Basturs Lakes

The Basturs Lakes are two lakes located n the northern foothills of “Mont de Conques” and close to the villages of Basturs and Sant Romà d'Abella, belonging to the municipality of Isona and Conca Dellà, in Pallars Jussà, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. The Basturs Lakes are catalogued as an Area of Natural Interest (PEIN) and are a prominent wetland area of karstic origin, along with the Lakes of Banyoles and the Estany de Montcortès. The Basturs Lakes complex covers an area of nearly 37 ha. It currently has two well-constituted circular lakes with conical basins, a large one surrounded by deciduous forest (Estany Gros), and a smaller one (Estany Xic), located northwest of the first and surrounded by crops. Both lakes are partly dried up due to the opening of drainage ditches. The lakes are fed by a source of groundwater, constant throughout the year. The vegetation that forms around the lakes, especially the “Estany Gros” is made up of reeds and rushes, and there is also a rich presence of aquatic plants, some of which are unique in Catalonia, like two species of algae. The poplars, or clops, complete the vegetation of the place, and give rise to an important presence of fauna, from dragonflies to frogs, and some varieties of birds and bats. A walking area around the two lakes, including a bird watching point, allows for a pleasant visit of the Lakes. The Basturs Lakes are part of the Isona Tufa Mound Complex developed within the Tremp Basin, an artesian structural basin that forms part of the south-central Pyrenean piggy-back thrust located in the Spanish Pyrenees. The Isona Tufa Mound Complex, located in the discharge zone of the confined artesian aquifer, is a unique geological formation in Europe including eleven subcircular depressions associated with tufa mounds and related to former groundwater outlets. These peculiar crater-like features consist of a central depression filled with lake deposits and enclosed by an annular more resistant tufaceous rimstone. The tufa complex developed in association with non-thermal artesian springs of calcium-bicarbonate-rich waters, perched above the local drainages. The elevation of both the base level of erosion and the gr

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