Meseta

The Meseta power station is a high-plate located at the center of the Iberian peninsula. Surrounded by various assembly lines which separate it from the remainder of the Spain, it determines of good part morphology of the country of which it occupies about half of the surface.

Geological formation

Meseta power station is the oldest unit of relief of the Iberian peninsula, of which it occupies most of the surface. Its origin goes back to the solid mass hesperic, made up at the time of the Cycle hercynien with the Paléozoïque. This solid mass was levelled by erosion with the Mesozoic , and became a Pénéplaine which constitutes the base of current the Meseta . This one was faded with the tertiary era by the orogenetic movement alpine and the erosion and the Sédimentation of the Quaternaire.

To the tertiary era, alpine orogeny assigned the old Solid mass hesperic, by deteriorating its edges, and by causing the appearance of the Galician Solid mass, the Mountains of León and the Basque Montagnes, as well as the Plissement of its edges: the Cantabric Cordillera in north, the Iberian System in the North-East and the Sierra Morena in the south. This orogenesis produced the shock of the African Plaque against the Eurasian Plaque, which resulted in to compress in the center the remainders of the solid mass hesperic, and, therefore, the fracture of the base which then saw emerging the Mounts of Tolède and the Central Système. In addition, the remainders of the solid mass rocked towards the west, and were subjected later to a process of sedimentation, more obvious in the east.

The end result of these geological processes is a plate of an average altitude of 600 meters. Nevertheless, the average altitude of northern Submeseta ( Submeseta norte ), in the north of the central System, is more important than that of southern Submeseta ( Submeseta on ). The process of sedimentation is more advanced on the Eastern side of Meseta; the original materials hard and crystalline of the Solid mass hesperic are more visible on the Western side.

Central design of Meseta seen as a separate high-plate of the remainder of the peninsula and located at the center of the latter is relatively recent and goes back to the 19th century. It is Alexander von Humboldt which evoked for the first time the existence of this central unit of relief of Spain.

Geography

Meseta includes a space of approximately: 210000 km ², which represents about half of the surface of the Spain, which extends on: 504782 km ².

It is surrounded by various solid masses, which isolate it from the remainder of the peninsula. It is thus bordered in the North-East by the Iberian Système, which separates it from the Catalogne, of the Aragon, the Navarre and the Pays Basque; in the North-West by the Cantabric Cordillera, which detaches it from the Asturies, of the Cantabrie and the Galicia; in the south by the Sierra Morena which isolates it from the Andalusia.

It itself is crossed by two assembly lines. The central System, of an average altitude of: 1200 meters traverses it of west in is and delimits the Submeseta norte and the southern Submeseta (mainly occupied by the Mancha ), two clean subsets with the characteristic. This system itself is composed of two minor chains: the Sierra of Gredos in the west and the Sierra of Guadarrama in the west. The Mountains of Tolède extend for their part in the south from the city which gave them their name, and reach their maximum altitude with the Peak of Villuerca Alta, with 1603 meters.

Meseta is sprinkled by several rivers of importance: the Tage, the Duero and the Guadiana, which supported the development of agriculture and the breeding (in particular ovine, with the Mesta , powerful corporation of the stockbreeders transhumants, born with the Moyen-âge), in an area with the very continental climate.

History

The Meseta constitutes the natural territory on which the kingdoms of Castille and León developed with the Moyen-âge, starting from their septentrional bases of the Asturies and of Cantabrie. Meseta is, with the développemet of the Reconquest, become the fundamental core of these two kingdoms. A first phase of extension their made it possible to be established between the Cantabric system and Duero. As of the 11th century and the collapse of the capacity califal, the line of Duero is crossed: the totality of the northern Submeseta passes under Christian control. This area in the south of Duero will be henceforth known under the name of Extrémadure ( extrema duerii > beyond Duero ). The projection of the troops of Alphonse VI of Castille, allows as of 1085 to cross the central System in the east and to consider an installation in the southern Submeseta , around Tolède and of its kingdom. Lastly, it fine of the 12th century is favourable with the continuation of the Christian offensives on Al Andalus. The Western part of the central System yields little by little: this extension of Extrémadure towards the southern Submeseta is called the Transierra . It is however with this only space around Cáceres, Mérida and Badajoz which one refers since the modern time by evoking Extrémadure. Arrived at the southernmost borders of Meseta, the troops castellano-léonaises of Ferdinand III cross the Morena Sierra in the years 1220 and undertake the conquest of the Andalusia.

After centuries of shifts in population and troops, fights between Christians and Moslems, between Castilians, Léonais and Portuguese, Meseta are today distributed into four autonomous communities Spanish:

community of Castille and León on northern Submeseta,
communities of Castille it Sleeve and Extrémadure on southern Submeseta,
the the Community of Madrid in the center, between the Sierra of Guadarrama to north (north-Eastern subset of the central System) and the Mounts of Tolède in the south.

Source

See too

Geography of Spain

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