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Geology of the Camino

P

Petey

New Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Hopefully June/July 2014
Greetings, I have been wanting to walk the Camino for some time. I recently heard of a grant opportunity for teachers that could pay for the trip for me, thus saving my money for other travel.

I need info on how I can tie the Camino in to my geology classroom. Obviously I will be in the Pyrenees mountains. My question is, can anyone provide me with any details or significant geologic/topographic sites. The more detailed I am in my grant request the more likely I am to receive the grant.

Regards,
Petey
 
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Well, the Spanish "meseta" plateau is peculiar enough, I guess, or the whole area of El Bierzo with their old Roman gold mines (Las médulas) and their coal pits. I cannot think of any particularly remarkable geological feature at the moment, no major faults or the like...
 
Hmmm....some random thoughts:

The Pyrenees of course are complicated, thrusted stuff. I don't recall any classic great exposures or views, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.
Look on Google Earth and you'll see some nice folds around Pamplona, sot of a Pyrenean-Cantabrian transition zone.

You go through a great evaporate sequence-- Permo-Triassic I suppose, out on the Meseta-----I know Chevron did instructional field trips out there with their geologists.

Lots of good Mesozoic carbonates along the way with some fossils if you look hard enough.

The Cantabrian basin is the site of active drilling in a potential shale gas area (Cretaceous shales)....you certainly could work the fracking controversy into it.

http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-109/issue-49/exploration-development/thick-shale-gas-play-emerging.html

Galicia has some of the purest homogeneous granite you'll ever see.

Go here to get a google earth track, and you should be able to make out all sorts of geologic features along the way to work into your proposal.
http://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/sjpp-to-finistere-on-google-earth-one-file.21426/

Sorry I don't have more details but friends have all my maps and books.
 
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Pulled this photo off google earth near Najera---is that like, geology, or what?

 
Petey, an interesting question. Most visitors to this site are looking for information on how they might complete their Camino rather than how they might fund it. While I am conscious that all bar a priveleged few need to make sacrifices and save hard to fund their journey I am not clear on why you have posed your question on this particular forum. The geology, both physical and social, of the Camino is both varied and complex and in consequence I would suggest that you use more technical or academic sites to research solutions to your requirements.

I am sure you will be able to construct an appropriate argument from the information that is already widely available without relying on members of this forum to do it for you.
 
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The first picture above is of a chapel built into the limestone cliffs near Belorado. I haven't been in it...The second one is the monastery at Najera. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_María_la_Real_of_Nájera originally a cave that a king took shelter in..he saw a light and found a statue of the virgin Mary there glowing...The back of the cave wall is veined with mica...
The last picture is of the Roman causeway outside of Castrojeriz. The camino crosses it and climbs the mesa behind. The Romans mined mica there and about halfway up you can find pretty big pieces...I have some at home..and will photo and post..
Romans did massive water extraction of gold outside of Ponferrada mentioned above...Ponferrada was/is a major iron center and I believe it is still active.
 
Thanks Tincatinker!
 
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I am sure this site is big enough for geologic discussion. We've heard enough about bedbugs and blisters. I, for one, am thrilled to see a geological thread. The geology of the trail I'm on is always on my mind. If you don't want to hear about it Tincatinker, don't click on this thread.

And Petey, welcome to the forum.
 
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CaminoJohn said:
The first picture above is of a chapel built into the limestone cliffs near Belorado. .
Click to expand...


Thanks for posting that! I didn't have a digital photo and couldn't remember just where that chapel was.

Supposedly a perfect virgin Mary statue was found in that cave. Those cliffs are not just limestome, but to a large degree bedded gypsum. There are layers with gypsum and anhydrite crystals growing all through them. Thats the stuff that looks like mica. It is a beautiful example of an interior restricted evaporate basin. I have no idea if it is sabka or deep brine in origin.
 
Here's a couple.... The vines of the Rioja benefit from the cobbles, shed from the Cantabrian highlands I think. The rocks heat up and keep the grapes warm all night to develop the high sugars needed for outstanding wine.

Very similar conditions exist at Chateauneuf du Pape (top)

 
I am pleased to see this thread too! I have only a layperson's knowledge of geology, but the rocks and formations always keep me interested, especially when I'm walking. I always take home souvenir rocks.
 
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Thank you all so very much!!! These tips will give me plenty to work from. I love seeing how landscape has influenced society and I think this will amaze me.
I love how the Camino really is such a fellowship of journeyers.
 
CaminoJohn said:
Mica from Roman causeway at CastroVerizon.
Click to expand...

Actually those are beautiful gypsum crystals. Gypsum can resemble mica in that it is soft, transparent and layered. Mica is an igneous mineral, and pieces of that size are produced as a final product from the cooling of a granitic magma. Gypsum is a sedimentary mineral, formed from the precipitation of calcium sulfate in a hypersaline evaporate pan in a restricted lake or arm of the sea. You won't find mica in sedimentary rocks such as those at Castrojeriz.
ps I love that CastroVerizon! I assume you are a Verizon customer? I turned my autocorrect off!!!
 
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As I said, there is a remarkably high quality granite batholith in Galicia. Finisterre is all granite. They build all sorts of things from it, such as these elevated grain storage containers. apparently rats can't climb the overhang of the carved granite pedestal.

 
Petey said:
Thank you all so very much!!! These tips will give me plenty to work from. I love seeing how landscape has influenced society and I think this will amaze me.
I love how the Camino really is such a fellowship of journeyers.
Click to expand...

If you get to go, we expect a nice little geologic trail log to be posted here!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried to google one up, but found nothing. After writing this, I tried again....there must be one somewhere.
Then I googled in Spanish and found this:
http://books.google.es/books?id=vT8bKkJZy4sC&printsec=frontcover&hl=es#v=onepage&q&f=false

Not all the book is online, but there is a lot of info for someone with a bit better Spanish than me.
edit---that link doesn't give the same preview as I see on my screen. Google
Patrimonio Geologico del Camino de Santiago to see more.

 
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I too find this thread very interesting! I love to learn new things from experts in their fields. On my next camino I will be scanning my surroundings for some of the things I've learned and seen here. Thanks for sharing with us.
 
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I like this thread too, it's very interesting. And the photos are beautiful.
I'm hoping you will post more pics, if you got.
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Petey, please accept this as an apology for a mean spirited reply to your original post. Made worse perhaps by that "moderator" tag I wear. I've been roundly, and rightly, spanked for it. I offer no excuse other than tiredness.

I see others have made some helpful and I hope useful comments and suggestions. In a better frame of mind I would probably have suggested that there is a treatise to be written on the variable adhesion of Riojan and Navaran clays. I wish you good luck with your fund-raising.
 

I forgive you, Tincatinker. I think, to use jirit's expression, you were wearing your dark shades that day.
 
Hi Newfydog. Yes I agree with you that my samples are gypsum. Here in New Mexico we generally refer to them as selenite. I have many samples from local sources and ours is much softer. I referred to the samples from Castrojeriz as "mica" because that is how Gitlitz and Davidson in their book " The Pilgrimage Road To Santiago" describe them, and I deferred to them as the "experts" on all things camino related...thinking it was a direct translation of what the mineral is called locally.
 
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CaminoJohn said:
I deferred to them as the "experts" on all things camino related...thinking it was a direct translation of what the mineral is called locally.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you are the one with the expertise on that matter!
 
Here is the virgin from the monastery at Najera...you can see the veins in the cave wall behind her...they are probably gypsum/selenite not mica...
 
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Tincatinker wrote "I would probably have suggested that there is a treatise to be written on the variable adhesion of Riojan and Navaran clays."
Here are those wonderful clays...
 
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whariwharangi said:
Geological Archeology at Cruz de Ferro ... 10000 years from now someone is going to be very confused about how rocks from all around the planet wound up on in a pile in the middle of nowhere Iberia.
Click to expand...
That rock pile is indeed a geologic wonder. I added a piece of pumice from here in Oregon, rock so light it floats. My sample was formed just 5000 years ago when Mt. Mazama blew up, forming Crater Lake.

 
In answer to the question of deleted posts...

Some posts were removed in an effort to redirect the thread to the subject of geology.


The deleted posts were off topic.

Hopefully we can continue on the subject of Geology.
 
I love this thread. Indeed a change from bed bugs and blisters. Perhaps we could keep it to geology formations found on any of the Caminos.
If we start adding photo from other parts of the world, however interesting, I think we are definitely going off track. My apologies to newfydog! Anne

PS. My little piece of rock was also volcanic, from our local Volcan Barva. ( it was the lightest piece of rock I could think of to carry).!
 
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What, you can post where your contribution to the pile is from, but, posting a photo of where the rock blew out of it is a step too far???

I think annakappa's rock was blasted out of this one. Amazing all the stuff that ends up in the Cruz de Fer pile.



 
CaminoJohn said:


​
Click to expand...
​
Sorry anna, to understand geology we need to look at the whole world, CaminoJohn posted a great photo of the sediments in the evaporates around Castrojeriz and Belerado.

Here's what the area around the chapel near Belerado looked like about 140 million years ago, when that gypsum was being deposited. (There were no people then of course!)
 
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Actually Newfydog, that's Volcan Irazu, much more spectacular than Volcan Barva, where my mini rock came from. But, we are perhaps moving away from the OP, Geology of the Camino! Anne
 
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Thanks Anna, that's why I said "I think"....I couldn't figure out which google image was your volcano. If you had just posted a photo! Anyway, I find it fascinating that in search of lightweight rocks, pieces of volcanoes from all over the world have ended up at the base of the Cruz de Ferro. Certainly the most varied geologic feature of the route is that rock pile.
 
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newfydog said:
Anyway, I find it fascinating that in search of lightweight rocks, pieces of volcanoes from all over the world have ended up at the base of the Cruz de Ferro. The certainly the most varied geologic feature of the route is that rock pile.
Click to expand...
newfydog, that statement there is the basis for a whole new thread. Looking forward to it.
Pat
 
OK, here's my favorite geological feature---it is back in LePuy, where it all started. In 951, Godescalc, the bishop of LePuy decided to travel to Santiago to see the tomb of St. James. He publicized his trip, and is credited by many as starting the whole pilgrimage.

Upon his return, he was so impressed with the trip that he built a chapel to commemorate it. The site he chose is on top of the eroded neck of an extinct volcano.
 
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Did he carve it out of the rock or did someone have to carry each brick up the hill?
 
The one near Belorado must be Tosantos, actually. Interesting post!
 
My photo of the chapel built into the cliff is of the Ermita de Nuestra Senora de la Pena. It is past Tosantos.
 
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