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Edouard-Alfred Martel
Édouard-Alfred Martel was born in Pontoise, in Seine-et-Oise on July 1, 1859. Child of a family of lawyers, he studied at the Lycée Condorcet in Paris. Very early on, he became passionate about geography and natural sciences and in 1877 he won the first prize for geography in the general competition. He is a great reader of the work of Jules Verne. After studying law, in 1888, he began his career as a speleologist in the Gard. He thus engages with some companions in a rocky cavity and emerges further by the abyss of Bramabiau. This expedition recognizes two kilometers of galleries. Caving was born. In July 1890, he married Aline de Launay, whose brother was a professor of geology and a future member of the Academy of Sciences. Collaboration with the latter will provide a scientific basis for certain publications by Martel. In 1894, he published "Les Abîmes", a work in which he described the wonders of the underworld that he discovered and visited during the six campaigns he led from 1888 to 1893. During this period he visited and listed over 230 cavities and caves. He recognized 250 kilometers of galleries of which he carried out precise surveys and plots. In 1905, he explored the Grand Canyon du Verdon. This expedition will give its name to the emblematic trail of the largest canyon in Europe: the Blanc-Martel trail. Indeed, the path bears the name of the explorer and his guide Isidore Blanc, a former teacher from the village of Rougon. They were the first to cross the entire Verdon canyon on small boats. Édouard Alfred Martel died on June 3, 1938 in Saint-Thomas-la-Garde, not far from Montbrison, in the Loire. He is buried in the Montmartre cemetery in Paris.
Learn more arrow_backThe timeline
Primary Era
-Once upon a time there was a super continent
Long ago, long before the Alps, there was only one continent on earth, a giant called Pangea.
At the very beginning of our history, a huge mountain chain stands here, the Variscan or Hercinian chain.
Then the reliefs soften and are covered with tropical forest. It is the Carboniferous ...
Secondary Era
-In search of the lost ocean
Pulled by colossal divergent forces, the super continent is cracking. Its alpine borders, the sea and its procession of life have appeared and are slowly gaining ground. When the earth's crust ends up tearing apart and the continents moving apart, the true Alpine ocean is formed.
The sites associated with this period:
Daluis gorgesChampourcinAmmonite slabItchyosaurusMaurin quarriesCastillon lakeGorges d'OppedetteTertiary era
-Towards inevitable collision
Inversion of forces: the ocean is no longer growing, it is slowly closing. The rocks at its bottom fold and rise, then the inevitable happens ...
The two continents which bordered it collide and… the Alps are born.
As soon as the reliefs form, erosion begins to work and sculpts incredible landscapes