Access to the stopping point.
El Toro, the highest elevation in Menorca at an altitude of 358 metres, offers the best views of the whole of an island without significant relief. At its foot is the town of Es Mercadal on rocks of the Dark Menorca. As you make your way to the mountain, these rocks give way to those of the Red Menorca, which are superimposed by those of the Grey Menorca crowning the peak. The aim of this stop is not to focus on recognising the geological series forming the mountain but on observing the geological landscape you can see from its peak. The stopping point is at the belvederes located next to the observation point towards the west of the island.
If you look from south to north (from left to right), you will initially see a flat area, which is the Migjorn region (the White Menorca), which contrasts with what you will then see next, the Tramuntana, with numerous hills. We should also stress the difference between the coves developed in the two regions: those of the north coast are more abrupt, steeper and smaller than the ones on the south coast, which are usually more rounded and closed.
The change in the morphology of the land is quite evident. The rocks on the Migjorn shelf are more modern than those of the Tramuntana, which means that the latter ones have been affected by many more geological processes, a more prolonged geological history, that have created a much more irregular relief. The hills are laid out next to each other or separated by more or less cultivated flat lands.
Geological landscapes of the Tramuntana (Dark, Red and Grey Menorca) from the El Toro belvederes (Menorca Biosphere Reserve Agency) (point A).
The lands of the Dark Menorca feature the oldest rocks on the island, formed on the seabed at a depth of thousands of metres. They make up a landscape of dark colours with gentle topography due to small hills and a very rugged rocky coastline. We can identify these rocks in the town of Es Mercadal and to the north in the Binimel·là area.
The lands of the Red Menorca stand out in the landscape for the striking colours of their rocks. These were formed on terra firma due to the action of large rivers. They are made up of abrupt cliffs and a relief that alternates between small rocky mountain ranges densely covered with vegetation and wide cultivated valleys. The reddish fields that spread out at the foot of the mountain, together with the lands that reach as far as the hinterland of the Badia de Fornells bay, are good examples of this. In fact, the existence of this wide bay can be associated with the presence of these softer red materials as they are more easily eroded than the materials around them (those of the Grey Menorca).
The rocks of the Grey Menorca originated primarily in a shallow sea of calm waters, where many organisms lived. These rocks create wide shelves, with steep relief and abrupt coastlines like those of Cap de Cavalleria and La Mola de Fornells.
