Geological and paleontological Pliocene record: introducing the Camp dels Ninots maar (Catalan Coastal Ranges, Spain)

Abstract

Integrated studies on maar volcanoes can lead to a strong interaction among distant research disciplines. This is the case of the studies carried out at Camp dels Ninots maar (Pliocene, Catalan Coastal Ranges, Spain) (Fig. 1), an eroded and exhumed maar crater. Despite such volcano is in a very accessible area at the surroundings of Caldes de Malavella village, it was unnoticed since 1999 when it was generally described by Vehí and co-authors (see brief historical review by Gómez de Soler et al., this volume). At first sight, the lack of outcrops should restrict the interest of this volcano to the large vertebrates remains that are excavated close to the surface, but other topics of interest have emerged, such as volcanology, paleolimnology, paleoclimatology, paleoecology, diagenetic processes etc.