Mount Lama

The surface jaspers of Monte Lama are stratiform flints, i.e stratified rocks almost entirely composed of biogenic silica, where the ferrous impurities (hematites) give them a characteristic dark red colour. Their mineralogical content explains the exceptional hard and compact nature of these rocks.
The origin of the silica is due to radiolarians, marine unicellular organisms with a siliceous shell. Today, for example, they are found in the equatorial waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
When they die, the radiolarians sink to the bottom of the sea and oxidise, and their shells dissolve. Only a small percentage of the radiolarians reach the ocean bottom and form part of the sediment.
Millions of years ago the Apennines too were under the sea and these sediments led to the creation of a series of rock strata called radiolarites or jaspers, which today give a characteristic colour and appearance to various mountains, including Monte Lama. Here it is not unusual to see quartzose mineralisations sparkling in the sunlight.
The mountain is covered in beech woods and, at the top, by alpine meadows where you can find various species of orchid, the most common being the Orchis Sambucina, either red or yellow.