Study Area - Response of Flood Events to Land Use and Climate Change - page 116

Fig. 4.19 Geomorphology map of Barcelonnette Basin; Inside of red box shows the case study
(source [ 10 ])
steep convex slopes, regular planar slopes, and hummocky slopes all contribute to an
irregular relief:
• The steepest convex slopes ([35) are carved in the black marl outcrops and are
very often gullied in badlands or affected by rock-block slides or complex slides.
• Thick morainic deposits (between 10 and 20 m) make up the regular planar
slopes, which are often cultivated and affected by rotational and translational
slides.
• Forests and/or natural grasslands cover hummocky slopes [ 10 ].
Consequently, the main landforms are characterized by (a) large relict land-
slides in moraine; (b) badlands in black marls; (c) deep-seated mudslides in black
marls; and (d) shallow slumps or debris slides in the moraine or in the colluvial
cover. Glacial erosion activity has further contributed to carving out the landscape
[ 6 , 11 , 12 ].
The varied history of earth movements such as landslides, mudslides, and debris
flows in the Barcelonnette area results in features such as ''Terres Noires,'' a
predominantly marly dark formation [ 13 ]. With a very soft morphology due to the