Rhône River

River, Switzerland and France.

A historic southern gateway, as well as the only major European river flowing directly to the Mediterranean Sea, the Rhône is 505 mi (813 km) long and navigable for about 300 mi (485 km). It is Alpine in character, and its course has been shaped by neighbouring mountain systems. Rising in the Swiss Alps, it flows into Lake Geneva, then crosses into France through the Jura Mountains. It continues south through Lyon, Avignon, and Tarascon to Arles and enters the Mediterranean west of Marseille.

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▪ river, Europe

Introduction

 historic river of Switzerland and France and one of the most significant waterways of Europe. It is the only major river flowing directly to the Mediterranean Sea and is thoroughly Alpine in character. In this respect it differs markedly from its northern neighbour, the Rhine (Rhine River), which leaves all of its Alpine characteristics behind when it leaves Switzerland. The scenic and often wild course of the Rhône, the characteristics of the water flowing in it, and the way it has been used by humans have all been shaped by the influences of the mountains, right down to the river mouth, where sediments marking the Rhône's birth in an Alpine glacier are carried into the warmer waters of the Mediterranean.

      The Rhône is 505 miles (813 kilometres) long and has a drainage basin of some 37,750 square miles (97,775 square kilometres). The course of the river can be divided into three sectors lying, respectively, in the Alps, between the Alps and the Jura Mountains and through the latter, and finally in the topographical furrow of Alpine origin running from the city of Lyon to the sea.

Physical features

Physiography

      The Rhône originates in the Swiss Alps, upstream from Lake Geneva. It comes into being at an altitude of about 6,000 feet (1,830 metres), emerging from the Rhône Glacier, which descends the south flank of the Dammastock, a nearly 12,000-foot peak. The river then traverses the Gletsch Basin, from which it escapes through a gorge, and flows along the floor of the Goms Valley at an altitude between 4,000 and 4,600 feet. It next enters another gorge before reaching the plain of the Valais, which extends between the towns of Brig and Martigny, and descends in altitude 2,300 to 1,600 feet. In crossing this high and rugged mountain area, the river makes successive use of two structural troughs. The first runs between the ancient crystalline rock massifs of the Aare and of the Gotthard; farther downstream the second runs between the arched rock mass of the Bernese Oberland and, on the south, the massive rock face of the Pennine Alps. From Brig onward, the landscape changes. During the last Ice Age a large glacier, fed by several small ones, plowed down the valley floor of the Valais, and, except for some harder rock obstacles found near the town of Sion, succeeded in widening and deepening the narrow valley floor. As it did so, it held back both the upper Rhône and those of its tributaries that come down from the Pennine Alps. When the ice sheets retreated, both the tributaries—the Vispa, Navigenze, Borgne, and Drance—and the Rhône cut new, deep gorges to connect their lower courses to the new valley floor. These gorges have created considerable difficulty for modern transportation, necessitating a series of hairpin-bend road links.

      After Martigny, where the valley floor is wider, the youthful Rhône thrusts northward at a right angle, cutting across the Alps through a transverse valley. At first, near the town of Saint-Maurice, this is no more than a small gorge, but it soon becomes wider and flatter. There, too, the river route has been assisted by structural factors, specifically by a dip in the crystalline rock massifs running from Mont Blanc to the Aare and by the discontinuity between the limestone masses of the Dents du Midi and of the Dent de Morcles. Across the mountain barrier the muddy waters of the Rhône enter another wide plain surrounded by high mountains and then plunge into the clearer, stiller waters of Lake Geneva (Geneva, Lake), forming an enlarging delta.

      The second sector of the Rhône's course commences with Lake Geneva, large (224 square miles) and deep (1,000 feet) and lying between Switzerland and France in a basin hollowed out of the less resistant terrain by the former Rhône Glacier. Upon leaving Lake Geneva, which has turned the course of the river to the southwest and decanted the sediment from its waters, the Rhône very quickly regains in full the milky colour so characteristic of Alpine rivers. Just below the city of Geneva, it receives its powerful tributary the Arve, which rushes down from the glaciers of Mont Blanc.

      From its juncture with the Arve to the French city of Lyon, the Rhône has to cross a difficult obstacle, the undulating series of ridges forming the Jura Mountains. It does this by cutting through deep longitudinal valleys called vaux and transverse valleys called cluses, which were formed when the Jura Mountains were uplifted during the Alpine orogeny. As a result, the river follows a complicated zigzag course. At the town of Bellegarde the river is joined from the north by the Valserine and, swinging south, plunges into a deep gorge now submerged in the 14-mile-long Génissiat Reservoir. In the wider sections of its course in this region, the Rhône runs through glacier-excavated basins that its own deposits have barely filled, causing intermittent marshy areas. It is also joined by the Ain, from the north, and, on the left bank, by the Fier and Guiers. The river next widens, and the terrain becomes less hilly and, at Le Parc (some 95 miles above Lyon), becomes officially navigable, although the average depth is no more than three feet.

      At Lyon the Rhône enters its third sector as it heads south toward the Mediterranean, which is characterized by the great north–south Alpine furrow that is also drained by its principal tributary, the Saône (Saône River). The latter lies in the basins that the Ice Age glaciers hollowed out between the Jura Mountains to the east and, farther west, the eastern edge of the Paris Basin and the uplands of the Massif Central. It forms an important commercial link to the industrialized regions of northern France. From the city of Lyon onward, the river occupies the trough lying between the Massif Central and the Alps, a channel (streambed) up which the sea of the Tertiary period (66.4 to 1.6 million years ago) ascended covering the present Rhône valley. A body of water, Lake Bresse, spread over the Saône basin. Into this lake drained a river—the present Rhine—which then flowed south through the valley and into the Saône basin; later tectonic movements caused the Rhine to reverse its flow, and the Doubs (Doubs River), a tributary of the Saône, now partly follows the former Rhine drainage pattern. In the late Tertiary the gulf of the sea was uplifted to expose the lower Rhône valley, and Lake Bresse drained out to the south through the Saône River. Though the Rhône–Saône corridor is underlain by sediments laid down during the Tertiary period, much of its present surface is formed by debris deposited by valley glaciers that extended from the Alps during the Pleistocene epoch (1.6 million to 10,000 years ago). These sediments were instrumental in cutting deep channels through the edge of the crystalline Massif Central, as evidenced at Vienne and Tain. The valley consequently takes the form of a series of gorges and basins, the latter often having a series of terraces corresponding to variations in the levels of ice and of river. Although the tributaries—notably the Ardèche—rushing down into the Rhône from the Massif Central are formidable when in flood, the great Alpine rivers, the Isère, and the Durance, joining the left bank, are most important in their effect on riverbed deposits and on the volume of water. Below Mondragon the Rhône valley becomes wider, and what was once a marshy landscape open to flooding has been regulated by a series of dams and canals.

      The river's delta begins near Arles and extends about 25 miles to the sea. Twin channels of the river, the Grand and Petit Rhône, enclose the Camargue region. This region, formed by alluvium, is continuously extending into the Mediterranean. The finer materials are carried by onshore currents to form the barrier beaches of the coast and the sandbars closing off the Étang de Berre. One part of the delta has been set aside for a nature reserve, thereby protecting the feeding and nesting grounds of flamingos, egrets, ibis, and other rare species. Since 1962 the left bank of Fos has been transformed into a vast industrial complex consisting of port facilities, refineries, oil-storage tanks, and steel mills.

Hydrology

      The flow regime of the Rhône owes its remarkable mean volume to the influence of the Alps. At Lyon the flow amounts to 22,600 cubic feet (640 cubic metres) per second; there, the Saône alone contributes 14,100 cubic feet per second. The Isère (Isère River) adds another 12,400 cubic feet per second. The melting of the Alpine snows gives the highest mean flows in May, while the Saône attains its maximum in January. The flood volumes of spring and autumn are formidable, reaching 460,000 cubic feet per second for the Rhône at Beaucaire, just above the delta. Thus, the Rhône has an abundant flow but maintains a strong gradient almost to its mouth. At Lyon, for example, its altitude is 560 feet at 205 miles from the sea. As the size of the delta region testifies, the river transports enormous amounts of alluvial deposits and is also powerful enough to cut through a variety of rock masses. As a result, the Rhône of today is well adapted to the production of electricity and, though difficult to navigate in the past, is now an important waterway from the Mediterranean to Lyon.

The economy

      The Rhône basin constitutes one of the great economic regions of Switzerland and of France, draining rich plains as well as an important part of the Alps. The utilization of the region by humans, however, has required a long historical struggle, which entered a decisive phase only in the second half of the 20th century. The economy of the Rhône region consists of five major elements: agriculture, industry, energy, tourism, and transportation.

      Agriculture in the Rhône valley largely covers the low areas, plains, and islands. In the canton of Valais, the Rhône has been diked and narrowed, and the surrounding plain has been drained. Comparable works have been carried out in France, notably on the Isère, at Combe de Savoie and Grésivaudan, and on the upper Durance. River waters are used extensively for irrigation. Forage crops and livestock raising coexist with vineyards, fruit orchards, and vegetable farming; the Camargue region is noted for its rice fields.

      Industries, both large and small, have been established throughout the region. Notable concentrations include the aluminum and chemical plants in Valais, the oil refineries at Lyon, and the refineries and steel mills at Fos. The production of hydroelectricity is evident throughout the length of the Rhône and particularly so in its lower reaches, where a series of dam projects have harnessed more than half of the entire potential hydroelectric power of the river. In France several nuclear generating stations utilize river waters for cooling purposes.

      The course of the Rhône has long attracted tourists, and tourism has played an increasingly key role in the regional economy since the mid-20th century. The great variety of recreational activities offered—from skiing and climbing in the Alps, to visiting the historic cities of Provence, to horseback riding in the Camargue—have been key to the river's popularity.

      Navigation has always been carried on, particularly between Lyon and the sea, and the Rhône traditionally has been the transportation funnel between northern and southern France; the Rhône valley in Valais served a similar function in Switzerland, particularly with the construction of a number of rail and road tunnels under some of the mountain barriers. The most extensive improvements to the river itself have taken place between Lyon and the Mediterranean: shoals have been submerged under the reservoirs created by dams or bypassed by canals, and the original gradient has been replaced by a succession of level reaches and locks.

History

      Great cities attest the antiquity and the strength of people's interest in the region, which long ago was influenced by Celtic settlement and then by Roman domination. Brig, Sion, and Martigny in the Alpine section; Lausanne and Nyon on Lake Geneva; Lyon, at one of the major European crossways; and the Provençal cities of Nîmes, Arles, and Orange all contain evidence of their Roman past. From AD 1033 much of the region was controlled by the house of Savoy; ultimately, Valais, Geneva, and Vaud joined the Swiss Confederation, while Savoy itself became part of France. During the 14th and early 15th centuries, Avignon (located just north of the Rhône delta) was the residence of the popes of the Avignon papacy and antipopes of the Western Schism. The river, once a spearhead for the penetration of Mediterranean cultures and peoples into northern Europe, again became a routeway for invasion, when Allied armies followed it north after landing in southern France during World War II.

Paul Veyret Aubrey Diem

Additional Reading

Much of what has been written on the Rhône is included in general and regional geographies of Switzerland, France, and western Europe, such as Aubrey Diem, Western Europe, a Geographical Analysis (1979). Daniel Faucher, L'Homme et le Rhône (1968), is a historical survey of water resources development and economic conditions; it is supplemented by earlier exhaustive works by a hydrologist of world reputation, Maurice Parde, Le Régime du Rhône: étude hydrologique (1925), continued in his Quelques Nouveautées sur le régime du Rhône (1942). A short account focusing on economic conditions, from the series Problem Regions of Europe, is Ian B. Thompson, The Lower Rhône and Marseille (1975).Aubrey Diem

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