French Version
On a metropolitan territory of 550,000 km² (341,754 miles) to which we are adding her overseas territories, France holds a remarkable geological heritage because of its richness and diversity.
Firstly the big types of geological structures that are well represented: mountain ranges, ancient massifs (the Armorican massif, the Ardennes, Massif Central) and the recent pleated mountain ranges (Alps and the Pyrennees); the big sedimentary sets (the Paris Basin, the South-East Basin and the Aquitaine Basin); drainage ditches (Alsace, Limagne). A handful of accounts of geological times are spread over a period going from 2.5 billion years to the recent times. Geological phenomenon like current volcanism and ancient one, metamorphism, erosion, the transportation and the deposit of sediments are well manifested in France and its overseas territories. All types of rocks are present: the deep rocks, the volcanic rocks, the metamorphic ones, the sedimentary ones. A number of world references are defined: the types of rocks (lithotypes) and minerals, type of fossils; reference sections (stratotypes)… As such as France has more than 40 stratotypes. The great richness of its paleontological and mineralogical deposits should be highlighted
Moreover, along with this in situ heritage, the collection of the National Museum of Natural History (Muséum National d’Hisoire Naturelle; MNHN), universities and different museums hold millions of geological objects (rocks, minerals, fossils, drilling core samples…) just as the documentation, which is linked to them.
In total, thousands of geological sites and objects from the whole of France that allow reconstituting a more than 2 billion years old geological history are listed.
