The Riches of the Sea
Water, Seascapes and Habitats
Finale is a gift of water, as its genesis is strongly tied to water.
It all started 28 million years ago, during the Oligocene, when a lagoon was created as the sea flooded a large coastal depression. For millions of years during the Miocene, coral, shells, fish, shark teeth, even remains of sea mammals as Manatee or Cetacea, sank to the bottom of these warm, secluded waters that were sheltered from strong currents and away from open-water storms and became part of existing deposits of sand and silt.
MORE INFORMATION – The Riches of the Sea
Around 10 million years ago, towards the end of the Miocene, as the waters gradually receded exposing large sections of coastline, this vast marine sedimentary deposit emerged, and with it came our precious Finale Stone, where calcium carbonate caused any organic remains to become “cemented” into the layer of sand and silt.
A “second step” followed in the genesis of the Finale area, when sea water was followed by rain. The latter scoured, eroded and shaped the existing plate, breaking it up into four smaller plates featuring such karst phenomena as sinkholes, lapies, caves and fossil valleys. Still in contact with seawater, the southern-most section of these plates was further eroded by the waves, which thus shaped the cliffs of Cape Noli.
So, the beauty of Finale, this unique and most valuable natural landscape in Liguria, would actually not exist today if it were not for water.
[ls_content_block id=”7170″]
