Open Access

Gaston Godard

• The region of Talmont-Saint-Hilaire (Vendée, France), located at the contact between the Armorican Massif, the Aquitanian Basin and the Atlantic Ocean, has been studied by many geologists and geographers, over the last three centuries. In the years 1780, silver was mined from the sulphide-bearing ore that occurs at the base of the Jurassic limestones. The stratigraphy of the latter sediments, as well as their relationship with the hercynian basement, was investigated during the 19th and 20th centuries, mainly by Rivière, the author of the first geological map of the area (1838), Cossmann, Vasseur, Péneau, Ters and Butel. As for Gabilly, he considered the anse Saint-Nicolas as a para-stratotype of the Toarcian. A few Authors, mainly Bocquier and Ters, also studied the evolution of the Atlantic coast during Quaternary. They evidenced remnants of several surfaces fashioned by marine abrasion, the age of which was constrained by archaeological studies. In 1963, Gilbert Bessonnat discovered dinosaur footprints, which, however, had already been observed by Bocquier in the years 1930. Montenat and Lapparent studied the occurrence, which proved to be one of the richest in Europe.