Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (sometimes abbreviated as AHP; ; ; ), formerly until 1970 known as Basses-Alpes (, ), is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France, bordering Alpes-Maritimes and Italy to the east, Var to the sou ...
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.
Geography
The
Bléone
The Bléone (; ) is a long river in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence '' département'', southeastern France. Its drainage basin is .
forms the commune's southern border.
Natural and technological risks
None of the department's 200 communes is in an area of zero seismic risk. The canton that Mirabeau belongs to, Digne-les-Bains-Ouest, is in zone 1b (weak
seismicity
Seismicity is a measure encompassing earthquake occurrences, mechanisms, and magnitude at a given geographical location. As such, it summarizes a region's seismic activity. The term was coined by Beno Gutenberg and Charles Francis Richter in 194 ...
), according to the deterministic classification of 1991, based on historical earthquakes, and in zone 4 (medium risk) according to the probabilistic classification EC8 of 2011. The commune of Mirabeau is exposed to three other natural hazards:
* forest fire
* flood (in the valleys of Les Duyes and La Bléone)
* ground movement: the commune is very concerned with this medium-to-high risk.
In addition, the commune of Mirabeau is exposed to a risk arising from the transport of dangerous materials by rail, road and pipeline. The railway line from Saint-Auban to Digne across the commune is no longer in use. For roads, National Route 85 can be used for the transport of dangerous goods. And a pipeline supplying natural gas to Digne crosses the commune and thereby constitutes an additional risk factor.
The commune's management plan for foreseeable natural hazards (PPR in French) was approved in 2008 for the risk of ground movement; there is no DICRIM (Dossier d’information communal sur les risques majeurs; that is, dossier of information for the commune on major risks).
The commune has seen several declarations of natural disaster: for an earthquake in 1984, flooding and mudslides in 1996 and 2001, droughts in 1989, 1990 and 1998, and for landslides in 1996. The only earthquake strongly felt in the commune occurred on 19 June 1984. Its intensity in Mirabeau was V on the
Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik scale
The Medvedev–Sponheuer–Karnik scale, also known as the MSK or MSK-64, is a macroseismic intensity scale used to evaluate the severity of ground shaking on the basis of observed effects in an area where an earthquake transpires.
The scale was f ...
(MSK), i.e. sleeping people wake up, objects fall. The epicentre of this earthquake was at Aiglun.