Hers-Vif

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hers-Vif
Origin	Pyrenees
Mouth	Ariège
Basin countries	France
Length	130 km
Source elevation	±1500 m
Avg. discharge	15 m³/s
Basin area	1,350 km²

The Hers-Vif ("Live Hers", as opposed to the slower flowing Hers-Mort, "Dead Hers"), also named Grand Hers or simply Hers, is a 130 km long river in Southern France, right tributary of the Ariège River.

The Hers-Vif rises at a height of ±1500 m near the Chioula Pass of the Pyrenees, approximately 6 km north of Ax-les-Thermes. It is the major tributary of the Ariège into whose right bank it flows 2 km upstream from Cintegabelle in the Haute-Garonne.

It flows some 30 kilometers through the Pyrenees, descending 1100 m to the village of Peyrat which it reaches a piedmont plain. Its valley widens as it traverses the plain, reaching the medieval city of Mirepoix which marks the start of its lower valley.

Several rivers flow into it:

From the Pyrenees: the Lasset; the Fontestorbes Spring; the Touyre
From the piedmont plain and hills: the Blau and the Douctouyre;
From the hills of Lauragais and Razès: the Ambronne and the Vixiège.

Departments and towns along its course are:

Ariège: Prades, Bélesta, La Bastide-sur-l'Hers, Mirepoix, Mazères
Aude: Comus, Chalabre
Haute-Garonne: Calmont

[edit] Floods

The Hers is probably known as vif (intense or rapid in this context) because of its sometimes spectacular floods - that of June 16, 1289 having entirely destroyed Mirepoix. More recently, there have been:

23rd of June, 1875: estimated flow rate of 1500 m³/s at Mazères;
6th of February, 1919: estimated flow rate of 600-800 m³/s at Mazères;
19th of May, 1977: estimated flow rate of 1070 m³/s at Mazères;
16th of January, 1981: estimated flow rate of 1100 m³/s at Mazères;
11th of June, 2000: estimated flow rate of 500 m³/s at Mazères;
24th of January, 2004: estimated flow rate of 500 m³/s at Mazères.