8 
Chapter - 2 Minorca Discovered
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The northern part of Minorca
is the oldest piece of land in the whole of the Balearics. The union of
its two parts to form the present island occurred in the late Cretaceous
period (136 to 65 million years ago), and was brought about by a process
of overlaying and folding, as a peripheral manifestation of the vast upheaval
that gave rise to the Alps. Where at one point this fusion failed to take
place, a great fault occurred, and the deep inlet of Port Mahon was born.
The boundary-line between the two different
geological zones roughly bisects the island from east to west, extending
from Mahon in the east, through the small inland towns of Mercadal and
Ferrerias, then turning north just short of the western port of Ciudadela
to a point below Algaiarens.
The oldest Primary sediments in Minorca
were laid down in the Silurian period (about 400 million years ago), and
have been found at Mesquida and Fornells; but the matrix of the northern
part of the island consists mainly of Primary Old Red Sandstone (Devonian),
which occurs nowhere else in the Balearics. This is about 350 million years
old, and its warm colour is quickly recognised as one travels across the
island. The geological picture in the north is, however, complex and heterogeneous,
as the Devonian strata have been much overlaid by younger rocks of the
Secondary Triassic and Jurassic periods, usually of limestone. These areas
often present a bleak and stark appearance, as at the Cap de Favaritx lighthouse,
where one can imagine oneself on a lifeless planet. More pleasing to the
eye, there are also in the north still younger Cretacean overlays, which
have left us the great dunes and pink sands of Son Saura, and the almost
ringed beach at Arenal d'en Castell.
If one wishes to relax in the sun,
and day-dream on the tip of the lost continent, this can most easily be
done on the large tract of land to the north-east of the capital town of
Mahon, including the attractive beach at Cala Mesquida, and northwards
to the fishing village of Es Grau and the islet of Colom. Two other such
areas are the fishing village of Fornells, and the beaches of Binimel-la.
The geological structure of the
southern part of Minorca is entirely of the Tertian (Miocene) epoch (between
26 and 7 million years ago).
A falling away of the waters in
the Pliocene epoch (Tertiary) sometime between 7 and 1.5 million years
ago completed Minorca's birth. From fossils we learn that its early inhabitants
included squirrels and giant tortoises, the former indicating that there
were forests early in its history. The tortoises were peculiar to Minorca
- a conundrum for zoologists. Minorca is the most senior of the Balearic
Isles, having been isolated first. Majorca and Ibiza did not achieve island
status till much later.
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