An Overview of the Current Research Carried Out in the French Western Alps Karsts

Abstract

Current research encloses karst systems geomorphologic approach, recent advances in study of karst structures which date back from the Upper Miocene. Karst genesis in Western Alps is brought up by systemic analysis, according to a geomorphologic approach. It uses the “karst immunity” that conserves old drainage structures and their associated sediments. Karst landscapes can be sorted into horizontal and vertical forms. Speleothems are clearly connected to the presence of vegetation but they also record geomorphic crisis. Clastic sediments reveal mechanical erosion. This approach concludes with karst genesis and speleogenesis reconstruction, which blend together evolution stages, environment characterization and processes. Researchers reconsider the preponderant part previously attributed to glaciers. Karst appears immediately when a gradient exists and when the aquifer is stripped of its impervious cover. Such conditions occurred from the Upper Miocene and sometimes before. Karsts of the Pleistocene age are only met in the Inner Alps where cover stripping occurred later. Vertical sys- tems composed of shaft series are old and become more complex. Field evidence refutes FORDʼs classification, which assigns a deep phreatic origin. A brief account of the present state of knowledge, according to region and researcherʼs scientific themes, allows establishing the last decadeʼs advances. It also shows a disparity between the North and the South Western Alps, where Vercors appears to be one of the best studied massifs in the Alps.