Rocks
A landscape of clays and sandstones
The wooded cliffs of the protected area contrast with the large areas below, gently meadows and ravines. The combination of such dissimilar hilly morphologies is linked to the peculiar geological structure of the Emilian Apennines, characterized by the contact between rocks with different degrees of erodibility.
The sandstones (cemented sands) that form the cliffs are more resistant to erosion than the clays (composed of granules the size of a powder): their coarse particles are firmly cemented together.
The layering of the strata along the slopes could occur for long stretches of support, as in the western walls of the Sassi di Roccamalatina, thus offering maximum resistance to erosive and landslide processes.
