The Villafranchian in the Massif central in France

A Short Review

Abstract

Massif central in France may be one of the best territories for the Villafranchian studies because of its wealthy occurrence of fossil beds and associated volcanic products available for determining their absolute ages and magnetic polarities. More informations from this territory will afford a possibility that the Auvergne section would standardize the nature of the progress of the Villafranchian age, which is presumed to be a transitive period between Pliocene and Pleistocene times, Recent informations from the Le Puy basin seem to prove the difficulty in attempting to draw a single borderline across a period from the so-called pre-Quaternary to the early Quaternary. Apart from this sort of problem on the demarcation, volcanostratigraphic studies comprising the dating and magnetic measurement have afforded much workable clues for global correlation.