earth science

Toarcien National Nature Reserve

Toarcien National Nature Reserve 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 Toarcien National Nature Reserve rather than just read about it. In short: The Toarcien National Nature Reserve (RNN91) is a French national nature reserve located in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, near the city of Thouars, from which the name Toarcian is derived. Established in 1987, it occupies an area of 0.61 hectares, making it the smallest national nature reserve in France.

Key takeaways

Toarcien National Nature Reserve 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 Toarcien National Nature Reserve to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Toarcien National Nature Reserve from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Toarcien National Nature Reserve (RNN91) is a French national nature reserve located in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, near the city of Thouars, from which the name Toarcian is derived. Established in 1987, it occupies an area of 0.61 hectares, making it the smallest national nature reserve in France. It protects two former quarries preserving the stratotype of the Toarcian stage.

Location The nature reserve domain is in the Deux-Sèvres department, near the commune of Sainte-Verge. It consists of two former open-air quarries separated by a few hundred meters in the Thouet valley. The first is located in the location "Les Groies", and the second approximately 500 meters south, in the location "Les Hauts-Côteaux". It bears the stratotype of the Toarcian, the latest stage of the Early Jurassic. Its total area spreads overs 0.61 hectares (or 6 100 m2), making it the smallest national nature reserve in France. There is, however, several smaller regional nature reserves.

Ecology The ammonite species having evolved quite rapidly, they are used as a geological marker for the terrains that bears them. The Toarcian stage is divided in 34 elementary units or "horizons". Each horizon correspond to a period of approximately 260 000 years, and is characterized by one or several specific ammonite species.

Geology The Hauts-Côteaux quarry presents a cross-section significantly more developed than the Groies quarry. It bears, from bottom to top :

ferruginous sandstone and gravelly limestone (> 0.50 m). It includes few fossils, notably bivalves (Pectinidae), gastropods and belemnites, and shows very numerous worm borrows; bioclastic limestone with ferruginous oolites (1.20 m). It is extremely rich in bioclasts (essentially fragmentary shells of bivalves and gastropods) and ferruginous oolites, small spheres made of thin concentric layers of iron oxide. Ammonites and belemnites can also be found. Those are dated from the Early and Middle Toarcian; argillaceous limestone alternating with marl (6.90 m). It contains also numerous fossils of pelagic organisms, mostly animals who lived in open waters (ammonites, nautilus, belemnites...). It spreads from the late Middle Toarcian to the Early Aalenian.

Tools and legal status The nature reserve was established by decree the 23 November 1987. Articles 5 to 11 of the decree regulate the reserve and specify several restrictions. Article 5 indicates that "it is forbidden to harm in any way the coal front, the mineral substance or fossils from the reserve."

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Toarcien National Nature Reserve

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Toarcien National Nature Reserve 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 Toarcien National Nature Reserve 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 Toarcien National Nature Reserve 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 Toarcien National Nature Reserve

In research: Toarcien National Nature Reserve 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 Toarcien National Nature Reserve 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: Toarcien National Nature Reserve is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Deux-Sèvres, Fossiliferous stratigraphic units of Europe, Geography of Deux-Sèvres, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Toarcien National Nature Reserve 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 Toarcien National Nature Reserve in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Toarcien National Nature Reserve 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 Toarcien National Nature Reserve out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Toarcien National Nature Reserve in simple terms?

Why does Toarcien National Nature Reserve 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 Toarcien National Nature Reserve?

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 Toarcien National Nature Reserve.