The 1:50,000 Geological Map and its associated database (geology-territorial-50000-geologic) are the result of the collaboration of the Department of the Environment and Housing, the Department of Territorial Policy and Public Works, the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia, the Geological Institute of Catalonia and the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain that began in 1997 and generated the first version of the Regional Geological Map of Catalonia 1:50,000 published in 2006. In 2010 this map was published in atlas format in the Geological Atlas of Catalonia and in 2016 the second version was generated and distributed in digital format.

This third version (2025) responds to a new data distribution model and incorporates the following improvements to the geological information: 

• Correction of errors in the cartography of the old version (typographical errors, element attribution errors, errors in the direction of fault and overthrust displacement and fold vergence errors.
• Correction of errors in the legend.
• Harmonization of the description of the epigraphs of the Quaternary geological units.
• Incorporation of the cartography of part of the territory of Aragon extracted from the geological maps published by the Instituto Geológico y Minero de España.
• Updating of the major tectonic structures based on the Structural Map of Catalonia scale 1:250,000, published by the Instituto Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya in 2014.
• Differentiation, based on recent publications, of the Neogene units that crop out to the west of Cinca River.
• Update of the ages of the geological units according to the Chronostratigraphic Table of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (v2024/12).

The details with the descriptions of the different elements of this map (geological units, contacts, etc.) are found as attributes in the vector formats and can also be found through the Geoindex viewer of geological cartography by clicking on each element.

Imatge

Geoinformation from the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia subject to a Creative Commons International Recognition 4.0 license  More information

Main technical features

The geological information was compiled using the cartographic database available at the time of its creation.

The information on the 1:50,000 geological map is organized into four groupings of geological objects: contacts, folds, faults, and geological units.

• Contacts
  The different types of contacts of sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic, and hydrothermal origin are represented. They are represented by lines corresponding to the intersection of the contact surfaces with the topography.
• Folds
  The outline of the axial surfaces of the different types of folds is represented on a macroscopic scale. They are represented by lines corresponding to the intersection of the axial surfaces of the folds with the topography.
• Faults
  The different types of faults and overlaps are represented on a macroscopic scale. They are represented by lines corresponding to the intersection of the fault surfaces and overlaps with the topography.
• Geological units
  These are three-dimensional bodies that correspond to volumes of rock characterized by lithology and geological age. Geological units are limited by different types of geological contacts, by faults or by overlaps. Each lithological unit is assigned its own distinctive title. The acronyms of the title indicate, in most cases, the age and main lithology of the unit. They are represented by polygons that correspond to the intersection of 3D bodies of the geological units with the topographic surface.

Legend of the Regional geologic map 1:50,000 [April 2025, Catalan]

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