Geography of Formentera
If the four main islands of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera have a total area of nearly 5,000 km², Formentera alone represents a little more than 1.5% of the total area. With its 83.2 km² and 69 km of coastline, it is the smallest island of the Balearic Islands, if we exclude the many islets that dot the archipelago, and resembles Guadeloupe in its shape. It is also, with Ibiza, the most western of the Mediterranean islands. It is located a little less than a hundred kilometers from the coast of Valencia, on the peninsula. From the Cape of Barberia, on a clear day, you can make out its outlines on the horizon. If you are on the northern side of the island, you can also easily see the outline of Ibiza: the two Pityus islands are separated by a strait of 3 km, the Es Freus strait. Formentera is also quite close to the African continent: it is located at equal distance from Algiers and Barcelona, a much shorter distance than that which separates it from Madrid.
In addition to being the smallest of the Balearic Islands, Formentera is also the flattest and driest of the islands. It is made up of two distinct parts, one very flat to the west and the other mountainous to the east, dominated by the 192-meter high Puig La Mola (the highest point on the island). The two ends of Formentera are connected by a narrow strip of land bordered by beaches: the beaches of Migjorn to the south, those of Llevant to the north. Two saltwater areas connected to the sea, the Estany des Peix and the Estany Pudent, extend from the northern coast of the island. The Es Trucadors peninsula faces the island of S'Espalmador, from which it is separated by a strip of sand covered by shallow water subject to strong sea currents.to the south of the island, the Cape of Barbaria forms an arid semi-desert promontory dominated by a lighthouse that serves as a landmark for ships entering the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar, while to the east, the La Mola plateau reveals windswept rural landscapes that end in steep cliffs. The east coast is also cut by several points, from the Punta de sa Creu in the north to the Punta Roja in the south.
Brief geological history of Formentera
Geologically, Formentera is particularly rich. The island is home to almost every type of rock found on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal, Andorra, Gibraltar and the Balearic Islands). Its history dates back some 6 million years, when Formentera and Ibiza formed a single mountain emerging 4,000 meters under the sea. This underwater geological past explains the essentially sedimentary composition of the island's rocks, and consequently that of its flora: the island's plants feed on the calcium present in the soil.
The island is also linked to its neighbor Ibiza by a series of rocks and islets, physical traces of the common geological past of the Pityuses. The two islands are separated by a strait of 3 km dotted with islets classified as a nature reserve: the Natural Park of Ses Salines, known for the richness of its seabed where the meadows of posidonia flourish. This flowering plant, which looks like a seaweed, migrated from the land to the ocean almost 100 million years ago. Developing in the form of "meadows" or "grass beds", it plays a fundamental ecological role in the Mediterranean ecosystem: posidonia is a major source of oxygenation of the water.
