The Intrabaetic Basin ( es, Surco Intrabético or ''Depresión Intrabética'') is a discontinuous series of

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

s in the

Baetic System The Baetic System or Betic System ( es, Sistema Bético) is one of the main systems of mountain ranges in Spain. Located in the southern and eastern Iberian Peninsula, it is also known as the Cordilleras Béticas (Baetic Mountain Ranges) or Baet ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Description

The Intrabaetic Basin is a series of

intermontane basin Intermontane is a physiographic adjective formed from the prefix " inter-" (''signifying among, between, amid, during, within, mutual, reciprocal'') and the adjective "montane" (inhabiting, or growing in mountainous regions, especially cool, moi ...

s that separate the

Penibaetic System The Penibaetic System ( es, Sistema Penibético or ''Cordillera Penibética'') is the southernmost of the three systems of mountain ranges of the Baetic System in the southern Iberian Peninsula. It includes the highest point in the peninsula, 3 ...

to its south from the

Subbaetic System The Subbaetic or Sub-Baetic System ( es, Sistema Subbético or ''Cordillera Subbética'') is one of the three systems of mountain ranges of the Baetic System in the southern Iberian Peninsula. Highest point high Peña de la Cruz in Sierra Ara ...

to the north. These basins run more or less parallel to the

Mediterranean coast The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the eas ...

. Together, these valleys constitute a route from western Andalusia and the valley of the

Guadalquivir The Guadalquivir (, also , , ) is the fifth-longest river in the Iberian Peninsula and the second-longest river with its entire length in Spain. The Guadalquivir is the only major navigable river in Spain. Currently it is navigable from the Gulf ...

to the Spanish Levante, the eastern Mediterranean coastal region of Spain. From west to east, the basins of the Depression of Ronda, the

Hoya of Antequera The Hoya of Antequera (also Antequera Depression or, in Spanish, ''Depresión de Antequera'', ''Hoya de Antequera'' or ''Vega de Antequera'') is a sedimentary basin located in the northern part of the province of Málaga, Andalusia, Spain. It take ...

, the Depression of Granada, the

Hoya of Guadix The Hoya of Guadix ( es, Hoya de Guadix) is a natural plain in the northern part of the province of Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It covers some , and is formed by the basins of the rivers Fardes and Guadix. It is surrounded by the heights of the ...

, the

Hoya of Baza The Hoya of Baza is a valley in the northern part of the province of Granada, Andalusia, southern Spain, named after the town and former bishopric Baza, Granada. It is one of the series of valleys forming the Surco Intrabético. It formed during ...

, the

Hoya of Huéscar Hoya may refer to: Places *Hoya, Germany, a city in Lower Saxony, Germany *County of Hoya, a former state in present Germany *Hoya, Tokyo, now incorporated within Nishi-tokyo, Tokyo, Japan *Hoya, Hpruso, a place in Hpruso Township, Kayah, Myanmar * ...

, and the Hoya of Lorca. The valleys of the Intrabaetic Basin stand in contrast to the adjacent mountain ridges that define their collective border and the rocky spurs—formed of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, and yielding a dry, nearly treeless landscape—that separate them from one another in that they are formed of soft materials such as

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

s and conglomerates. Soils are deep and suitable for agriculture, but the limiting factor to human activity is the scarcity of water. The Intrabaetic Basin formed at the end

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

and beginning of the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

, as the Baetic ranges were being formed. It is believed that at that time the entire Baetic system was surrounded by water, and the basin formed a single, continuous valley, sometimes referred to as the Baetic Depression. Later, the spurs crossing the basin were raised up, turning it into a series of separate valleys. The valleys of the Intrabaetic Basin are quite heterogeneous, although all are

sedimentary basin Sedimentary basins are region-scale depressions of the Earth's crust where subsidence has occurred and a thick sequence of sediments have accumulated to form a large three-dimensional body of sedimentary rock. They form when long-term subsidence ...

s. The Depression of Ronda, the westernmost of the valleys, falls fully within the Cordillera Penibética. The Hoya of Antequera is intimately related to the original Baetic Depression: it was a great

gulf A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodie ...

of the sea that separated the

Sierra Morena The Sierra Morena is one of the main systems of mountain ranges in Spain. It stretches for 450 kilometres from east to west across the south of the Iberian Peninsula, forming the southern border of the ''Meseta Central'' plateau and providi ...

from the Andalusian ranges. The Depression of Granada is intermediate between the Penibético and Subbético. Finally the Hoyas of Guadix, Baza and Huéscar are more related to the Subbético. The Intrabaetic Basin provides a route for the

Autovía A-92 The Autovía A-92 is a highway in Andalusia, Spain. It is a major east–west route running south of the Sierra Nevada and is known as the Carretera Sevilla a Granada and Autovía de Andalucía. It starts in Seville heading parallel to the Rio ...

that connects

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...

, passing through Antequera,

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

, and

Guadix Guadix (; Local pronunciation: aˈðih is a city and municipality in southern Spain, in the province of Granada. The city lies at an altitude of 913 metres, on the centre of the Hoya of Guadix, a high plain at the northern foothills of the Sierr ...

. Its branch Autovía A-92N passes through Cúllar and Baza to

Puerto Lumbreras Puerto Lumbreras () is a Spanish municipality in the autonomous community of Murcia. It has a population of 15,780 (2020) and an area of 139 km² . It is located in the southwestern end of Region of Murcia and is adjacent to Andalusia. His ...

, where it meets

Autovía A-7 The Autovía A-7 (also called ''Autovia del Mediterráneo'') is a Spanish autovía (toll-free limited-access highway) which starts in La Jonquera, near the French frontier and ends in Algeciras. It was finally finished in late 2015 upon complet ...

, which, in turn continues to

Murcia Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...

and the Spanish Levante.

References

* Julián Alonso:
Geografía túristica: general y de España
', Ed. Centro de Estudios Ramón Areces,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

2006. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Surco Intrabetico Baetic System Landforms of Andalusia Valleys of Spain

Description

See also

References