Geoheritage and geodiversity evaluation of endokarst landscapes: The Picos de Europa National Park, north Spain

Abstract

The endokarst presents a spectacular Geoheritage involving many singular features with thousands to millions years in age. The Picos de Europa National Park has one of the most important karst landscapes in the world. The endokarst of Picos de Europa shows high natural, scientific, and cultural values mainly related to cave features, with a spectacular vertical development (14 % of known world caves deeper than 1 km), the presence of geomorphological and sedimentary records related to the Quaternary evolution of the Cantabrian Mountain Range, and the traditional and sport uses of the cavities. The aim of this work is to inventory and to evaluate the Geoheritage and Geodiversity of the endokarst of Picos de Europa National Park combining speleological data, field work, and geomorphological mapping from nine selected caves. As a result, the Picos de Europa Geodiverstiy features show a high variability: 75 different natural features have been recognized with a density ranging from 0.3 to 1.1 different features per cm2 of cave area.