Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Deep crustal and mantle rocks are exhumed in core complex mode of extension in three types of structures: metamorphic core complexes, oceanic core complexes and magma poor passive margins. Using available analogue and numerical models and their comparison with natural examples, the present paper reviews the mechanical processes involved in these different types of extensional setting. Three main aspects are considered: i) the primary role of lithosphere rheology, ii) the lithosphere-scale patterns of progressive deformation that lead to the exhumation of deep metamorphic or mantle rocks and iii) the initiation and development of detachment zones. Crustal core complexes develop in continental lithospheres whose Moho temperature is higher than 750 °C with “upper crust-dominated” strength profiles. Contrary to what is commonly believed, it is argued from analogue and numerical models that detachments that accommodate exhumation of core complexes do not initiate at the onset of extension but in the course of progressive extension when the exhuming ductile crust reaches the surface. In models, convex upward detachments result from a rolling hinge process. Mantle core complexes develop in either the oceanic lithosphere, at slow and ultra-slow spreading ridges, or in continental lithospheres, whose initial Moho temperature is lower than 750 °C, with “sub-Moho mantle-dominated” strength profiles. It is argued that the mechanism of mantle exhumation at passive margins is a nearly symmetrical necking process at lithosphere scale without major and permanent detachment, except if strong strain localization could occur in the lithosphere mantle. Distributed crustal extension, by upper crust faulting above a décollement along the ductile crust increases toward the rift axis up to crustal breakup. Mantle rocks exhume in the zone of crustal breakup accommodated by conjugate mantle shear zones that migrate with the rift axis, during increasing extension.
ISSN: 0040-1951

insu-01610186
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01610186
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01610186/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01610186/file/brun-tect-2017.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2017.09.017

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The chronostratigraphy of the lower Miocene deposits of northwestern Sardinia is refined in the Castelsardo Basin. The combination of new 40Ar/39Ar isotopic datings, 19 micropalaeontological datings (calcareous nannofossils, planktonic and large benthic foraminifers) and 16 palaeomagnetic polarity measurements led to a new chronostratigraphic framework. The continental deposits of the first megasequence (Valledoria and Casteldoria members) are possibly Aquitanian. The overlying marine sediments are early Burdigalian (Vaginella depressa Molasse). The marine transgression can be dated to around 19.7 Ma. Marine conditions ceased 18.83 ± 0.13 Ma, the age of the index aerial τ2 ignimbrite. The continental part of the second megasequence (“Lacustre” unit) is early–middle Burdigalian, between 18.8 and 18 Ma. The overlying marine part (Campulandu and Sedini members) is middle–late Burdigalian. The second marine transgression began in the earliest–late Burdigalian, during the Chron C5Dr reversal, at the time of the eustatic Bur 4 event. The Castelsardo basin went through two main extensional tectonic episodes. The first one occurred as the Valledoria Member was deposited and possibly dates back to the Aquitanian. The second one occurred as the uppermost part of the Vaginella depressa Molasse was deposited during the early Burdigalian. The second extensional episode is related to a rapid rotation of Sardinia. Palaeomagnetic results confirm that Corsica and Sardinia acted as a single block which suffered a 28 ± 17° ccw rotation after 19.2 Ma. The Castelsardo basin is held to be an Aquitanian–early Burdigalian intra-arc rift basin that later evolved in a thermally controlled subsident margin of the Ligurian-Provençal Basin during the middle–late Burdigalian.
ISSN: 0031-0182

hal-00498288
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00498288
DOI : 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.06.007

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Intraplate deformation is most often linked to major stress applied on plate margins. When such intraplate events are accompanied by magmatism, the use of several dating methods integrated within a multidisciplinary approach can bring constraints on the age, nature and source mobilized for generating the magma and in turn on the nature of the intraplate deformation. This study focuses on the large gabbro Arrikine sill (35 km in extension) emplaced within the Silurian sediments of the western margin of the Murzuq cratonic basin in southeastern Algeria. Its emplacement is dated during the early Devonian (415-400 Ma) through the determination of a reliable paleomagnetic pole by comparison with the Gondwana Apparent Polar Wander Path (APWP). This age can be correlated with deep phreatic eruptions before Pragian time thought to be at the origin of sand injections and associated circular structures in Algeria and Libya. For the sill, the K–Ar age of 325.6 ± 7.7 Ma is related to a K-rich aplitic phase that has K-enriched by more than 20% the Devonian gabbro. Laser-ICP-MS U–Pb method dates only inherited zircons mostly at c. 2030 Ma with additional ages at c. 2700 Ma and younger ones in the 766-598 Ma age range. The Arrikine sill is a high-Ti alkaline gabbro having the geochemical composition of a hawaiite akin to several intraplate continental and oceanic provinces, including the contemporaneous Aïr ring complexes province in Niger, but also to the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii. This peculiar composition akin to that of the contemporaneous Aïr province is in agreement with a lower Devonian age for the Arrikine sill.The lower Devonian Arrikine sill emplacement is related to a “Caledonian” transtensive reactivation of the western metacratonic boundary of the Murzuq craton. This event also generated in the Saharan platform the so-called “Caledonian unconformity” of regional extension, the Aïr ring complexes and magmatic rocks that produced sand injections. It could be related to rifting of the Hun terranes that occurred at the plate margin to the north (Stampfli and Borel, 2002, Blackey, 2008 and references therein). The mid-Carboniferous (c. 326 Ma) reactivation corresponds to Variscan compression on NW Africa generating aplitic fluids, but also to the major “Hercynian unconformity” of regional extension. The generation of the Arrikine magma is attributed to partial melting through adiabatic pressure release of uprising asthenosphere along tectonically reactivated mega-shear zones, here bordering the relictual Murzuq craton enclosed in the Saharan metacraton.
ISSN: 0899-5362

hal-01306637
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01306637
DOI : 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2015.11.019

Éditeur(s) : Springer
Résumé : The main structural features of the continental margin off West Spitzberg are outlined. Seaward the Atka ridge has acted like a dam for the eastward-flowing sediments and thus helped to build up a large sedimentary basin, narrowing towards the North. Magnetic and seismic data show that the Atka Valley is probably an active accretion rift valley. These results are in good agreement with the last hypothesis on the opening of the Norwegian Sea. During the Pliocene, a tectonic event may have affected Atka ridge and modified the subsequent sedimentation. [NOT CONTROLLED OCR]
L'étude de plusieurs profils de sismique réflexion, magnétisme et gravimétrie a permis de dégager les grands traits de la structure de la marge continentale à l'ouest du Spitzberg. Cette marge est représentée au niveau du talus continental par un bassin sédimentaire dont la largeur se réduit en allant vers le Nord. Ce bassin est limité à l'Ouest par les premiers contreforts de la dorsale d'Atka qui a joué un rôle de barrage pour les apports sédimentaires. Les données de la sismique réflexion et du magnétisme indiquent que la vallée d'Atka est sans doute une zone actuelle d'expansion. Ces résultats sont en bon accord avec le modèle récent d'ouverture de la mer de Norvège. De plus, la dorsale d'Atka semble avoir subi au pliocène un réajustement ayant modifié les processus sédimentaires au niveau de la marge. [OCR NON CONTRÔLE]
Marine Geophysical Researches (Springer), 1975 , Vol. 2 , N. 3 , P. 215-229

Droits : Springer
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/1975/publication-5439.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/5439/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier Masson
Résumé : International audience
The Qinling–Dabie Belt represents the boundary between the North and South China Blocks (NCB, SCB, respectively), where ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) rocks are widespread. A structural study in eastern Qinling and zircon LA ICPMS dating of the migmatite that form the core of the Central Qinling Unit allows us to argue that continental collision occurred in Silurian, before 400 Ma. In the Late Palaeozoic, from Devonian to Permian, the northern margin of SCB experienced a continental rifting. From Late Permian to Middle Triassic, northward continental subduction of SCB is responsible for the development of a high-pressure metamorphism. The age of the UHP metamorphism remains unsettled yet. A two-time genesis, Early Palaeozoic and Early Triassic, is often preferred, but a single Palaeozoic age followed by a Triassic resetting cannot be ruled out.
ISSN: 1631-0713

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
insu-00191534
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00191534
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00191534/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00191534/file/Faure-ComptesRendusGeoscience.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.crte.2007.10.007

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Geological Society of America
Résumé : International audience
The post-rift denudation history of high-elevation divergent continentalmargins is central to deciphering source-to-sink systems acrosssuch margins and to unraveling their topographic evolution. We performed40Ar-39Ar dating of supergene K-Mn oxides from supergenemanganese ore deposits in order to constrain the age of in situ formedlaterites on both the lowland and highland sides of the Western GhatsEscarpment of Peninsular India. Documentation of laterites as oldas 53 Ma on the highland and 47 Ma at the foot of the escarpmentshows that the escarpment stabilized before 47 Ma (possibly 60 Ma).The topographic setting of the dated weathering mantles also constrainsdenudation of the lowland and the highland since ca. 50 Mato maximums of 5 m/m.y. and 15 m/m.y., respectively. Our resultschallenge denudation rates derived from apatite fission track thermochronologyby documenting the topography and relief longevityof the southwest Indian margin and its hinterland. The results precludelarge-magnitude uplift of Peninsular India after the Eocene,and more generally argue against late Neogene uplift and topographicrejuvenation of continental shields.
ISSN: 0091-7613

ird-01419633
http://hal.ird.fr/ird-01419633
http://hal.ird.fr/ird-01419633/document
http://hal.ird.fr/ird-01419633/file/GEOLOGY-S-15-00851_HAL.pdf
DOI : 10.1130/G37303.1

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
We have analyzed shear wave splitting recorded by portable and permanent broadband and long-period stations located in the eastern United States. Teleseismic shear waves (SKS, SKKS, and PKS) were used to retrieve the splitting parameters: the orientation of the fast wave polarization plane ϕ and the delay time δt. In total, 120 seismic events were processed, allowing for more than 600 splitting measurements. Within the Appalachians, stations located in the western (external) part are characterized by δt≈1s and ϕ trending N50°– 70°E in the south and central regions and N30°–40°E in the north, closely following the trend of the orogenic belt in these areas. The transition region between north and central is characterized by δt≈1–1.3 s and by E-W trending ϕ that are at a high angle to the regional geologic trend. Measurements at two stations located in the eastern (internal) part of the belt indicate very weak anisotropy. The large-scale pattern of anisotropy is not consistent with that predicted for simple asthenospheric flow beneath the plate. Splitting along the southern and eastern margins of the continent is consistent with that expected for Grenvillian deformation, an alternative model of asthenospheric flow around the cratonic keel cannot be ruled out. Within the cratonic core, the correlation between δt and lithospheric thickness suggests a lithospheric anisotropy. Smaller-length-scale variations also argue for a significant contribution of lithospheric structures. The fabric responsible for shear wave splitting may have formed during tectonic episodes that affected the eastern United States, i.e., the Grenville and Appalachian orogenies and the subsequent rifting of the North Atlantic Ocean. Our observations in the western Appalachians suggest that the anisotropy may be preserved since the Grenvillian orogeny. The absence of detectable splitting in the two stations in the eastern Appalachians is attributed to the igneous intrusions related to the Atlantic rifting. The measurements in the transition between the northern and central southern Appalachians, constitute an intriguing anomaly, whose E-W ϕ have little obvious relation to the regional surface geology. We suggest two possible causes: (1) the local dominance of asthenospheric flow, motivated by the proximity of a pervasive low-velocity anomaly and (2) lithospheric deformation in a transcontinental strike-slip fault zone active during the Appalachian collision.
ISSN: 2169-9313

hal-01388859
http://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01388859
http://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01388859/document
http://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01388859/file/Barruol_JGR_1997.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/96JB03800

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
This article summarizes the geodynamic evolution of the Variscan to Mesozoic Tethyan subduction history, based on a review of geochronological data from Eastern Anatolia and the Lesser Caucasus, and new isotopic ages for the Georgian crystalline basements. The geological history of the basements of Georgia (Transcaucasus) and NE Turkey (eastern Pontides) appears to be similar and provides evidence for a continuously active continental margin above a north-dipping subduction since at least the Lower Jurassic. New La-ICPMS U-Pb ages from the Georgian basement provide further evidence for the derivation of the Transcaucasus and its western continuation (the eastern Pontides) from Gondwana. A migmatized granodiorite provides preserved magmatic zircon cores with an age of 474 ± 3 Ma, while the age of migmatization is constrained by its 343 ± 2 Ma metamorphic rims. Metamorphism is synchronous with widespread I-type granites that were emplaced at 335 ± 8 Ma in the neighbouring Dzirula massif, and in the eastern Pontides. These U-Pb ages are in close agreement with recently obtained Ar/Ar ages from biotites and muscovites from metamorphic schists and U-Pb ages ranging from 340 to 330 Ma in the Georgian basement. The narrow range of ages suggests that the Variscan LP-HT metamorphic event in the eastern Pontides and Georgia was of short duration and likely related to mantle-derived intrusives. Furthermore, we suggest that (1) rifting of the Pontides-Transcaucasus block (PTB) from Gondwana at 450–350 Ma could have been driven by roll-back of the south-dipping Rheic slab, (2) that the main metamorphic and coeval magmatic events are related to the accretion of the PTB to the Eurasian margin at c. 350 Ma, while the source of magmatism is ascribed to slab detachment of the south-dipping slab at 340 Ma and that (3) three subduction zones may have been contemporaneously active in the Tethyan domain during the Jurassic: (i) the Lesser Caucasus South Armenian Block (SAB) shares a similar Gondwana affinity, but bears younger ages for its MP-MT metamorphic evolution and calc-alkaline magmatism bracketed from 160 to 123 Ma; (ii) north-dipping subduction below the PTB from c. 210 Ma to 150 Ma; (iii) northward intra-oceanic subduction bracketed from 180 to 90 Ma between the SAB and the PTB.
ISSN: 0264-3707

hal-01347761
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01347761
DOI : 10.1016/j.jog.2016.03.003