The Infiltration of Water Below Ground and the Concept of an Aquifer - Hydrogeology: Objectives, Methods, Applications - page 38

Figure 16 Principal aquifers of the Paris Basin (from the Seine-Normandie Water Agency).
4.3 Alpine and mediterranean ranges (Pyrénées, Languedoc,
Provence, Alps, Jura)
The epicontinental basins, which preceded orogeny, included carbonate
platforms. The defi ning characteristic of the external zones of the French
Alps is their carbonate backbone, interlayered with marl, with limestone
alternating with marl layers. Often having been subjected, since the
Cretaceous or the Paleogene, to meteoric alteration, these carbonates have
been karstifi ed and are home to karst phenomena famous in the French
alpine domains: the Pierre-Saint-Martin and Fontestorbes (Pyrénées), the
Vercors, the Chartreuse, or the Monts du Vaucluse (Alps).
4.4 Piedmonts of the alpine ranges
The Mediterraneo-Alpine mountains are generally bordered by depressions
within which outcrop porous Neogene and Quaternary formations (Miocene
molasse, Plio-Quaternary marl and sand). These porous aquifers are
recharged, often through unknown paths, by the nearby reliefs, where the