Caves and potholes in Schist terrain
The Schist, a foliated and insoluble metamorphic rock, contains 17 cavities: 4 pits and 13 caves, with a total length of 528 m and a maximum depth of 46 m. The cavities are usually linked to fractures or to the contact with carbonate rocks.
There are 17 catalogued cavities in Schist, including 4 potholes and 13 caves. The longest is Avenc del Tinc-ca-tinc (98m) and the deepest is Forat de les Gralles d'espot (46m).
Length adds each cave once (a system counts once), and depth is that of the deepest cave, canyons excluded.
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The Schist is a foliated and insoluble metamorphic rock. Cavities there are scarce and are usually linked to fractures or to the contact with carbonate rocks. The catalogue records 17 cavities in this lithology: 4 pits and 13 caves, with a total length of 528 m and a maximum depth of 46 m.
The longest cavity is the Avenc del Tinc-ca-tinc, with 98 m, a pit 43 m deep in the Pallars Sobirà, explored in 1962 and surveyed in 1974, with an entrance shaft of 22 m and stalactitic formations. It is followed by the Forat de les Gralles d'espot, with 80 m, and Lo Forat de la Campella, with 77 m. The deepest cavity is the Forat de les Gralles d'espot, with 46 m, a pit of biospeleological interest in Espot, Pallars Sobirà, opened in a doline in Devonian calco-schists, with an important clastic process and a snow ramp that reaches 30 m in depth.
Other notable cavities are the Cova de S'Infern, with 50 m, a sea cave at the Cap de Creus (Cadaqués), today a 35-metre rock bridge within the Integral Natural Reserve, and the Forat de la Canya, with 48 m, in the Vall de Cardós.
Map
Autonomous communities
The figures of these places do not add up to the total: a cave can be in more than one place, or in none when its location has no lower level.
The 20 longest
- 1Avenc del Tinc-ca-tincSort, Lleida98 m
- 2Forat de les Gralles d'espotEspot, Lleida80 m
- 3Lo Forat de la CampellaAlins, Lleida77 m
- 4Cova de S'InfernCadaqués, Girona50 m
- 5Forat de la CanyaVall de Cardós, Lleida48 m
- 6Esquerda de l'InfernAmer, Girona36 m
- 7Cova d'en XamuixaPortbou, Girona20 m
- 8Cova d'en XocolataColera, Girona20 m
- 9Cova ForadadaPortbou, Girona20 m
- 10Cova de la Mina SaragossaQueralbs, Girona18 m
- 11Balma de la SocalmaAlins, Lleida10 m
- 12Cova del Bou MaríPortbou, Girona10 m
- 13Cova del PirataPortbou, Girona10 m
- 14Cova dels EncantatsEl Port de la Selva, Girona10 m
- 15Forat de MalatoscaSant Joan de les Abadesses, Girona9 m
- 16Cova del TorrellóEl Port de la Selva, Girona7 m
- 17Cova de la PortaEl Port de la Selva, Girona5 m
The 20 deepest
- 1Forat de les Gralles d'espotEspot, Lleida46 m
- 2Avenc del Tinc-ca-tincSort, Lleida43 m
- 3Lo Forat de la CampellaAlins, Lleida19 m
- 4Forat de la CanyaVall de Cardós, Lleida18 m
- 5Cova de S'InfernCadaqués, Girona11 m
- 6Esquerda de l'InfernAmer, Girona6 m
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Source: Espeleoindex (espeleoindex.com), modified. CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/