The Basque Coast Geopark is a small area wedged in between the Bay of Biscay and the Basque mountains and comprising the municipalities of MUTRIKU, DEBA and ZUMAIA. At first sight, what makes the Geopark stand out is the harmony of the various tones of green of its meadows and forests that follow one after the other from the coastline and extend inland. But the true interest of this place is to be found in its bowels. Geology is the true protagonist of a landscape that preserves the history of some of the most dramatic episodes in the Earth’s recent history.
The 13 km of cliffs in the Geopark have a spectacular formation of rock layers known as Flysch deposits, which in the manner of a large encyclopaedia show us over 60 million years of the history of the Earth. Geologists and visitors can walk along these cliffs or go on a boat trip and sail across time to discover, for example, the thin black layer that indicates the impact of a giant asteroid and the wholesale extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 Ma ago.
