gour

English translation: gour/rimstone dam

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	gour
English translation:	gour/rimstone dam
Entered by:	liz askew

15:13 Jan 29, 2009

French to English translations [PRO]
Geology

French term or phrase: gour

This is in the context of the grotte Saint-Marcel in Ardèche.

Vous arrivez dans la salle de la Table des Rois ou table ronde avec deux grands gours à ses côtés.

I have found the following text explaining what these 'gours' are, as well as a similar reference under Geology in GDT,

http://www.linternaute.com/voyage/france/rhone-alpes/gorges-...

and am wondering is there a word for this in English or do I have to explain.

Miranda Joubioux (X) KudoZ activity Questions: 591 (none open) (65 closed without grading) Answers: 712
Local time: 21:39

gour

Explanation:
Cave Formations (Speleothems) - Jenolan Caves
Rimstone dams or gours are fragile vertical walls that build up as cave pools overflow, depositing calcite at the edges. At the point of overflow, ...
www.jenolancaves.org.au/index.asp?pageID=75 - 38k - Cached - Similar pages

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Note added at 6 mins (2009-01-29 15:20:08 GMT)
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# [PDF]
JA780 MARBLE ARCH CAVES(house)
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
centre has fascinating displays on local history, geology and ecology and ... stalagmites, cave curtains, rimstone pools and flowstones. The ...
www.fermanagh.gov.uk/pubuploads/CavesTourBook.pdf - Similar pages
#
Mammoth Cave National Park In Kentucky
Stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, and delicate crystalline rimstone pools ... The cave guides offer knowledge of the geology and history of the cave as ...
www.allsands.com/travel/places/mammothcavenat_ygq_gn.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

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Note added at 49 mins (2009-01-29 16:03:33 GMT)
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See:

#
The Knockmore Scarpland Geodiversity Profile
Chambers within the cave system are decorated by calcite straws, stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone, curtains, gour pools and canopies. ...
www.ni-environment.gov.uk/landscape/country_landscape/6/6-g... - 36k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Langcliffe Pot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
10 Dec 2008 ... A survey in relation to the other caves of the Black Keld drainage system, and a detailed discussion of the geology and hydrology, ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langcliffe_Pot - 26k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Cave and Karst Science Volume 31, Number 2, 2004.
The species was recently rediscovered on gour pool-dripstone habitat in the same cave. A brief qualitative survey of this and other habitats in the Dark ...
bcra.org.uk/pub/candks.oldformat/v31_2.html - 20k - Cached - Similar pages

Selected response from:

liz askew
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:39

Grading comment

Thanks Liz. I was also glad to be able to use "rimstone pools" as an explanation in a later section of this text. Thanks to everyone for all these references.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

2 +5

gour

liz askew

Summary of reference entries provided

Gour

Noni Gilbert Riley

rimstone dam

Bourth (X)

Answers

3 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

gour

liz askew
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:39
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 37

Grading comment

Thanks Liz. I was also glad to be able to use "rimstone pools" as an explanation in a later section of this text. Thanks to everyone for all these references.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Noni Gilbert Riley: The same word does seem to be used in English. See ref

1 min

neutral

cchat: rimstone dam or gour so perhaps rimstone dam is the translation of gour. See http://www.speleoencyclopedia.com rimstone dam a) a ridge or rib of rimstone, often curved convexly downstream. b) english synonym: gour; français

17 mins

-> Rimstone dam/pool seems to be the UK equivalent.

agree

Ann Sumwalt: I started researching this one and couldn't find it. Hat's off to you!

25 mins

-> Thank you! I was lucky to find the reference from Australia:-)

agree

Bourth (X): Fire and rimstone dam

32 mins

-> Gour pool: http://www.ni-environment.gov.uk/landscape/country_landscape...

agree

Kate Hudson (X)

42 mins

-> Thank you!

agree

ACOZ (X)

6 hrs

Reference comments

12 mins

Reference: Gour

Reference information:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gours.jpg (article taken from another site - link included)
The context is vaguely explanatory but seems to take for granted that the term is known in English.

linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S004724840400140X "In the lowermost surface, the gours were centimetre-size. In the sedimentary deposits filling the gours" (you'd have to pay to get into this article). Here the writers are non-English, but an academic publication, so presumably it has been edited by a native speaker?

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Note added at 14 mins (2009-01-29 15:28:06 GMT)
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Ah: this is definitively informative!
http://www.speleogenesis.info/glossary/glossary_by_letter.ph...
"gour
Description: Flowstone deposit, normally of calcite, built up along the edge of a pool due to precipitation from a thin film of overflow water. Once initiated, by calcite-saturated water overflowing from floor hollows, development is selfenhancing, and the gours can grow into large dams many meters high and wide. Inside the gour pool, more calcite may be precipitated as crystals or pearls. Large flights of gours occur in many caves, with spectacular and well known examples around the Hall of Thirteen in the Gouffre Berger, France. Large travertine, gours can form in the open air, as at Band-i- Amir, Afghanistan [9]."

Noni Gilbert Riley
Spain
Native speaker of:

English

34 mins peer agreement (net): +1

Reference: rimstone dam

Reference information:
Though there's plenty of evidence that "gour" is used in English, there are also plenty of definitions of "rimstone dam" on the web, and this term has the advantage of being more self-explanatory not just to native English-speakers but also to any non-specialist French person with a little English, I should think!

Since your text is presumably for tourists rather than cavers, I'd use the English, possibly with "gour" for local flavour, but with a warning not to taste the water (once did that in Wookey Hole and was violently ill).

RIMSTONE DAM. a) a ridge or rib of rimstone, often curved convexly ... a) a pool held up by a rimstone dam. Synonyme: . b) english synonyme: sinter lake; ...
www.speleoencyclopedia.com/encyklopedia.php?lit=RA&limit=1&...

The second mechanism, the RIMSTONE DAM and pool concretion occurrences, produces grains under ... The rimstone dam occurrence is mentioned by Stone (1932). ...
search.datapages.com/data/doi/10.1306/74D71E3D-2B21-11D7-8648000102C1865D

This is held behind an impressive RIMSTONE DAM. ... Downstream, it's possible to bridge over the pool to the rimstone dam (maybe not possible for short ...
www.ee.usyd.edu.au/suss/Bulls/47(2)/maynardwombeyan.html

Some of the precipated calcite stayed on the edge of the RIMSTONE DAM but some also seeped back into the pool, until the pool became so super-saturated with ...
www.cumberlandadventures.com/cave/form.html

Glossary of Karst related terms ..... A pool held up by a RIMSTONE DAM; these may range in size from a few millimetres (MICROGOURS) to several metres. ...
www.cancaver.ca/docs/glossary.htm

RIMSTONE DAM. n. A barrier of calcium carbonate or other precipitated ...
wasg.iinet.net.au/glossary.html

I'd be interested to know quite how the average English speaker, and particularly the average Ocker caver, pronounces "gour".

Bourth (X)
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 142

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