Montserrat (mountain)

Montserrat is a multi-peaked mountain range in the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range, near Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. Its highest peak, Sant Jeroni, reaches 1,236 meters. The mountain's Catalan name means serrated mountain, describing its jagged, saw-toothed silhouette, which comes from its unusual composition: a strikingly pink conglomerate rock. This conglomerate formed during the middle Eocene as a fan delta deposited along the edge of the Ebro Basin, a foreland basin created by the uplift of the Pyrenees; its pebbles and cobbles were shed from the rising Catalan Coastal Ranges to the southeast and consist largely of Triassic limestone. The original fan delta is estimated to have covered between 100 and 150 square kilometers. Montserrat's conglomerate resists erosion far better than the softer rock that once surrounded it, which is why the range still stands prominently above the surrounding basin, and the abundant carbonate cement within the rock has also produced typical karst features across the massif, including caves and distinctive karst towers.