The Plain of Vic (

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

''Plana de Vic'') is a 30 km long depression located at the eastern end of the Catalan Central Depression in the

Osona Osona () is a comarca situated in Catalonia, Northeast Spain. Its capital is Vic. Its population in 2001 was 129,543. Osona covers roughly the same area as the historic Catalan county of Osona. The name Osona comes from ''Ausetans'', a group of ...

comarca A ''comarca'' (, or , or ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a "march, ...

. It is named after the town of Vic, an important and ancient urban center in this

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point of view, the naturally occurring flora and ...

that lies in the midst of the plain. Other significant towns in the plain are

Manlleu Manlleu () is municipality in the comarca of Osona, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, northern Spain. Manlleu is located in a large plain, La Plana de Vic, at around 460 metres above sea level on average. The highest point is Puig Agut chu ...

and Tona. This natural depression carved by

river Ter The River Ter is a river in Essex, England that houses various aquatic creatures. The river rises in Stebbing Green and flowing via Terling it joins the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation at near Rushes Lock. A small part of it, the River Ter SS ...

and its tributaries is longer than it is wide and stretches in a N / S direction. It is completely surrounded by mountains: The

Sub-Pyrenees The Sub-Pyrenees ( ca, Subpirineu) are a mountainous region in Catalonia, Spain, forming a section of the southern foothills of the Pyrenees. They are located at the eastern end of the Pre-Pyrenees, west of the Catalan Transversal Range, betwe ...

, with Bellmunt mountain towering in the north, the Lluçanès (

Pre-Pyrenees The Pre-Pyrenees are the foothills of the Pyrenees. Description As a mountainous system the Pre-Pyrenees are part of the Pyrenees. They run parallel to the main mountain range in a west to east direction. On the French side the Pyrenees's slop ...

) and

Moianès Moianès () is a ''comarca'' in the centre of Catalonia, Spain. It became a comarca in May 2015, following approval in a local referendum and by the Parliament of Catalonia. Its 10 municipalities were in the comarques of Bages, Osona, and Vallès ...

high plateau in the West, the

Montseny Montseny is a municipality and village in the Vallès Oriental comarca in Catalonia. As of 2014, the population was 332. The village is located at the feet of the Montseny Massif Montseny () is a mountain range west of the coastal hills n ...

in the southeast and the

Guilleries The Guilleries Massif (Catalan ''Les Guilleries'') is a mountain system located at the apex of the Catalan Transversal Range and the Pre-Coastal Range. The highest point of the range is Sant Miquel de Solterra or Sant Miquel de les Formigues (1.2 ...

, located at the apex of the

Catalan Transversal Range The Catalan Transversal Range (''Serralada Transversal'') is a system of minor mountain ranges at the eastern end of the Pre-Pyrenees, between the Osona and Garrotxa comarques. The existence of the Catalan Transversal Range has made communication ...

and the Pre-Coastal Range, in the east.

Characteristics

The Plain of Vic was the bed of an ancient sea. It is mainly formed by

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

s, like carbonatic

lutite Lutite is old terminology, which is not widely used, by Earth scientists in field descriptions for fine-grained, sedimentary rocks, which are composed of silt-size sediment, clay-size sediment, or a mixture of both. When mixed with water lutites o ...

, from the

eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

. The most remarkable characteristic of the landscape in the plain are low, isolated hills known as ''turons testimoni'', "testimonial hills".

Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s are quite abundant in areas of the Plain of Vic. The plain is subject to a phenomenon of

thermal inversion In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to an inversion of the air temperature lapse rate, in which case it is called a temperature inversion. Nor ...

, especially marked in calm weather days during the fall and the winter, by which the surrounding mountain ranges are often warmer than the plain. This inversion in temperature also reflects in the vegetation.E. Fontseré, ''L'anomalia tèrmica a la Plana de Vic''. Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya. 1937 The original vegetation of the plain was oak ''(

Quercus pubescens ''Quercus pubescens'', the downy oak or pubescent oak, is a species of white oak (genus ''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus'') native to southern Europe and southwest Asia, from northern Spain (Pyrenees) east to the Crimea and the Caucasus. It is also fo ...

)'' forest, but little is left owing to continuous human intervention since ancient times. Some very ancient oaks have been preserved as a tourist attraction.

References

External links

Monitoring groundwater nitrate attenuation in a regional system coupling hydrogeology with multi-isotopic methods: The case of Plana de Vic (Osona, Spain)
{{Coord, 41, 55, 52, N, 2, 15, 21, E, region:ES-CT_type:city(38964), display=title Landforms of Catalonia Osona Natural regions Valleys of Spain River valleys of Europe

Characteristics

See also

References

External links