The Danish subsurface contains as much as 12 kilometers of sedimentary rocks that formed in the last 450 million years, but below that hides a prehistoric continent: Baltica.
The Hautacam seismic crisis, or the Lourdes earthquake, shows that the Pyrenees are being stretched in a north-south direction. This seems a bit strange, since the Pyrenean mountain belt formed because of north-south shortening.
This mountain stage brings the riders close to the center of the Pyrenees. It is also the area with the highest peaks, above 3000 m.
Today’s stage is mostly flat, but the riders are crossing a region that was once a big mountain belt. The minerals lepidolite and elbaite can be found in this erea. These minerals host a chemical element that is in high demand nowadays: Lithium.
GeoMap Tour of the Day - 5
You can zoom and pan the map, you can click on the map to get a description of the lithology (rocks). If you move the mouse over the profile (the yellow line in the graph below), the location is also shown on the map.