Geoturism Balearic Islands

This stopping point is on both sides, which are geologically different, of the little Caló de s'Enderrossall cove. On the eastern side, the Punta d'en Valent headland stands out in the landscape as it is made up of a hard rock (thick-grained sandstones) interleaved in which are lloselles. The origin of the materials that we can see is associated with rushing flows filled with sediments (currents of turbulence) which went as far as the seabed and were deposited, giving rise to the strata of sandstones and sedimentary rock which tends to exfoliate in small flakes, similar to sedimentary rock formed by clay.</p></div>">pelite.&nbsp;</p></div>">llosella, which are given the name of turbidites.

Turbidites are formed as a consequence of an event, such as a small earthquake or a rapid variation in sea level, which causes a mass fall down the slope of the marine talus (the area between the shallow continental shelf and the great sea depths). On reaching the great abyssal depths, these flows start to decelerate and gradually leave the fractions that no longer have the power to stay in suspension, which they can no longer carry. Consequently, they first deposited the thickest particles, which over time formed sand-sized clasts.</p><p><br></p></div>">sandstone strata, and then the finest ones, which eventually led to sedimentary rock which tends to exfoliate in small flakes, similar to sedimentary rock formed by clay.</p></div>">pelite.&nbsp;</p></div>">llosella strata. Repetition of the event leads to a turbidite series.

The rocks on this headland are the materials that were sedimented after the complex and varied grouping of rocks that we find on the Binimel·là massif. Consequently, they belong to a group of rocks from the Palaeozoic, but more modern. The interior of the cove displays the same composition, but in this case the materials are covered by sand and the sea.

Consequently, in the cove, we are at the limit of the geological series and, from the western shore of the Caló de s’Enderrossall cove, we begin to find different types of disorganised rocks, which form the highly unusual geological series of Binimel·là. To discover this western side of the cove up close, we highly recommend going from the beach and advancing a few metres hugging the coastline towards the west until you come to some striking reddish and white rocks that will be bound to grab your attention.

Although in Menorca we usually see sedimentary rock which tends to exfoliate in small flakes, similar to sedimentary rock formed by clay.</p></div>">pelite.&nbsp;</p></div>">llosella as a dark or black rock, at the Binimel·là massif, there are frequent outcrops of red sedimentary rock which tends to exfoliate in small flakes, similar to sedimentary rock formed by clay.</p></div>">pelite.&nbsp;</p></div>">llosella, the most striking being around the coast and especially at the point chosen for this stopping point. They are clayey and silty levels rich in silicate and laid out in flat and parallel layers, which reflect that their sedimentation occurred on a wide and completely flat bed. Consequently, it probably occurred in the great sea depths, far from the continental shelf, from the deposition of microscopic remains of living beings that lived in the open sea (pelagic organisms), together with other additions of inorganic grains. In any event, the minuscule size of the particles that form the rock indicates that their sedimentation was incredibly slow.

The reddish colourations mark moments when the sediments that were being deposited in the great depths had an amount of iron oxides that gave them this characteristic colour. These iron oxides indicate that these clays and silts may be associated with volcanism (lavas have a high iron oxide content) or that they were transported by rivers from continental areas where the oxidation processes had already occurred. Other outcrops of this sedimentary rock which tends to exfoliate in small flakes, similar to sedimentary rock formed by clay.</p></div>">pelite.&nbsp;</p></div>">llosella are found at Binimel·là with blackish colours and abundant nodules of marcasite (a mineral in the sulfides group) and exceptionally green ones. When they are associated with limestones, they display scarce remains of crinoids, whereas it is common to find fine laminae of radiolaria interleaved between the pelitic sections (see next stopping point).

Next to these rocks, at slightly higher levels, we see a black mass of sedimentary rock of detritic origin (clasts larger than 2 mm).</p></div>">conglomerate with a very abundant matrix formed from mud outflows. They are the same type of outflows that are repeated all along this section of the Binimel·là coast and that we have previously identified at the Escull des Francès tectonic, eustatic or antropical processes</span></p></div>">outcrop.