La cuenca carbonífera de Surroca-Ogassa (Ripollès, Cataluña, España). Historia económica, minera y geológica y catálogo de la flora carbonífera catalana del Museu de Ciències

Abstract

Traditionally known as Sant Joan de les Abadesses, the carboniferous basin of Surroca-Ogassa, in the Ripollès region of Girona, Catalonia, officially produced over one million metric tons of coal between 1860 and 1828. Although this is less than the quantities obtained from other mines in Spain over the same period, it is particularly relevant considering the difficulties that successive owners and concessionaires had in extracting the coal.

This monograph reconstructs the history of the discovery and exploitation of the mines, provides information about economic, industrial and social aspects, and examines their decline and final closure. It also sorts and discusses the geological and paleobotanic research conducted since the first studies by the French engineer Adrian Paillette in 1838. The Barcelona Natural Science Museum /Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona houses an extensive collection of carboniferous plants from the Surroca-Ogassa Basin and other parts of the Catalan Pyrenees, the result of donations, deposits and its own collections gathered over the last century. The collection is catalogued at the end of the book.

Julio Gómez­-Alba

BSc (Geology) Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Ph. D. (Geology) Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, founding member of the Spanish Society of Paleontology, Curator at the Barcelona Natural Science Museum, and Managing Editor for the scientific journal Treballs del Museu de Geologia de Barcelona since its inception in 1989.

A specialist in documentation of scientific heritage and the history of natural science, Dr. Gómez-Alba has published numerous articles, collaborated in the writing of dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and is the author of several books: Guía de campo de los fósiles de España y de Europa; Decàpodes fòssils d’Espanya (Decapoda, Cretaci-Plistocè) conservats al Museu de Geologia de Barcelona; Luís Mariano Vidal (1842-1922), also published in Catalan, and Catálogo razonado de los vertebrados fósiles de España del Museo de Geología de Barcelona (1882-1982).

As organiser, advisor and author he has participated in the creation of more than twenty scientific exhibitions since 1973.