Hers-Vif

Infobox River | river_name = Hers-Vif


caption =
origin = Pyrenees
mouth = Ariège
coord|43|18|21|N|1|33|9|E|name=Ariège-Hers-Vif|display=inline,title
basin_countries = France
length = 135 km
elevation = ±1500 m
discharge = 15 m³/s
watershed = 1,350 km²The Hers-Vif ("Live Hers", as opposed to the slower flowing Hers-Mort, "Dead Hers"), also named "Grand Hers" or simply "Hers", is a 135 km long river in Southern France, right tributary of the Ariège River.

The Hers-Vif rises at a height of ±1500 m near the Chioula Pass of the Pyrenees, approximately 6 km north of Ax-les-Thermes. It is the major tributary of the Ariège into whose right bank it flows 2 km upstream from Cintegabelle in the Haute-Garonne.

It flows some 30 kilometers through the Pyrenees, descending 1100 m to the village of Peyrat which it reaches a piedmont plain. Its valley widens as it traverses the plain, reaching the medieval city of Mirepoix which marks the start of its lower valley.

Several rivers flow into it:
*From the Pyrenees: the Lasset; the Fontaine de Fontestorbes; the Touyre
*From the piedmont plain and hills: the Blau and the Douctouyre;
*From the hills of Lauragais and Razès: the Ambronne and the Vixiège.

Departments and towns along its course are:
*Ariège: Prades, Bélesta, La Bastide-sur-l'Hers, Mirepoix, Mazères
*Aude: Comus, Chalabre
*Haute-Garonne: Calmont

Floods

The Hers is probably known as "vif" ("intense" or "rapid" in this context) because of its sometimes spectacular floods - that of June 16, 1289 having entirely destroyed Mirepoix. More recently, there have been:
* 23rd of June, 1875: estimated flow rate of 1500 m³/s at Mazères;
* 6th of February, 1919: estimated flow rate of 600-800 m³/s at Mazères;
* 19th of May, 1977: estimated flow rate of 1070 m³/s at Mazères;
* 16th of January, 1981: estimated flow rate of 1100 m³/s at Mazères;
* 11th of June, 2000: estimated flow rate of 500 m³/s at Mazères;
* 24th of January, 2004: estimated flow rate of 500 m³/s at Mazères.

References

*http://www.geoportail.fr
* [http://sandre.eaufrance.fr/app/chainage/courdo/htm/O1--0290.php?cg=O1--0290 The Hers-Vif at the Sandre database]