English: The Pla de Coma Armada (or Ermada) and other high plateaus in the south-eastern sector of the commune of Mantet, Pyrénées-Orientales, France.

View to the east from the Pic de la Dona (2702 metres). The distinct, pyramid-shaped peak in the distance is Costabonne (2467 metres). The slopes in the foreground, and the plateaus in the middle distance, are underlain by gneiss; the plateaus beyond (towards Costabonne) are underlain by granite. Both are of Palaeozoic age. The plateaus are mostly covered by sandy, friable alterite, derived from weathering over a long period during the pre-Quaternary Neogene of the underlying gneiss or granite. This superficial cover is up to 50 metres thick in places. Although the plateaus have subsequently been dissected by deep, glaciated valleys, such as the Alemany and Ressec, and although they end abruptly to the south in deep, cirque-like hollows of glacial origin (in Catalonia, Spain), the snow and ice fields which must have covered the plateaus for long periods during the Quaternary seem simply to have conserved the pre-existing topography and its alterite cover.

B. Laumonier et al., "Notice explicative de la feuille Prats-de-Mollo-La-preste (1099) à 1/50 000", BRGM Éditions, Orléans, 2015, page 62. Online at: http://ficheinfoterre.brgm.fr/Notices/1099N.pdf.