Verdon Gorge

The Verdon Gorge runs about 25 kilometers along the border between the Var and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence departments in southeastern France, cut as much as 700 meters deep, with widths ranging from 6 to 100 meters at river level and up to 1,500 meters across at the rim. It is carved through thick limestone laid down in the Triassic period and built up further by coral growth during the Jurassic, then uplifted in the Cretaceous before the Verdon River began scouring the rock in earnest, especially during the glacial periods of the Quaternary, when meltwater flows through the gorge have been estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 cubic meters per second at peak. That sustained river erosion through fractured limestone over millions of years produced the narrow, steep-walled gorge visible today. This entity documents Verdon Gorge specifically as a geological formation shaped by river erosion through marine limestone.