Folded Cliffs at Playa Güilche, Nerja, Andalucía
Last week I was on vacation in southern Spain, and was able to visit some awesome beaches. While the family was sunbathing and swimming, I made sure to check out the surrounding rocks.
I was impressed with the folds in the cliffs at this beach between Torrox and Nerja.
From what I could find out, they are part of the Torrox Unit within the Upper Alpujarride Complex in the Betic Cordillera.
The unit mainly consists of different gneisses, with overlying metasandstones and dark mica schists rich in graphite, which I assume these cliffs are made of?
Apparently there is a complex metamorphic history, which occurred from the Variscan to the Alpine Orogeny.
I found this paper ( www.ugr.es/\~grupo179/pdf/Sanchez Naval 2017.pdf )discussing the metamorphism of the Complex, but honestly some stuff went over my layman's head.
If someone knows more about these cliffs and the surrounding geology, I'd be thrilled to learn.
The last two pics are of a sample rock I found at the beach.