Modalités et chronologie de la déglaciation würmienne dans l'arc alpin occidental et les massifs français : synthèse et réflexions

Synthesis of the results given in the papers presented during the colloquium "Conditions and Chronology of the wurmian déglaciation in the Western Alps and the French mountains" (AFEQ - Chambéry 1988) shows a certain number of convergences in the paleogeography and chronology of the wurmian glaciation, despite some local divergences : — a first and maximal advance of the glaciers before 38 400 BP; — a first "mesowurmian" interstage overlapping the 38 400-31 350 BP interval; — a second, complexe advance (Recurrence), within a "neowiirmian" interstage overlapping the 35 700-27 400 BP interval; — a second "neowurmian" interstage overlapping the 27 400-19 350 interval; — a final advance, during the Recurrence, and later than 22 300 BP with no precise upper limit. The déglaciation, actually begun with the first interstage, exhibits complex features and is of large duration. Besides these results, the problems of the datas and of their interpretation, of the nearly non-existant correlations, of the plentiful, ill-defined terminology, and of the outstanding part played by the observation conditions, are emphasized. Further prospects are not only completion of both local and regional syntheses, but even more important increasing the number of drillings; the increase being governed by avalaible means.