cercoop.org

Karstwater — rain falling on limestone,
and everything that follows from it.

01

Reculées

Blind valleys cut backwards into the plateau edge: a spring at the closed end, scree under the walls, and a cliff line that retreats collapse by collapse. Five guides on the landform and its parts.

Start here

Limestone cliffs and rocky spires rise from a forested valley surrounded by green farmland
Out at the spring

A valley that cuts backwards

A reculée is a blind valley walled on three sides. It did not erode downstream from a river — it ate backwards into the plateau from a spring, undermining the cliff above until it collapsed, over and over.

READ →

Everything in Reculées

  • 1.1

    A valley that cuts backwards

    A reculée is a blind valley walled on three sides. It did not erode downstream from a river — it ate backwards into the plateau from a spring, undermining the cliff above until it collapsed, over and over.

    Out at the spring
  • 1.2

    The cirque head

    The closed end, where the spring is and the collapse happens.

    Out at the spring
  • 1.3

    Scree and retreat

    The rubble apron that records how fast the wall is going back.

    Out at the spring
  • 1.4

    Dry valleys

    Watercourses on the plateau with no water in them, and where it went.

    Onto the plateau
  • 1.5

    The plateau edge

    A hard line on the map that is a hard line on the ground.

    Onto the plateau
hero reculee
Walls on three sides and one way out: the floor runs to the plain while the head stays shut.

Elsewhere in the survey