Foto

October 15th, 2009
Gatuzières 480069 48150
Lozere Languedoc-Roussillon
44.198 3.488 824 m

In the Jonte river valley, Gatuzières

One sight.
Other sight.

The village of Gatuzières, on a buttress of CAUSSE MÉJEAN, in the JONTE river valley, not far from its source at the foot of MONT-AIGOUAL.

_La JONTE takes its source in the Massif of the Mont Aigoual, near the hameau of Cabrillac of the commune of Rousses, in the department of Lozère, and separates by splendid canyons, the Causse Méjean and Causse Noir, Lozère and Aveyron, after the village of Gatuzières. It is thrown in the Tarn at the village of "le Rozier", after 39 km of course. Jonte river becomes underground to 3 km downstream from Meyrueis, and arises 7 km further with resurgence of the Douze.

_Le CAUSSE MÉJEAN in the south of the Massif Central, of a surface of 330 km², is highest of GRANDS CAUSSES, its altitude varying from 800 m to 1247 m with the Mont Cargo, and is the third of four Grands Causses. It is surrounded of the impressive canyons of Jonte river in the south, Tarnon riverin the east and the Tarn riverin north and the west. The thickness of the layers of limestone of Jurassic, reached 650 m, and up to 1500 m per place.

_The GRANDS CAUSSES, in the south of the Massif Central, are delimited in north by the plateau of Aubrac, in the east by the Cévennes, the south by the plain of the lodévois, in the west by the plateau of Lévézou. These are plateaus limestones whose altitude varies from 700 to 1250 meters, and of surface going up to 1000 km².
The Grands Causses are formed by important causses of Larzac (1000 km²), of Sauveterre (550 km²), Méjean (330 km²), and Noir (200 km²), but also of the causses Comtal, Rouge and of Sévérac, and many small peripheral causses like causses of Mende, Blandas, Changefèges, Bégon, etc… No waterway circulates on the surface of the plateaus, because the rainwater infiltrates in the karstic, generating networks of many swallow-holes and caves, to re-appear in the valleys. A little geology of causses and the cévennes.

_The MONT AIGOUAL, located on the commune of Valleraugue, is a granitic solid mass, culminating point of Gard to 1567 m, and second culminating point of Lozère after the Mont Lozere 1702 m, is a south-eastern projection of the Massif Central. It is remarkable by its panorama, its climatology. In clear weather, one discovers on 300 km of ray, the Mediterranean, the Mont Lozere, the Mounts of the Cantal, the Pyrénées, the Alps, and the Grands causses and the surrounding Cévennes.
The watershed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean crosses the summit part. Several rivers take there their source of which Herault.

GATUZIÈRES is a french commune, located in the department of Lozère of the Languedoc-Roussillon area, populated of 55 Gatuziérois in 1999, distributed out of 30 km², that is to say 2 hab./km².

My images of Gatuzieres.