The fold of La font del Molí (the spring of the Mill) is a geological structure on an accessible and comprehensible scale that the Malrubí stream has been kind enough to cut and display. El fold of La font del Molí is located at the southern end of the cliff that the Malrubí stream cut and that borders the old town of Artés by the north. The fold and the fountain inherit the name from El Molí de Can Ferreres, the farmhouse on the opposite bank of the stream.
From left to right of the 1st image, or from east to west, we can see the flat strata, the wall collecting the water of the fountain, behind a roughly 45º towards the west tilt inverse fault plane and, at the right side, a beautiful anticlinal fold. This structure results from tectonic compression. The materials are the reddish mudstones and sandstones of geological formation Artés, from continental origin, that sedimented about 34 million years ago in the transit from the Eocene Superior to the Oligocene.
Not surprisingly, the spring is just on the fault plane that it is a crushed, weaker surface where water can make its way and flow trough. The fountain wall is made of squared sandstone blocks that were brought here. The image on the tiles is a Virgin of Montserrat.
[photos Jordi Badia]