Mountain Ranges, Deserts and Landforms of Spain

Ecology

The Sierra Morena is one of the last habitats of the endangered Iberian lynx.

Other charismatic animals of the region include the Iberian wolf (2019 declared extinct regionally by the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe), Wild boar, Red deer, the Spanish imperial eagle and the Golden eagle. Among the amphibians, wells and ponds in many areas of the range provide a habitat for the near-threatened Iberian ribbed newt.

A National Geographic Channel documentary film featuring an overview of some of the region's wildlife was produced in 2015.

History

The ranges of Sierra Morena have valuable deposits of copper, gold, silver, iron, lead, mercury, and other metals, some of which have been exploited since prehistoric times.

The ancient Iberians used the mountain passes as a passage between the high plateau in the north and the Guadalquivir basin.

The bleak Sierra Morena mountains were also notorious in former times for being a haunt of bandits and highwaymen. The Nuevas Poblaciones de Sierra Morena y Andalucía administrative division was started in 1767 during the reign of Charles III of Spain in order to populate the mountainous zone. As a consequence the area around La Carolina was settled with farmers that included German, Swiss and Flemish families.

Description

The Sierra Morena stretches for 450 km in an E-W direction from the high course of the Guadalmena River in the Sierra del Relumbrar until northwestern Huelva Province, extending into Portugal. The system is the result of the uplift produced by the pressure of the northward-moving African Plate. It is made up of hard Paleozoic rocks such as granite and quartzite, as well as softer materials such as slate and gneiss.

Its name, roughly meaning 'dark range', is likely derived from the dark color of some of the rocks and vegetation of the ranges that make up the mountainous system. It is also mentioned as Sierra Mariánica in some documents.

Geography

The Spanish Pyrenees are part of the following provinces, from east to west: Girona, Barcelona and Lleida (all in Catalonia), Huesca and Zaragoza (both in Aragon), Navarra (in Navarre) and Gipuzkoa (in the Basque Country).

The French Pyrenees are part of the following départements, from east to west: Pyrénées-Orientales (also known as Northern Catalonia), Aude, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques (the latter two of which include the Pyrenees National Park).

The independent principality of Andorra is sandwiched in the eastern portion of the mountain range between the Spanish Pyrenees and French Pyrenees.

Physiographically, the Pyrenees may be divided into three sections: the Atlantic (or Western), the Central, and the Eastern Pyrenees.

Geology

The Pyrenees are older than the Alps: their sediments were first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. During Ediacaran to Ordovician times, Pyrenees were located at the Northwest margin of Gondwana, where they formed a lateral continuity of neighbouring areas, such as the Montagne Noire and the Mouthoumet massifs and Southwestern territory of Sardinia. Between 100 and 150 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous Period, the Bay of Biscay fanned out, pushing present-day Spain against France and applying intense compressional pressure to large layers of sedimentary rock. The intense pressure and uplifting of the Earth's crust first affected the eastern part and moved progressively to the entire chain, culminating in the Eocene Epoch.

Climate

The amount of precipitation the range receives, including rain and snow, is much greater in the western than in the eastern Pyrenees because of the moist air that blows in from the Atlantic Ocean over the Bay of Biscay. After dropping its moisture over the western and central Pyrenees, the air is left dry over the eastern Pyrenees. The winter average temperature is −2 °C (28 °F).

Sections of the mountain range vary in more than one respect. There are some glaciers in the western and snowy central Pyrenees, but there are no glaciers in the eastern Pyrenees because there is insufficient snowfall to cause their development.