Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 4

Paris Basin (geology)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The Paris Basin is one of the major geological regions of France having developed since the
Triassic on a basement formed by the Variscan orogeny. The sedimentary basin is a large sag in
the craton, bordered by the Armorican Massif to the west, the Ardennes-Brabant axis to the
north, the Massif des Vosges to the east, and the Massif Central to the south.[1]:252

Contents

1 Extent
2 Geography
3 Structure
4 Oil Fields
5 See also
6 References

Extent
The region usually regarded as the Paris Basin is rather smaller than the area formed by the
geological structure. The former occupies the centre of the northern half of the country,
excluding Eastern France. The latter extends from the hills just south of Calais to Poitiers and
from Caen to the brink of the middle Rhine Valley, east of Saarbrcken.

Geography
The countryside is one of plains and plateaux of limited altitude. In the south-east and east the
plain of Champagne and the Seuil de Bourgogne (Threshold of Burgundy) differential erosion of
the strata has left low scarps with the dip slopes towards the centre. The varying nature of the
clays, limestones and chalk gives rise to the characteristics of the regions such as Champagne
Humide (Damp Champagne), Champagne Pouilleuse (poor Champagne),[2] the Pays de Caux
and the Pays de Bray. Map missing

Structure
The Paris Basin is a geological basin of sedimentary rocks. It overlies geological strata disturbed
by the Variscan orogeny and forms a broad shallow bowl in which successive marine deposits
from throughout periods from the Triassic to the Pliocene were laid down, their extent generally
diminishing with time. Based on his analysis of fossils he recognized in the Paris Basin strata
during the 1820s and 30s, the pioneering geologist Charles Lyell divided the Tertiary into three
ages he named the Pliocene, the Miocene and the Eocene. .

To the west, the strata folded by the Variscan rise from below the more recent marine deposits in
the hills of Brittany and, to the east, the Ardennes, Hunsrck and Vosges. To the south, it borders
on the Massif Central and the Morvan. To the north, its strata link into those of the bed of the
English Channel and south-eastern England. Other boundaries lie on ridges in more recent
deposits and scarps such as the Cte d'Or (on an Alpine fault line) and the Hills of Artois which
overlie the margin of London-Brabant Massif.

Oil Fields
Two large oil fields are located in the basin, one is the Chaunoy Field, the other is the
Villeperdue Field, discovered in 1982.[1]:254 The Villeperdue produces from a Middle Jurassic
oolitic limestone 1850 m deep.[1]:251

See also

Geologic time scale


List of fossil sites (with link directory)

References
1. Duval, B.C., 1992, Villeperdue Field, In Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade, 19781988, AAPG Memoir 54, Halbouty, M.T., editor, Tulsa: American Association of
Petroleum Geologists, ISBN0891813330
2. Pouilleuse means 'lousy' that is, 'infested with lice' but its meaning has broadened in use
to include 'down and out'. This is a region of thin, chalk soils and little surface water. The
epithet indicates the extreme poverty of the region when the name was acquired.

Anon. Carte Gologique de la France l'chelle du Millionime ISBN 2-7159-2158-6


Dercourt, J. (2002). Gologie et Godynamique de la France (3rd ed.). ISBN 2-10006459-2.

Categories:

Sedimentary basins of Europe


Drainage basins of France
Geology of France

Navigation menu

Create account
Log in

Article
Talk

Read
Edit
View history

Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikimedia Shop

Interaction

Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page

Tools

What links here


Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page

Print/export

Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version

Languages

Afrikaans


Brezhoneg
Catal
etina
Deutsch

Espaol
Euskara
Franais
Galego

Italiano

Lietuvi
Magyar
Nederlands

Polski

/ srpski
Trke

Edit links

This page was last modified on 10 December 2014 at 15:43.


Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy
Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization.

Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view

Вам также может понравиться