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1 IFP School/Geology-Geochemistry Division, Institut Français du Pétrole, 228-232, avenue Napoléon Bonaparte, 92852 Rueil Malmaison Cedex, Francephilippe.joseph{at}ifp.fr
2 Baker Atlas GeoScience, Stoneywood Park North, Aberdeen AB21 7EA, UKsimon.lomas{at}bakeratlas.com
The Grès d’Annot and geologists, a long-term love affair!
For over 150 years, the fascinating outcrops of the Grès d’Annot Formation of SE France have attracted the interest of many geologists, from different countries and from academic as well as industrial spheres. As relates in this volume, the initial interest was stratigraphic (identification of contemporaneous formations corresponding to continental to marine settings) and structural: the recognition of large displacements of Alpine nappes led to new concepts of mountain formation. Concerning the sedimentology of deep marine deposits, major advances were made in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the progressive emergence of the turbidite concept and its recognition in the field (Faure-Muret et al. 1956; Kuenen et al. 1957; Bouma 1962; Lanteaume et al. 1967), and the development of the first submarine canyon/fan valley model (Stanley 1961). From that time onwards the Grès d’Annot outcrops were used as a training area in the field, with the organization of numerous meetings and field courses (for example Beaudoin et al. 1975; Stanley 1975). Renewal of this research activity was stimulated in the 1980s by the upsurge of intensive exploration on continental margins and the emergence of seismic stratigraphy; the Grès d’Annot were studied in order to help seismic interpretation and, at the same time, complementary flume experiments of submarine avalanches were developed for better understanding of turbidity current processes (Laval et al. 1988). The critical field studies in the 1980s led to the first comprehensive palaeogeographic scheme for the Grès d’Annot basin
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