Cardinal T. auteur aut IRD Petit C. auteur aut IRD Rolland Y. auteur aut IRD Schwartz S. auteur aut IRD Gaston Valla P. auteur aut IRD Scalabrino B. auteur aut IRD Audin Laurence auteur aut IRD Bertauts M. auteur aut IRD Zerathe Swann auteur aut IRD Thiéblemont D. auteur aut IRD Braucher R. auteur aut IRD ASTER Team auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access Deciphering the impact of short-term or long-term forcing on fluvial incision, as well as understanding the influence of local (channel lithology and morphology) and global (tectonic motions) parameters in the spatial variation of incision efficiency, are ongoing geomorphological research fields. To shed new light on these issues, we chose to study the 'Hautes Gorges du Verdon' (High Verdon Gorges or HVG), located in the foreland of the Southwestern Alps. We collected 24 samples along three polished surfaces for Cosmic Ray Exposure (CRE) Cl dating, which allowed us to constrain short-term incision rates ranging from 0.06 to 0.2 mm/yr between 60 and 15 ka. Compared to known regional uplift and denudation rates, incision rates obtained in the HVG suggest tectonic or isostatic uplift as the main driver of Verdon River incision in the Late Quaternary. This comparison allows us to propose that the downcutting of the Verdon Gorges started approximatively 1.5 to 2 Ma ago, even if the drainage network of the Verdon catchment area could have been shaped earlier, during the Messinian salinity crisis. specialized FRANCE 064GEOMOR 356 suppl. 2 265-287 2024 1631-0713 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010090975 10.5802/crgeos.216 1631-0713 [F B010090975] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010090975 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/2024-11/010090975.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2024-06-25 2025-11-06 fdi:010090975 fre