The Cardona geological formation that is well-known in the mountain of Salt of Cardona outcrop, can also be seen on surface at the foot of the Castle of Cardona mountain, in the meander of the Cardener river in La Coromina. This smaller salt outcrop at the bottom of Castle mountain hosts halophytes, the plants thriving in saline soils.
However, the place is deeply modified by mining activities, by the rebuilding of damaged infrastructures by the large sinkholes or chaotic land collapses that happened in 1999 and 2000 as a result of the dissolution of the salt when water from the Cardener river entered into galleries of the abandoned since 1990 “Nieves” potash mine and into “Las Salinas” common salt mine in operation since 1993, and by the deviation in 2000 of the Cardener river through a tunnel that shortcuts the meander, nowadays abandoned, of La Coromina. The large sinkholes that once showed the insides of salt, are now covered with newly added earth.
The salt outcrop at the base of the Castle mountain is 1.5 km away from the Salt mountain by the Salty valley. The top of the Salty valley is blocked by the Old landfill of saline waste from the potash mining that is still pending of exploitation or restoration. The natural salt outcrops as well in the Salty valley and in the plain of Sant Onofre in the southeast, although mixed with saline residues from mining in a spoilt area after centuries of mining exploitation.
[photo Florenci Vallès]