Field trip to priorat

This fieldtrip, longly expected by most of our students, took finally place on last September 16-18th. The fieldtrip was kindly leaded by our advisor, Dr. Joan Carles Melgarejo, who did his PhD thesis, entitled "Metallogenetic study of the Paleozoic in the south of the Costero-Catalan ranges", in this area of our country.,

The fieldtrip, developed in this region of great geological and metallogenetic interest, included a first day in which different outcrops and mines near the Bellmunt del Priorat town where visited. Thus, we walked next to the Siurana river to visit the pre-Cambrian rocks outcroping there and containing small concentration of sulfides. Different abandoned mines, some of them now converted into wine cellars or touristic mines, where also visited. Mines such as "La Serrana", an stratabound Mn mine, "Mina Règia" and "Mina Eugènia" (mines exploted mainly for Pb and closed in the 70s) and "Mina Linda Mariquita" are included. We would like to highlight the visit to the underground work visit to mina Eugència. The second day other mineralized areas such as the occurrences in the "Mas del Mestre" area, close to Flaset, and some outcrops close Valls town where visited, so that at the end of the day we could reach our goal, which was understanding the geology and the metallogeny of the region. The graphic material presented by Dr. Joan Carles Melgarejo at the end of the day greatly helped in this sense.

In addition to the geological aspect of the fieldtrip, the attendants could delight some of the most delicious wines of all the country (and world). The nights sleeping in the floor of the classroom of the Bellmunt del Priorat’s school are also well remebered.

Although we were not very lucky with the weather we had a great time and it was a wonderful experience!