earth science

La Grive-Saint-Alban

La Grive-Saint-Alban is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand La Grive-Saint-Alban rather than just read about it. In short: La Grive-Saint-Alban is a geomorphological karstic site located on the territory of the French commune of Saint-Alban-de-Roche, in the Isère department. This area, long exploited for its red clay, is known since the 19th century for the richness of its fossil deposits, distributed from the Bathonian stage to the Miocene.

Key takeaways

La Grive-Saint-Alban belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect La Grive-Saint-Alban to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of La Grive-Saint-Alban from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

La Grive-Saint-Alban is a geomorphological karstic site located on the territory of the French commune of Saint-Alban-de-Roche, in the Isère department. This area, long exploited for its red clay, is known since the 19th century for the richness of its fossil deposits, distributed from the Bathonian stage to the Miocene.

Description La Grive-Saint-Alban is a karstic fracture caused by the hydrochemical and hydraulic erosion of carbonate rock formations, mostly limestone. The geological layers shows a succession of argillaceous strata, from red clay to silt in an environment composed of marl and limestone. Changes in the fossil composition are shown across the various layers, which indicates that the deposit happened in several stages. Various changes affected the European mammalian fauna during the Miocene (−25 to −5 Ma), caused by an important climate change leading Europe towards a temperate climate. Several members are distinguished, named D, M1, M2, L3, L5 and L7, providing various species buried during different periods. The fauna is diverse, with skeletal remains, jaws, molars and skeletons of carnivores, insectivores, rodents and ungulates, showing the faunal diversity of the Miocene. Several species of Sciuridae, Gliridae and Cricetinae, such as Democricetodon and Heteroxerus (a flying squirrel) are similar to those of the paleontological sites of Vieux-Collonges and Sansan. A fossil of giant squirrel discovered on this site received the name Lagrivea after La Grive-Saint-Alban.

Bibliography Charles Depéret, La faune de mammifères miocènes de la Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère) et de quelques autres localités du bassin du Rhône : documents nouveaux et révision générale, éditions H. Georg, 1892 Claude Gaillard, Mammifères miocènes nouveaux ou peu connus de La Grive-Saint-Alban (Isère), 1899 Jean Viret, Catalogue critique de la faune des mammifères miocènes de La Grive Saint-Alban, 1re partie: Chiroptères, carnivores, édentés pholidotes, Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Lyon, éditions A.Rey, 1951

External links Bulletin of the Société anthropologique de Lyon Nouveau gisement karstique du miocène dans la région de La Grive-Saint-Alban Laboratoire de géologie de Lyon Biostratigraphic implications Doctorate thesis : Révision du genre Democricetodon (Mammalia, Rodentia, Cricetinae) et dynamique des faunes de rongeurs du Néogène d'Europe occidentale : évolution, paléobiodiversité et paléobiogéographie, Université Claude Bernard, Lyon1, 2003

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with La Grive-Saint-Alban

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what La Grive-Saint-Alban claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to La Grive-Saint-Alban before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about La Grive-Saint-Alban ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of La Grive-Saint-Alban

In research: La Grive-Saint-Alban appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses La Grive-Saint-Alban in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: La Grive-Saint-Alban is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fossiliferous stratigraphic units of Europe, Geologic formations of France, Isère, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for La Grive-Saint-Alban outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study La Grive-Saint-Alban in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what La Grive-Saint-Alban means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain La Grive-Saint-Alban out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is La Grive-Saint-Alban in simple terms?

Why does La Grive-Saint-Alban matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study La Grive-Saint-Alban?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on La Grive-Saint-Alban.