THE SPECTACLE OF EROSION

Sometimes erosion takes on colossal dimensions. Little by little, with landslide after landslide, the cliffs reach up to 150 m in height.

The Pikote landslide is the most impressive of them all. It is 360 m wide and the fallen blocks cover an area equivalent to 7 football pitches, with the fallen sediment layer about 50 m thick. The absence of vegetation and current measurements indicate that this is an active landslide. In 1997, in the space of a few days, an expanse of grass the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool fell into the chasm.      

The Baratzazarrak landslide is more complex and larger in size. Aerial photos from 1945 show it was then covered with vegetation, suggesting that it is fairly stable, but inside it there are whole blocks that are the size of houses, which are gradually moving down the slope.