The Granite and Glacial Landscapes of the Peneda-Gerês National Park

Abstract

Granite and glacial landforms are presented as the main geomorphological landscape features of the Peneda-Gerês National Park. The park was established in 1971 and it is the only national park and most important protected area in Portugal. The aesthetic attractiveness is supported mainly by the distinct granite landscape of the Gerês and Peneda Mountains, where the post-orogenic Variscan Gerês granite facies occurs. The rugged relief is poorly covered by vegetation, differentiating it from the surrounding mountainous areas and the most distinctive landforms are bornhardts, locally named as "medas". Typical glacial landforms, such as U-shaped valleys, cirques and moraines, express the sheltered character of a low-altitude glaciation, which is of great significance in the context of the Pleistocene glaciation in Southern Europe.

Pleistocene Glaciations of the Northwest of Iberia: Glacial Maximum Extent, Ice Thickness, and ELA of the Soajo Mountain

“…The mountainous landscape of the northwestern Iberian ranges is marked by the existence of significant and low mountain paleoglaciers, including those in the Serra del Xistral, Faro de Avión, Peneda-Gerês massifs, Montes de Cebreiro, Serra de Ancares, Serra do Courel, Manzaneda massif, Serra del Teleno, and Trevinca massif [9,17,18]. For the Soajo mountain (1416 m a.s.l., and hereinafter referred to as Serra do Soajo) located in northern Portugal and part of the Peneda-Gerês mountain range, previous research was concerned with the identification and mapping of the glacial landforms and their climatic significance [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Coudé-Gaussen [19] conducted the most relevant study for the Serra do Soajo by (1) identifying and mapping glacial landforms; (2) delineating the plausible limits of the Glacial Maximum Extent (GME) based on glacial reconstructions and Equilibrium-Line Altitude (ELA) values; and (3) explaining and interpreting the factors that contributed to the occurrence and spatial configuration of the glaciated area.…”