Current erosion in the northern part of the Gardunha Mountain

Abstract

The Northern slope of Gardunha Mountains is mainly characterised by the alternative existence of two types of rocky materials, the biotitic granite, very altered and rubefacted, the corneans and the micaxystus. The erosion opened huge defiles which can be more or less narrow with the result of individualising the "cabeças" and taking profit from the several fragility lines or gaps which cross them in a very weak way, leading the water lines. Man profit these topographic features selecting the lowest places to build their homes and the upper parts of the plantation of fruit trees, with deep tradition in the region. The cherry culture is, therefore, the responsible for the destruction of natural vegetation as it requires the making of terraces and the digging of the soil, changing the natural landscape. That is why we can point several more or less important situations of gullying and mass movements which are responsible for the present evolution of the slopes in the area in study.