page_title: Steephead valley
hierarchical_section_title: Steephead valley
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Cirque de Baume, une reculée. Une forme topographique dans un plateau calcaire du Jura. English: Baume-les-Messieurs in a blind valley in the French Jura
context_page_description: A steephead valley, steephead or blind valley is a deep, narrow, flat bottomed valley with an abrupt ending. Such closed valleys may arise in limestone or karst landscapes, where a layer of permeable rock lies above an impermeable substrate such as marl. Water flowing through a steephead valley leaves via one or more ponors or sinkholes.
  Blind valleys are typically dry at their lower ends. If the ponor cannot contain the high runoff during a flood event an intermittent flow may continue through the valley beyond the sink. Such a landform is called a semi-blind or half-blind valley.
context_section_description: A steephead valley, steephead or blind valley is a deep, narrow, flat bottomed valley with an abrupt ending.  Such closed valleys may arise in limestone or karst landscapes, where a layer of permeable rock lies above an impermeable substrate such as marl.  Water flowing through a steephead valley leaves via one or more ponors or sinkholes.
  Blind valleys are typically dry at their lower ends. If the ponor cannot contain the high runoff during a flood event an intermittent flow may continue through the valley beyond the sink.  Such a landform is called a  semi-blind or half-blind valley.
caption: The Reculée de Baume
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