Baetic System

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Betisches Kordillierensystem in Andalusia

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The Betic Cordillera, Spanish Cordilleras Béticas or Sistema Penibético, even Andalusian fold mountains, is a mountain range which extends to the south of Spain from the Bay of Cádiz more than 600 km to well over Andalusia addition to the Valencia region inside.

Landscape and structure

Its center is the Sierra Nevada, ( msnm 3482 ) with the Mulhacen, the highest elevation in the Iberian peninsula. The westernmost big mountain country that is part of the Betic Cordillera, the Sierra de Grazalema. To the east lie the mountains of Ronda with the Sierra de las Nieves, the Sierras Subbéticas, the hill country of Antequera with the most impressive karst formations of Andalusia, the Sierra Tejada and Sierra Almijara. Follow the east of the Sierra Nevada A number of other mountains: the Sierra de Baza, Sierra María, the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas and the Sierra de Castril.

Geology

It originated during the alpidischen phase of mountain building, which also Alps, Carpathians, Apennines, Caucasus and Himalayas formed. In the southwest of the Betic Cordillera is continued through the Strait of Gibraltar across the Moroccan Rif, to the northeast are the Balearic out its extension

The Betic Cordillera consists mainly of material together, which originated in the Mesozoic as sediment in the Tethys. The Tethys separated the former Europe from Africa, like today the Mediterranean Sea. Because of these marine origin, the rock is calcareous fossils and rich. In addition, there must also have been submarine volcanism, as can be seen in some sectors, such as the Sierra de Estepona, on the occurrence of the basic volcanic rock peridotite.

Geologically, the Betic Cordillera in the inner zone lying in the south, whose rocks date from the Palaeozoic and Triassic, and the north of it lies outside zone where missing Paleozoic rocks divided.

The inner zone consists of three units. Your core is the 100 km long, consisting mainly of metamorphic mica schist dome of the Sierra Nevada ( Nevado - Filabriden ). It is regarded as autochthonous, so stayed with the orogeny at the place of their origin. In addition, there are the other two complexes, two ceiling stacks ( allochthonous ) caused non-local and have only got here by horizontal Verfrachtungen. Your deeper units ( Alpujarriden ) consist of more or less metamorphic rocks from the Triassic, the Malagiden overlying Paleozoic rocks consist of nichtmetamorphen.

The outer zone is in the Subbetikum, extending from Jaén to the Gulf of Cádiz, and the Präbetikum, which extends eastward from Jaén divided. The rocks of the Triassic Subbetikums made ​​in the period up to and including the Oligocene, but are predominantly limestones from the Jurassic and Cretaceous. The rocks of the Präbetikums have a kontinentalere history, but again prevail limes before.

Pictures

Gorge, Betic Cordillera

Reservoir on the Rio del Burgo

The three parts of Kordillierensystems

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