Geological Setting of La Garrotxa Volcanic Field

Abstract

Situated in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, La Garrotxa Volcanic Field is part of the Catalan Volcanic Zone and one of the provinces of the Neogene-Quaternary alkaline volcanism associated with the European Rift System. It covers about 600 km² and lies between the cities of Olot and Girona (Fig. 2.1). This basaltic volcanic field contains over 50 cones (including both cinder and scoria cones), lava flows, tuff rings and maars dating from the Middle Pleistocene to the early Holocene, which rest either on upper Palaeozoic granites and schists or on sedimentary Eocene and Quaternary substrata. Available petrological and geochemical data indicate that this region consists of a suite of intracontinental leucite, basanites, nepheline basanites and alkali olivine basalts, which in most cases represent primary or near-primary magmas, their geochemical characteristics being very similar to analogous petrologic types found in other European Cenozoic volcanic zones.