Dennis Hollingsworth

A Snorkel to Cap Tossa

I'll have to admit to a bit of self indulgence in posting almost 30 minutes of a snorkeling selfie... but the ostensible-yet-genuine point is the outward POV from the homemade selfie stick that I had fashioned last summer.

Here's what I mean...

The Pyrenees, plunging into the Mediterranean. I snip from the web:

The rocks here were mashed up when the Pyrenees were formed, and are mostly metamorphic schists which turn a lovely golden colour in the Mediterranean sun.

On top of that, this is one of the wildest spots on the Costa Brava in the winter (Costa Brava means "wild coast") , and the migmatites and schists have battered and eroded by the Tramuntana wind and a sea that can look as if it is boiling in the strong winds.

(A migmatite is a type of rock that formed under extreme pressure and temperature: a partial melt. Migmatites are halfway between an igneous and metamorphic rock. A schist is a medium grade metaphorphic rock that has been squashed into flakes or slabs. Schist is derived from the Greek meaning "to split").

Interspersed within this mash of schist is dazzling white blocks of pegmatite- basically molten rock that percolated up through the gaps in the rock at the end of the "orogeny" or mountain building.

And the flora and fauna swarming over the migmatites and schists? Here you go:




Keys to the kingdom.

Posted by Dennis at September 18, 2018 7:47 AM