Article from the February 2005 issue of
Major type section location threatened by industrial development
The Southern French Alps are well known by geologists because of both the quality of the observations that can be made in the field and their historical value. Several geological stages originate from Southern France, including the Aptian, Albian, Berriasian, Bedoulian, Gargasian, Urgonian,…and Barremian.
120,000 tonnes a year of incinerated domestic waste ashes, for at least the next 25 years. This project was submitted last November to the “Prefecture” of the "département des Alpes de Haute Provence", and is now being studied by various departments of the French state. The Prefect will have to accept or reject this project sometime during
The region of the pretty village of Barrême, located in the "Alpes de Haute Provence", where the stratotype of Barremian was described for the first time, is threatened by companies who are planning to build an industrial plant to treat and bury some the coming months.. These waste ashes are planned to be transported 120 km from the French Riviera by the famous and charming “Train des Pignes” (characterized by its unusual metre gauge railway).
The region of Barrême, located at the intersection of the three Asse rivers, is visited all through the year by hundreds of geologists and students in geology from Europe and around the world. In a pretty, natural landscape still very well preserved from industrial development, geologists and interested tourists can observe a series of strongly folded Triassic to Miocene sediments. A spectacular example of a Tertiary syncline, the axis of which corresponds to the Clumanc Valley, discordant on the Cretaceous and Jurassic sedimentary series, may be clearly observed in the landscape.
This site is part of the Geological Reserve of Haute Provence, the largest geological reserve in Europe, itself part of the European Geoparks (Programme Leader IIc) and supported by UNESCO. Just in front of the industrial plant project is located one famous and protected geological site, where beautiful and rare examples of Teredotournali tubes and lignified fossiliferous wood can be observed in Lower Oligocene marls.
The Barremian stage consists of alternate levels of micritic limestones and pelagic marls containing a rich and peculiar fauna of ammonites. Many of them are uncoiled ammonites (heteromorphic) that constitute a specific group in the Barremian for which the evolutive shapes are currently under investigation. For some of them, the shell diverges from classical coiling often presenting unusual morphologies which have attracted the attention of naturalists and paleontologists for a long time. Many types of ammonite species have been found in the Barrême region. The Barremian microfauna consists of benthic and pelagic foraminiferas, some ostracodes and abundant nanofossils.
Today, the Barremian stratotype is located at Angles, about 20 km to the south of Barrême, and several other Barremian sections of the Barrême area are also studied by paleontologists.
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A local association named "Association pour le Protection de l’Environnement des Hautes Vallées de l’Asse" (APEHVA) is struggling against this project. They have created an internet site : http://machefers.free.fr. They have produced a very detailed geological map of the area concerned and have shown that the geological formations (folded and faulted Oligocene conglomerates, sandstones and marls) in which the industrial plant is projected, do not offer waterproof guarantees for this kind of storage. Indeed, the incinerated domestic waste ashes contain heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Hg, As…) that will certainly contaminate the still pure water of the Asse river, located some ten meters below the industrial plant.
The site of Barrême constitutes a well preserved geological “sanctuary” of the world which must absolutely be protected.
The association is starting an international petition for geologists, which can be requested by email to dubar@cepam.cnrs.fr
Isa Adams
Newsletter Editor’s note: the ‘Train des Pignes’ that Isa mentions is a beautiful metre gauge railway linking the spa town of Digne-les-Bains in the Alpes Maritime to Nice. The line is now owned and run by CFTA, a subsidiary of Vivendi Environment, part of the Vivendi Universal media group and the same company that will be running the domestic waste treatment plant that threatens the village of Barrême.
Try a web search for ‘The Tertiary Barrême basin, Alpes-de-Haute- Provence, France’ by Evans and Elliott for more information on why this geological province is worth preserving
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Last modified on Monday, May 09, 2005 at 20:44
