The fascinating stones of Ribes Blaves

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
03 November 2023 Friday 10:34
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The fascinating stones of Ribes Blaves

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia

In Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia we can admire the fascinating fault rocks of the Ribes Blaves geological outcrop, located on a section of the B-120 road between Olesa de Montserrat and Viladecavalls, in the Baix Llobregat.

Access to the top is easy from the road, but reaching the sector sunken by the river is practically inaccessible due to the steep slopes.

As highlighted in the Cultural Heritage Maps of the Barcelona Provincial Council, we are facing "a place of exceptional geological interest, named for the bluish color of the area."

In this unique place "you can see the fault that puts the materials of the Paleozoic age of the Prelitoral Mountain Range in contact with the materials of the Miozena age of the Vallès Depression."

This fault, which emerges in an exceptional way due to the erosive action carried out by the Sant Jaume stream, "provides invaluable data for the interpretation of the geological history of Catalonia and, at the same time, allows an observation of recent tectonics ( earthquakes, etc)".

Its age is between 400 and 450 million years. The fault presents a gap with a width of almost 100 meters, and is formed by chopped and crushed Paleozoic materials with a floury appearance and texture.

Further north of the Ribes Blaves another exceptional fact can be observed: the fossilization of the fault by modern materials of an age not yet determined.

This fault is related to the circulation of thermal waters that have sprung up in several nearby places, such as La Puda de Montserrat, Caldes de Montbui or la Garriga.