Back in Bidart

[fifbrindacier]

Hi, i went back in Bidart at the beginning of this month, and in May. I found some coprolithes and stegasters (cotteaui and bouillei).

Here i mostly wanted to show the complexity of the geology of this place, and also its beauty.

 

Here is the beach of Erretedgia

 

Towards the north, to the beach of Ilbaritz, you can find several geological strates.

Here, you can see the KT limit : on the right the marls of the Maastritchian, on the left the pink limestones of the Danian.

[fifbrindacier]

Then you'll pass before the Trias "anachronism" strates : green, red and black clays with blocks of gypsum.

Last month, while fossil hunting, i met a retired geologist who explained me that all the scientists disagreed one with the other on how to explain the presence of Trias here : some think it was raised by the formation of the mountains, others, like him think it is due to the raising of a diapir.

He accepted to be on my photo for me to have a scale.

[fifbrindacier]

And then, the flysh of the Lutetian

 

In that area you can find : ammonites, urchins, coprolithes, bivalves, zoophycos, crabs.

The last time i went there, i was with my husband, he also found a Stegaster cotteaui. At a time he was very excited but quickly very disappointed when he realized the two nuts he had found were empty and too light to be fossils.

[fifbrindacier]

Going to the South of Erretedgia, you'll find the little village of Guéthary, i think it is one of the more little port of France.

 

More to the South, you'll arrive to the bay of Saint-Jean-de-Luz with the towns of Saint-Jean-de-Luz (and the cathedral where the king Louis IV was married), Ciboure, and Socoa. You'll also have a sight on the huge sea walls built to protect the bay against the storms and Bellharra wave.

 

The cliffs of Socoa :

[Fruitbat]

That looks like a beautiful place to collect and the stratigraphy is magnificent!

 

-Joe

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

@fifbrindacier That looks really nice  Would you have pictures of the fossils you found? 

 

P.S. I love the last picture, with the cliffs of Socoa

[fifbrindacier]

Way down to the south, at the frontier with Spain, the Danian of the Twins of Hendaye in the bay of the same name.

If you take the cliff road (route de la corniche), you'll have a magnifical view on the Ocean.

One of the Twins rock during hight tide :

 

If you cross the frontier marked by the river Bidassoa, between le Cap du Figuier (Cape of the Fig tree) in Fontarabie and the industrial port of Pasaia, you can visit the biggest and the densiest of the only two sites in the world where you can see Paramudras, geological curiosities made by invertebrate organisms. You can check those sites : http://www.topopyrenees.com/jaizkibel/#respond\r\n and http://www.jaizkibelamaharri.org/ondarea/natura-ondarea/geologia/paramoudras/?lang=fr\r\n

The Following photo is from that last site :

 

[fifbrindacier]

4 minutes ago, Fruitbat said:

That looks like a beautiful place to collect and the stratigraphy is magnificent!

 

-Joe

I like them too, as childs we went shore fishing there. There also are fossils here, but less numerous than in Bidart.

[Auspex]

Thank you for sharing your excursion; it is both beautiful and fascinating.

[fifbrindacier]

The twins (jumeaux) of Hendaye :

 

A detail of the cliff :

[fifbrindacier]

Some views from the cliff road ;

[fifbrindacier]

[fifbrindacier]

Details of the Trias strate :

 

[fifbrindacier]

[ynot]

Looks like a great place for a road trip, with many wonderful geologic features!

Thanks for the tour.

[fifbrindacier]

[fifbrindacier]

Here are some of the fossils i found there.

The only ammonite i ever found here, a Pachydiscus :

[fifbrindacier]

Bivalves :

A pecten

 

[fifbrindacier]

An inoceramus

 

[fifbrindacier]

Big foraminifers

[fifbrindacier]

[fifbrindacier]

Coprolithes such as this one (the nicest i have from there)

[fifbrindacier]

[fifbrindacier]

Urchins

Clypeolampas

 

 

[fifbrindacier]

Most of the urchins that can be found there are Stegasters and among them, the more numerous are Stegasters bouillei, like this one. The only way to distinguish them one from each other is to look underneath.