Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
The Lanzo peridotite massif is a fragment of oceanic lithosphere generated in an ocean-continent transition context and eclogitized during alpine collision. Despite the subduction history, the massif has preserved its sedimentary oceanic cover, suggesting that it may have preserved its oceanic structure. It is an exceptional case for studying the evolution of a fragment of the lithosphere from its oceanization to its subduction and then exhumation. We present a field and petrological study retracing the different serpentinization episodes and their impact on the massif structure. The Lanzo massif is composed of slightly serpentinized peridotites (<20% serpentinization) surrounded by an envelope of foliated serpentinites (100% serpentinization) bordered by oceanic metabasalts and metasedimentary rocks. The limit between peridotites and serpentinites defines the front of serpentinization. This limit is sharp: it is marked by the presence of massive serpentinites (80% serpentinization) and, locally, by dykes of metagabbros and mylonitic gabbros. The deformation of these gabbros is contemporaneous with the emplacement of the magma. The presence of early lizardite in the peridotites testifies that serpentinization began during the oceanization, which is confirmed by the presence of meta-ophicarbonates bordering the foliated serpentinite envelope. Two additional generations of serpentine occur in the ultramafic rocks. The first is a prograde antigorite that partially replaced the lizardite and the relict primary minerals of the peridotite during subduction, indicating that serpentinization is an active process at the ridge and in the subduction zone. Locally, this episode is followed by the deserpentinization of antigorite at peak P-T (estimated in eclogitized metagabbros at 2-2.5 GPa and 550-620 °C): it is marked by the crystallization of secondary olivine associated with chlorite and/or antigorite and of clinopyroxene, amphibole and chlorite assemblages. A second antigorite formed during exhumation partially to completely obliterating previous textures in the massive and foliated serpentinites. Serpentinites are an important component of the oceanic lithosphere generated in slow to ultraslow spreading settings, and in these settings, there is a serpentinization gradient with depth in the upper mantle. The seismic Moho limit could correspond to a serpentinization front affecting the mantle. This partially serpentinized zone constitutes a less competent level where, during subduction and exhumation, deformation and fluid circulation are localized. In this zone, the reaction kinetics are increased and the later steps of serpentinization obliterate the evidence of this progressive zone of serpentinization. In the Lanzo massif, this zone fully recrystallized into serpentinite during alpine subduction and collision. Thus, the serpentinite envelope represents the oceanic crust as defined by geophysicists, and the sharp front of serpentinization corresponds to an eclogitized seismic palaeo-Moho.
ISSN: 0263-4929

hal-00823051
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00823051
DOI : 10.1111/jmg.12008

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The aim of this paper is to prove that the framework of generalized functions of Sobolev type is more suitable to pose and solve some PDEs problems with very irregular data, than the one introduced by J.-F. Colombeau, when ${mathcal{C}}^{infty}$ estimates are not available or out of reach. In such type of algebras, one shows the existence and some qualitative properties of solutions for problems appearing in the mathematical modelisation of oil activities.
Journal of Mathematical Analysis and applications

hal-00685042
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00685042
DOI : 10.1016/j.jmaa.2011.07.063

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Mass balances are often used to calculate sediment fluxes in sedimentary basins and denudationrates in adjacent topographies on intermediate to long timescales (from a few tens ofthousand to a million years). In this study, we focus on simple Quaternary catchment–alluvialfan systems in the northern Tian Shan Range and its foreland basin to discuss some ideasabout sediment production, storage, release, and bypass in relatively short (100 km long) sedimentrouting systems. Based on a geometrical reconstruction of the fans, we estimated thevolumes of sediments exported out of the range and deposited in its alluvial piedmont duringthe Middle-Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. This work shows that the two areas clearlypresent evidence of a temporary but significant storage of sediments during the Pleistocene.These sediments were then excavated and delivered farther into the foreland basin during theHolocene. The difference between the volumes of materials released from the range and piedmontareas and the volume stored in the contemporaneous fans downstream indicates thatthe latter did not trap the whole sediment load transported by the rivers. The alluvial fans werebypassed by 27 to 78% of this load toward the downstream alluvial plain. It implies a majorvolumetric partitioning of the deposits between the fans and the alluvial plain, with a sedimentationrate about twenty times higher in the fans than in the plain. However, this volumetricpartitioning might only occur during periods with a very specific hydrological regime suchas the Holocene deglaciation. Eventually, the peculiar sediment storage and release patternwithin the range and piedmont areas during the Pleistocene and Holocene complicates thecalculation of mean paleodenudation rates using either sediment budgets or in situ producedcosmogenic nuclides.
Source to Sink: a long term perspective of sediment budgets and sources characterization, Abstracts
Rennes, France

insu-01406440
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01406440

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, v. 9, p. Q12001, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008GC002098
International audience
Rb/Sr, 40Ar/39Ar, and Sm/Nd isotopic data are reported in Caledonian eclogites from the Lindås Nappe, Bergen Arcs, Norway, in order to investigate processes controlling isotopic equilibrium at mineral scale in polymetamorphic rocks. The Bergen Arcs exposes Sveconorwegian ∼950–930 Ma granulites, partially overprinted by Caledonian eclogite-facies metamorphism at ∼425 Ma and amphibolite-facies metamorphism at ∼410 Ma. Geochemical and Rb-Sr data from more than 10 phengite fractions separated from one sample reflect the composition of the microdomain (a few hundred microns in size) in which phengite crystallized. Phengite crystallized after garnet or plagioclase by dissolution-precipitation processes yield apparent age between 700 and 600 Ma. At the time of their crystallization, these phengites inherited the isotopic composition of their precursor minerals, at a microdomain scale. Phengite from quartz veins, which crystallized from elements mobilized by the circulating fluid, yield an age closer to the eclogite-facies metamorphic age. The closed system evolution of the eclogitizing fluid, the segregation of textural and reactional microdomains, the high Sr content of the studied phengite, and the short duration of the recrystallization processes (<1Ma) are interpreted as the main factors responsible for the lack of a Rb/Sr isotopic equilibrium, at the scale of hand samples. Such equilibrium is nevertheless reached in quartz veins where the crystallization of minerals implies that the fluid circulation acted as a factor of isotopic homogenization. The in situ single mineral Ar/Ar datings revealed that both eclogite- and amphibolite-facies minerals are characterized by an excess of radiogenic argon (ages between 425 and 520 Ma). The excess of argon has been inherited from the previous granulite and has been only partially evacuated from the system by the circulating fluid. The apparent Sm/Nd ages from garnets inherited from the granulite-facies metamorphism (c. 930 Ma) are in agreement with previous estimates. This result confirms that the diffusion of Nd in garnet does not occur at temperatures lower than 700°C. This study highlights the complexity of radiochronometer behavior during HP metamorphism and demonstrates that coupling different radiochronometers, such as Ar/Ar and Rb/Sr, does not always guarantee the validity of the geochronological results.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-00407885
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00407885
DOI : 10.1029/2008GC002098

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The dating of alluvial landforms by cosmogenic nuclides requires distinguishing the pre-deposition inheritance from the post-deposition history of the clasts in the studied marker. Moreover, estimating catchment-scale erosion rates from the concentrations of cosmogenic nuclides in active alluvia requires a good knowledge of the local/regional relationships between rock exhumation and transport through space and time. This is still poorly known for timescales of tens of thousand years. In order to document the evolution of clast exhumation and transport rates through time, we analyze in situ 10Be concentrations in boulders and cobbles from hillslopes to outlet of an arid mountainous catchment located in Gobi-Altay, Mongolia, strongly affected by global climatic changes during the Pleistocene-Holocene period. Samples were collected on bedrock, abandoned alluvial deposits, active colluvia and alluvia. Our results show a large 10Be scattering in the active river bed, consistent with a low and discontinuous catchment erosion rate dominated by mass wasting and fluvial incision. On the contrary, pre-exposure signal within abandoned terraces is much more homogeneous, consistent with climatic pulses responsible of strong erosional events on hillslopes and rapid fluvial transport. These results show that exhumation/transport processes at the catchment scale vary in style and intensity through time as a consequence of climatic oscillations. The occurrence of abrupt climatic changes during short periods of time recorded by 10Be concentrations in abandoned alluvia raise questions about the temporal applicability of catchment erosion rates derived from cosmogenic nuclide concentrations measured in sediments of active rivers. On the other hand, strong and short erosion events limit and homogenize the pre-exposure 10Be signal in associated deposits like debris-flows, making them particularly suitable markers for dating in active tectonic and paleoclimatic studies.
ISSN: 0169-555X

hal-00626702
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00626702
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00626702/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00626702/file/GEOMOR-2485R1_corrected.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.07.023

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
The Cenozoic weathering of peninsular India has been advocated as a major driver of globalcooling, however, its timing remains virtually unconstrained such that proposed links betweentropical weathering of the Deccan Traps, regional monsoonal intensity and global climate remainsspeculative. To solve this conundrum we present here a revised weathering chronologybased on the identification of lateritic paleosurfaces and their dating using 40Ar/39Ar on supergeneK-rich manganese oxides. We focus on the Indian western passive margin where theWestern Ghats Escarpment (WGE) – a ~1000 m high topographic barrier resulting from thecontinental break up of Greater India – exposes exceptionally preserved weathering profilesfrom the western coastal lowlands to the eastern highland plateaus above the WGE. Four mainlateritic paleosurfaces have been identified: Three in the highland; a high landsurface (Al-Femostly bauxite) at elevation 1200-1000 m asl, an intermediate landsurface covered by a Feduricrustat 1000-900 m asl and a lower pediment landsurface at 850-600 m asl; and one inthe coastal lowland underneath a pediment landsurface at 150-50 m asl. The 40Ar/39Ar agesdocument three major weathering periods over the Cenozoic. The oldest weathering period(W1) is recorded between 53 Ma to 45 Ma both in the highland and the lowland. This correlatesto the Global Eocene climatic Optimum, and allows defining a bauxitic paleolandsurface acrossthe escarpment. Intense bauxitic weathering between ~ 45 and 47 Ma in the lowland indicatethat the WGE was stabilized before ~ 47 Ma on its margin and also implies low denudation rateat the foot of the WGE (<5 m Ma-1) since that time. The second weathering period between37 Ma to 19 Ma (W2) occurred in two distinctive stages (W2a and W2b). From 37 to 26 (W2a),weathering is only recorded in the highland and affect intermediate surfaces. The intensityof chemical weathering decreased sensibly between 32 and 29 Ma – potentially linked to theEarly Oligocene cooling – and resulted in the formation of the lower pediment surface. From~26 Ma to 19 Ma (W2b), only the western coastal lowland weathered while the highland surfacesare mostly dissected. This change and the highland/lowland weathering mitigation after~26 Ma documents a change in climatic patterns over peninsular India that signs the onset ofmodern-like monsoon regime. These results are being interpolated to the Deccan Traps basaltsto quantify their weathering and ultimately estimate of the contribution to CO2 fluxes of thesethree weathering periods and their potential link to Asian Monsoons and global cooling.
Source to Sink: a long term perspective of sediment budgets and sources characterization, Abstracts
Rennes, France

insu-01406455
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01406455