The Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa Natural Park, in Catalan Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa, is a natural park area covering a Holocene volcanic field, also known as the Olot volcanic field, in Catalonia.
The volcanos, of which there are about forty within the park, are no longer active, with the last eruption (Croscat) occurring about 11,000 years ago. However, the region is still seismically active, and a large earthquake in 1428 caused damage to buildings and twenty deaths in Barcelona, 90 kilometres to the south. More recent earthquakes in 1901 and 1902 caused shaking but little damage.
The park covers 12,093.02 hectares, and includes territory from eleven municipalities in the comarca of Garrotxa. The built-up areas of Olot, Santa Pau, Sant Joan les Fonts and Castellfollit de la Roca are completely surrounded by the park. Including these urban areas, the population of the park is more than 40,000 people, and the economic development of the zone is one of the objectives of the park management, while trying to avoid the damage caused by quarrying, urban sprawl and illegal waste disposal. Some 980.86 ha of the park, including the best preserved volcanic cones, are fully protected as nature reserves.
The Garrotxa field is a monogenetic volcanic field, with each volcano representing a single period of eruption. The field became active about 700,000 years ago, and is the most recent expression of volcanic activity in northeastern Catalonia, which dates back 10 million years.
More information: Catalunya
The Croscat is a volcano in the comarca of Garrotxa, Catalonia. It is both the youngest and highest volcano in the Iberian Peninsula, with the last eruption dated back to about 14,000 years Before Present.
The volcanic cone has a horseshoe shape, and its northeastern flank was quarried for volcanic gravel until the early 1990s, exposing the internal structure of the cone from top to bottom.
The volcano is located in the Garrotxa volcanic field, a Quaternary volcanic field also known as Olot volcanic field, as part of the protected area of the Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa Natural Park.
The cone has a height of 189.04 metres and an elliptical base with a horseshoe shape, probably caused by the breaching of the western-side of the volcano as a result of the effusion of lava flows during the last eruptive phase of Croscat.
A study published in 2011 at the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research revealed that the Santa Margarida Volcano and the Croscat were the product of the same eruption event 11,500 years ago, alternating phreatomagmatic activity, between water and magma, and magmatic activity.
Starting from the 1960s, the northeastern flank of the volcano was quarried for lapilli gravel. The extraction of material from the volcano cone and the degradation of the volcanoes of the Garrotxa Volcanic Field sparked a series of protests in the 1970s to protect the volcanic field, a campaign that came to be known as Save the Volcanoes, in Catalan Salvem els Volcans.
The extraction area was also used as an uncontrolled municipal landfill for the city of Olot.
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In 1982 the Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa Natural Park was created to protect the area, but the extraction lasted for another nine years. Further protests were sparked after an agreement was reached between the concessionaire of the quarry, Minas de Olot, SA, and the Generalitat of Catalonia for the further extraction of 2.7 million tons with educational and scientific purposes, with the commitment of restoration of all excavated areas.
The successive non-fulfilment of the restoration program resulted in the issue of at least ten disciplinary proceedings in the subsequent years. The mining operations were stopped in 1991, when the Generalitat of Catalonia acquired the majority of shares of the mining company.
The extraction left a vent 100 metres high and 400 metres long, covering around 40 degrees.
In the 1990s, a territorial landscaping project was undertaken to restore the extraction site and the landfill to recover the morphology of the base of the volcano and the pastures surrounding the area. The project, which won an award for landscape design, minimized the landscape impact, prevented erosion and planned public access for educational purposes.
The beech forest of Jordà, in Catalan La Fageda d'en Jordà, is an exceptional beech forest because it grows on flat ground and sits on a lava flow from the Croscat volcano, which offers a rugged relief, with abundant very characteristic prominences, which can reach more than 20 m in height.
More information: Catalunya
Si vas pels volts d’Olot, amunt del pla,
trobaràs un indret verd i pregon
com mai més n’hagis trobat al món:
un verd com d’aigua endins, pregon i clar;
el verd de la fageda d’en Jordà.
El caminant, quan entra en aquest lloc,
comença a caminar-hi poc a poc;
compta els seus passos en la gran quietud
s’atura, i no sent res, i està perdut.
Li agafa un dolç oblit de tot el món
en el silenci d’aquell lloc pregon,
i no pensa en sortir o hi pensa en va:
és pres de la fageda d’en Jordà,
presoner del silenci i la verdor.
Oh companyia! Oh deslliurant presó!
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