Please push F11 to continue.
The Natural Park of Torcal is in the Sierra del Torcal mountain range which separates the city of Antequera, Spain, from the southern port and capital of the Costa del Sol -- Malaga.
About 200 million years ago, this area was underwater. Over time, the floor began to fill with layers of shells and skeletons of marine animals, eventually forming limestone, a stone soluble in acid. Such limestone formation occurred in pretty much the whole of the Andalucian region that now borders the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
Long after (about 20 million years ago), Africa and India collided with Eurasia (long before the days of no-fault insurance.) The collision created many mountain ranges from the Atlas in Africa to the Alps in Europe. This created a low (about 4000 foot) flat limestone mountain range. The limestone created by the sea was compressed and fractured in the Sierra range in modern Spain.
Once exposed to the surface rain, snow, and wind, the bedrock limestone began to dissolve along the fissures created by continental collisions. Acid rain damages limestone buildings in the same process; what damages there creates a strange beauty in the Spanish Sierras. In addition, parallel grooving was added to the mix as the water on the rocks alternatively froze and thawed. This gives many of these formations a look not unlike a stack of pancakes.
This dissolution by mildly acidic water eating into the limestone creates a Karst topography (often with caves below as is the case in much of southern Spain). Rain picks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, creating this carbonic acid. As openings in the limestone increase, drainage is created, giving the rainwater even more acceleration.
Karst topography here was created when limestone was weathered primarily by water -- a work in progress but very slow progress. Return in several millions of years and you may find a gravel pit. The horizontal grooving by freezing and thawing processes is similar (but less colorful) to that which created the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon Natural Park in Utah.
We took a short-looped trail to and from the visitors' center. While short, the trail was somewhat technically challenged as picking your way among these rocks may be. In the distance is the modern information center, among the least helpful we have seen in National Parks (but then, again, we are used to the US Parks).
About 10% of the earth's surface is karst landscape and 25% of its people rely on water from karst areas.
By US standards, this is a small National Park, only about 3000 acres. By comparison, Yosemite has 3/4 of a MILLION acres! Bryce Canyon National Park is 10 times larger than this park. See all of our travel pictures by cutting and pasting this link into your browser: http://www. dickschmitt.com/travels.html
