Sirente Massif

This Mountain, located in the central eastern portion of the Park, has the shape of a slope long about twenty kilometers oriented NO / SE from Rovere (1,413m) to Forca Caruso Pass (1,107m), and is characterized by the sequence of various peaks as hill of Mandra Murata (1,949m), Macerola Peak (2,258m), Mt. Sirente (2,348m) the highest peak, Mt. Canale (2,207m), Mt. St. Nicola (2,012m). The Celano Gorges and Arano Valley separate the less ridge of the Celano Sierra from the major one of Sirente.

Seen as a whole, the Sirente presents a divergence on its sides. The one exposed to SO has gentleness and slightly wavy with discontinuous rocky emergencies and degrades to the Fucino Plain. The NE side is of rocky nature with steep inconsistent faces, full of deep incisions; many of these, such as the Maiori canyon and Lupara Valley, have been determined by the last pleistocenica ice glaciation that interested the Velino, and the Sirente but marginally.

The geological nature of Sirente massif does not differ from that of Velino. In NE side emerge the Cretaceous organogenic limestones which were subsequently shaped in part by quaternary glacialism. The SO side sweet and grassy, exposes marble-calcareous formations. Spread throughout the massif the karst phenomenon that occur with traditional epigeous forms as dolines, karrens, poljes (for example, The Pezza Plains) and with those hypogeal as caves, meatus, swallow-holes.