The cardona salt mountain is a diapir that grows every year, occupying a depression in the ground in the shape of an elongated ellipse with an extension of land 1,800 m long by 600 d width and a surface of 100 ha, with natural characteristics that have made it deserving of being included in the Areas of Natural Interest Plan (PEIN). The Salt Mountain forms a hill at the foot of the Garrigues mountain range and to the right of the Cardener, south of the urban center of Cardona. The hill is drained by the Salat torrent that leads to the Salina or Salada valley that joins the Cardener in the Coromina. They are low reliefs but with a very unique geomorphology with deep incisions as a result of the peculiar form of erosion linked to the dissolution processes presented by the salts.

The outcrops of salt are located within this depression, and for this reason it was formerly known as el Salí, and is currently known as Vall Salina. There are mainly three types of saline minerals:

• Halita o sal gemma (NaCl)
• Silvina (KCl)
• Carnal·lite (KMgCl3 · 6H2O)

Its constitution makes it extremely fragile and susceptible to modified by any anthropic action. In addition, the set of geological formations of the Salada valley, with erosive processes that act on the unique saline outcrops, constitute a morphological unit of great landscape value, to which is added the high socio-cultural interest, which links it to the 'evolution and idiosyncrasy of the town of Cardona.