Monts du Limousin
| Monts du Limousin | |
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 Location map with the Monts du Limousin and the Monts de la Marche |
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 The Plateau de Millevaches with Mont Bessou in the background (with transmitter mast), at 976 meters the highest point in the Monts du Limousin |
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| Highest peak | Mont Bessou ( 976 m ) |
| location | Charente , Correze , Creuse , Dordogne and Haute-Vienne (central France ) |
| part of | Massif Central |
| Coordinates | 45 ° 34 ' N , 2 ° 7' E |
| rock | Mica schist, gneiss, amphibolite, serpentinite and granite |
| Age of the rock | 380 to 300 million years |
The Monts du Limousin do not form a single homogeneous mountain massif, but are built up from several, geographically and geologically similar partial massifs, which connect to each other through a series of valleys and plateaus. You are in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region or in the now historic province of the former Limousin , France .
geography
Map with all coordinates of the The Monts du Limousin are made up of the following partial massifs:
- the Monts de Châlus 45 ° 35 ′ 40 ″ N, 1 ° 3 ′ 8 ″ E
(including the heights of the Périgord vert ) - the Monts de Fayat 45 ° 35 ′ 25 ″ N, 1 ° 21 ′ 5 ″ E
- the massif of Mont Gargan 45 ° 37 ′ 12 ″ N, 1 ° 38 ′ 53 ″ E
- the Massif des Monédières 45 ° 28 ′ 17 ″ N, 1 ° 50 ′ 32 ″ E
- the Plateau de Millevaches 45 ° 47 ′ 7 "N, 1 ° 59 ′ 42" E
The Monts de Fayat are embedded in the plateau area of the Limousin ( Plateau du Limousin ), which takes up half of the Haute-Vienne department and a quarter of the north-western Corrèze department. The Plateau de Millevaches takes up a third of the Monts du Limousin. However, it is not a perfect plateau, but rather is composed of a tangled mess of valleys and hills.
The small Massif de l'Arbre in the Charente department forms the extension of the Limousin plateau and the Monts de Châlus to the west. It is therefore geographically still included in the Monts du Limousin.
The Monts du Limousin are separated from the Monts de la Marche in the north by the Vienne valley. The agglomeration of Limoges is therefore halfway between the two massifs.
In terms of landscape , the Monts du Limousin is followed by the Angoumois in the west, the Bas-Périgord (with Périgord Blanc et Périgord Noir), the Brive basin , the Causse Corrèzien , the Dordogne valley in the south and the Monts du Cantal further to the east , the Monts Dore , the Combraille and - if the Plateau de Millevaches is included - the Plateau de la Courtine .
geology
The geological underground of the Monts du Limousin is completely crystalline and consists of the Variscan basement of the Massif Central . Upcoming are mica slate , gneiss , amphibolite , serpentinite and granite . The structural setup is quite complex, as we are in the Ligéro-Arvernian zone and thus in the heart of the Variscan orogen with very high degrees of metamorphosis .
The Monts du Limousin have two parautochthonous bulges, the Saint-Mathieu-Dom on the western edge and the Plateau des Millevaches in the east. In the saddle in between, there are two gneiss covers - the lower gneiss cover and the upper gneiss cover . The lower gneiss cover was pushed westward onto the Saint-Mathieu-Dom and in turn was run over by the upper gneiss cover. Both gneiss blankets are geologically very similar and consist mainly of eye gneiss , paragneiss and various leptynites . The upper gneiss cover also contains a very significant ophiolite horizon - remnants of the former subducted Limousin Ocean . Serpentinites ( Merlis serpentinites ) have also shed in the base of the lower gneiss cover, but they are much less significant than the occurrences in the upper gneiss cover.
The thrust tectonics in this area of the Massif Central came to an end as a result of the collision of Armorica with Laurussia's sheared fragments 380 to 360 million years ago in the Upper Devonian , but then settled in the south of the Massif Central until the final collision with Gondwana around 300 million years ago further on.
Various granite types - mainly Leukogranite , but also kalkalkalische monzonite and granodiorite - then invaded by 300 million years ago, toward the end of the Upper Carboniferous one both in the Parautochthon as well as in the gneiss ceiling, especially the parautochthonen mica schist of the two dome structures were heavily granitisiert. The northern plateau of the Millevache consists of around 90 percent granitoids.
See also
literature
- Bernard Briand and others: Châlus . In: Carte géologique de la France at 1/50 000 . tape XIX-32 . BRGM.