Geography and Climate

The Nouragues station is located within the ‘Montagnes Balenfois’ massif to the Southwest of the commune of Regina. The landscape of hills covered by dense tropical rainforest is dominated by a partly denuded granitic inselberg which reaches an elevation of 430 m above sea level. The limit between the River Comte drainage basin in the north and the River Approuague basin passes across the summit of this inselberg. The Nouragues creek (a tributary of the River Approuague) flows past the foot of the inselberg, forming the boundary between two main types of geological substratum: the ‘Caribbean’type granite and the metavolcanic rocks of the Paramaca series. The lithology of these terrains has an influence on the relief and on the soils. Thus, the geology, the geomorphology and the soil types are presented here in succession. Finally, an analysis is given of the climatic data that has been collected since the setting up of the station.