l-obac-de-marcus

Information can change. Always verify coordinates, access, weather, and cave conditions before setting out.

Topographic map of the main entrance — Main entrance · ICGC topographic map

A 15-metre-deep pit on the mountain of Alinyà (Fígols i Alinyà), a single subcylindrical shaft with a small access funnel.

Characteristics

Type: Pothole
Municipality: Fígols i Alinyà
Region: Alt Urgell
Unit: Port del Comte, el
Length: 18 meters
Depth: 15 meters
Major Unit: Prepirineu
Lithology: Limestone
Updated on EspeleoÍndex: September 22, 2018

Location

On the L-401 road from Llinars to Alinyà, once past the coll de Boix, a track branches off to the right and climbs up to the coll de Veça and continues along the whole N slope of the Tossal de Cambrils. After 6.5 kilometres from its start, on the left, there are the corrals del Sastre and a little further on, on the same track, there is a vertical wooden post whose signs have disappeared. At this point, some 50 metres to the right of the track is the large mouth of the grallera de Cambrils.

From this point, the Grallera de l'Obac de Marcús lies in a straight line 690 metres to the NE. To reach it, continue along the track where shortly we will find a turn-off; we follow it to the left and after covering 920 metres, at the point where the track turns to the right, we leave the vehicle and continue to the left, going into the forest in direction N18W for 350 metres, where we find the cavity.

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

Obac de Marcús, Grallera de L'
Elevation: 1697 m
42.155733, 1.443977
UTM 31T (ETRS89) 371447 4668239
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Topographic

Grallera de l'Obac de Marcús - Topography, Fígols i Alinyà, Alt Urgell

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Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.

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Photos

Grallera de l'Obac de Marcús - Photo, Fígols i Alinyà, Alt Urgell

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Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.

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Description

Morphology

Preceded by a small funnel of 4 x 1.5 metres, the mouth, at the bottom, measures 1 x 0.5 metres. The dip of the strata, clearly observable here, is 35º to the N10E. The cavity consists of a single subcylindrical pit, with rounded walls, which reaches 15 metres in depth.

It is structured on a single joint, of orientation E15N, and some perpendicular joint is observed that is not reflected in the morphology of the cavity. The section of the pit, minimal at the mouth, enlarges progressively and reaches its maximum width towards the lower third (3 x 1.5 m). The floor, occupied by small-sized blocks, measures 2 metres in diameter. From the -8 level down to the bottom, the E end of the generating joint is filled by lithogenic formation. The walls of the pit (with slight superficial decalcification, as is the concretion) show erosive morphology. In short, it is a simple spindle half-filled by external materials.

Speleothems

From the -8 level down to the bottom, the E end of the generating joint is filled by lithogenic formation. The walls of the pit show slight superficial decalcification, as does the concretion.

History

Within one of the extensions of the Operació Solsonès, members of EDES, EDECA, ERE-CEC and CE Pirenaic explore the cavity for the first time on 1 May 1964.

For many years its exact location became unknown; it is not until September 2018 that, during the search for a lost mushroom picker on the mountain of Alinyà, the colleague Manel Trepat, who as a rural agent accompanied the firefighters, locate the cavity. It is in the municipality of Fígols i Alinyà and not in that of Odèn as it had been catalogued until now, and therefore it also changes comarca, coming to be in the Alt Urgell instead of the Solsonès.

It seems that the correct name of the cavity is that of “grallera”, as with the nearby “grallera de Cambrils”, and not “bòfia” as it had been called.