Recommended route.
At Cala Barques there also appear the turbidites of the Banyalbufar Formation, constituting the substrate of the cove, on which the sand of the beach has been deposited. They can be seen at the northern end of the cove (point A).
Turbidites of the Banyalbufar Formation at Cala Barques (point A).
But in addition, all the northern end of the cove (point B) is formed by sandstones and conglomerates of the Sant Elm Formation of the Lower Miocene (20 Ma ago), as we saw in the upper part of the Punta de Sa Torre.
General view of Cala Barques, with the sandstones and conglomerates that form its northern end.
Here, instead of fossils of ostreids, there is an abundance of teeth of fishes (gilthead bream, shark, triggerfish) along with corals, molluscs and sea urchins, indicating that they were formed in a warm, shallow (subtropical) sea. Exceptionally, crocodile teeth have also been found. In paleontological terms, this locality is one of the most important Miocene sites of the Balearic Islands.
Detail of the size of the fish teeth that appear in the sandstones.
If we study the materials we have been seeing along the route between Cala Clara and Cala Barques, we will see that, at the beginning and the end, there appears the Sant Elm Formation of sandstones of the Lower Miocene, and in the middle the turbidites of the Banyalbufar Formation of the Lower-Middle Miocene.
This is because there is a syncline, that is, a concave fold in which the oldest materials are at the ends and the most modern materials in the centre. As, in addition, the axial plane (which divides the fold into two symmetrical parts) is not vertical but displays a certain inclination, it is called an overturned syncline. This type of tectonic structures, along with thrust faults, is very characteristic of the Serra de Tramuntana.
Geological cartography and simplified cross-section of Cala Sant Vicenç.
