Itinerary 2. The Roussillon Basin
Résumé
IItinerary 2 focuses on the Neogene evolution of the Roussillon extensional basin. The litho- and chronostratigraphy of its most characteristic outcrops are examined successively along the southern, western and northern boundaries of the basin. Each site visited documents key successions of fault movements, continental clastic influx, marine sedimentation, or landscape change in the surrounding uplands as a result of widespread extensional tectonics in the Western Mediterranean. Special emphasis is given to the biochronology of sedimentation provided by continental mammalian fossil assemblages in the limestone karst, to neotectonics and erosion in the Albères massif, and to the chronology of Quaternary alluvial terraces across the Roussillon Plain. At Perpignan, the Natural History Museum hosts a display of Pliocene vertebrate fossils from the region, although the majority of specimens are kept by the Natural History Museum in Paris and at the university of Lyon.