Massif Central

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Location of the Massif Central in France

Monts Dore

The Massif Central (French Massif central, central Massís Occitan ) is a mountain in the middle of southern France, which occupies an area of 85,000 km ² about 15 % of the country. It takes its name from its central location in the south of France. With an average altitude of 700 meters and a maximum height of 1885 meters of the Monts Dore, it is higher than the Central German Uplands.

In the literature, the geographic definition of the Massif Central is not uniform, variously even the volcanic area is called so. In geology, the definition extends to the Variscan basement. Geomorphological the border is relatively clear to the surrounding landscapes in the east and south, if you count the mountain range of the Cevennes, as the terrain rises abruptly to these. As the northernmost foothills of the Beaujolais valid until shortly before Mâcon, the southernmost point is the Montagne Noire on the border of the Aude department - both culminate after all, still in over 1000 meters altitude. To the north and west of the junction is flowing, the relief treppt from there in several stages. Limousin, Marche and Bourbonnais called the landscapes in which the massif is bordered by the Kalkflächen and alluvial plains, which are grouped like a crescent around the mountain ranges, of which the Millevaches Plateau, also with almost 1000 meters above sea level is the westernmost high level. In this article, the area is designated within these boundaries as the Massif Central.

The Massif Central is by no means a geographical unit, but can be subdivided on the basis of differences in climate and soil conditions in several highly differentiated regions. It should be run would be here the Auvergne, the land of volcanoes, the high, rugged Cevennes, the barren but already Mediterranean calcareous plateaus, Causses called, and finally, so far south that it is no longer common to one, the mountainous part of the Languedoc- Roussillon. As different as the natural factors provide dar. also history, culture and economy of the massif

Geographical Location

The Massif Central is located west of the Rhone and is roughly bordered by the cities of Limoges, Clermont- Ferrand, Lyon, Nimes, Beziers, Toulouse, Cahors, and Périgueux Angoulême; thus the massif extends to the regions Rhône -Alpes, Auvergne, Limousin, Aquitaine, Midi -Pyrénées and Languedoc- Roussillon. It includes where all or part of the departments of

• Rhone- Alpes: Ardèche, Loire and Rhône,
• Auvergne Allier, Cantal, Haute -Loire and Puy -de- Dôme,
• Limousin: the Corrèze, Creuse and Haute- Vienne,
• Aquitaine: Dordogne ( partial),
• Midi -Pyrenees: Aveyron, Lot ( partial) and Tarn,
• Languedoc -Roussillon: Gard, Hérault and Lozère.

The largest cities are located in the massif of Saint- Étienne, Clermont- Ferrand and Limoges. It is regularly used several stages of the Tour de France. A well-known wine from this area is the Beaujolais.

Geology of the Massif Central

The earliest geological traces can be dated to about 550 million years. In this time of the Cambrian Massif Central seems to have belonged to a large emerging system that separated two seas from each other. It is here detritus obtained partially penetrated by granitic intrusions. In the Ordovician, in the period from about 500-400 million years ago, a trench lowered and broadened into a wide ocean in which especially rich deposits of argillaceous sediments were deposited deep sea. Prior to 400 million years ago, at the dawn of Silurian to Devonian, Gondwana itself pushed back against Central Europe. The ocean floor was subducted for the most part and partial sediment blankets were also shipped. Thus, a huge fold mountain that Variscan Mountains rose. It went on for the entire ( today ) the eastern edge of North America, which was then limited to Europe, across Central to Eastern Europe, and was probably much more powerful than today's Alps. Sediments were transported to great depths and metamorphosed. Magma ascended to the subduction zone.

Once rose the Variscan mountains, it started already, to erode. Mighty layers of debris were deposited in the foreland, which transformed the rivers meandering in a swamp. This took place in the Carboniferous. It originated in this swamp -wide carbon lush forests. In these regions to coal layers were formed.

With the alpidischen folding in the Tertiary occurred a second survey of the terrain on: The collision of the African and Eurasian plates led to the seabed on which limestone had formed of several hundred meters thick, was together with the granite base pushed upward again. This limestone plateau forming the present Causses, the geologically younger regions of the Massif Central. These are mainly originated in the Mesozoic era - especially in the Jurassic period - and rise from the northwest to the southeast by jagged: while they reach only about 200 meters altitude in the Périgord and the Quercy and thus not to the actual Massif Central, they are in the Lozere department over 1000 meters high. Several rivers, especially the Tarn have dug canyons of enormous depth between them.

Along a road collapse in the north, the Limagne, occurred in late Tertiary lava again to light. This now extinct volcanoes form a mighty chain steep basalt formation west of Clermont- Ferrand, called the Chaîne des Puys. The best known volcano is the Puy de Dôme, which gave the department the name.

Relief and part Mountains

The Northwest between Limoges and Clermont- Ferrand is first determined by the gradually rising terrain of the skin -Limousin, which culminates on the Plateau de Millevaches in Mont Bessou ( 977 m). This leads to the Auvergne connects, the most important surveys the Chaîne des Puys with the Puy de Dôme ( 1465 m), the massif of Mont Dore with the Puy de Sancy ( 1886 m, highest point of the Massif Central ) and the Cantal with the Plomb du Cantal ( 1,858 m). To the east of Clermont- Ferrand sits down the Auvergne continued: In the north, the Montagne de la Madeleine ( 1,292 m ), followed by the Monts du Forez ( 1,634 m) and Mount countries livradois and Velay. The eastern edge is formed from north to south from the Beaujolais, the Lyonnais and the Vivarais (up to 1,754 m), which are followed by the Cevennes. These culminate in the Mont Lozère, with 1,702 meters, the highest non- volcanic mountain in the Massif Central. To the west lie the Causses, the highest elevation on the Causse Mejean is as high as 1,250 m. The Rouergue, the Albi, the Monts de Lacaune, the Monts de l' Espinouse and the Montagne Noire form the southernmost part, which rises more than 1,200 feet up.

Highest mountains

In the Massif Central mountains over 1,500 m:

Traffic

The Massif Central is being developed through the Cevennenbahn.

Climate

The Massif Central is for the most part in the temperate zone, only the southern edge is already attributed to subtropical Mediterranean climate zone expression. The climate manifests itself in two zones as the particular variant of the higher layers, ie there is a total of cooler and wetter than the standard climate. The temperatures decrease in the tendency with altitude and north exposure, whereas the rainfall with altitude and West exposure increase. Due to the varied relief, there are many small-scale climates, particularly where terrain reductions or river valleys protected locations have created.

Cold pole in the Massif Central are therefore the highest points in the massifs of Mont Dore and Cantal and the Millevaches Plateau due to its exposed north-west. Heat islands are the Limagne with Clermont- Ferrand Riom and Montlucon in the north, the basin of Brive in the southwest and the eastern and southern flanks of the mountain range, which merge into the Rhone Valley and the Languedoc.

Accordingly, transition temperature and precipitation provide during the year is:

• Limoges is located on the northwestern edge of the massif to almost 400 meters in height and has a more maritime climate with embossed abundant, concentrated in the winter half-year rainfall and low annual amplitude. Average temperature: 11.8 ° C
• Maximum temperature: 19.8 ° C in August
• Minimum Temperature: 5.2 ° C in January
• Maximum rainfall: late autumn

• Average temperature: 12.3 ° C
• Maximum temperature: 20.8 ° C in August
• Minimum Temperature: 4.6 ° C in January
• Maximum rainfall: Spring / Summer

• Average Temperature: 9.1 ° C
• Maximum temperature: 17.6 ° C in August
• Minimum Temperature: 1.6 ° C in January
• Maximum rainfall: summer half-year

All data refer to the average values ​​of the period 1997-2002.