Résumé : Kepone contamination of French West Indies marine environments is scarcely known. Contaminated soils particles are carried by rivers from terrestrial zones to the coastal marine sediments where they settle. Thus coastal sediments potential function as a sink for them, but also as a source of contamination for the marine biota. Therefore, they can be of major importance both in relation with the origin of the catchment area contamination and with the potential impact of this contamination on the benthic ecosystems. The objectives of this study are to characterize the marine deposits in order to define the spatial extent of the contamination and to determine the temporal stages of this contamination in the superficial sedimentary column (about one half-meter deep). Two neighbouring bays were chosen along the south-atlantic coasts of the Martinique Island, the Robert Bay, where different previous studies have been already performed, and the Galion Bay, which also present important environmental concerns. The results (i) confirm the general low rate of kepone contamination in the Robert Bay superficial sediments, while the influence of the river is more pronounced in the Galion Bay for which sediment samples from the proximity of the river outfall are more contaminated, (ii) relativize the role of organic matter associated to the finer particle in the little contaminated marine sediments (iii) and at last, differentiate strongly the contamination of the two bays due to specific characteristic parameters. So, it apparears that the sedimentary dynamics and mineralogical cohorts undoubtedly should explain the discrepancies in the contamination of the sediments between the two bays, also characterized by very different humus-clayed compounds in the soils of each catchment basin.
La connaissance de la contamination des milieux marins antillais par la chlordécone est fragmentaire. Or, la fonction potentielle de ‘puits’, mais également de ‘source’, qu’assurent les sédiments littoraux suite au transfert de la molécule des sols terrestres jusqu’aux fonds marins devrait leur confèrer un rôle majeur dans leur relation avec les écosystèmes benthiques comme dans leur connexion avec les bassins versants correspondants. Du fait de la méconnaissance sédimentologique de ces milieux, le double objectif de la présente étude était de caractériser ces fonds afin de cerner l’extension spatiale de la contamination en chlordécone et de déterminer les phases temporelles de cette dernière dans la colonne sédimentaire superficielle (environ quarante premiers centimètres). Les zones d’étude choisies sont deux baies sud-atlantiques martiniquaises adjacentes, le havre du Robert, déjà retenu comme zone-atelier pour des études antérieures sur la dynamique du bassin versant, et la baie du Galion faisant l’objet de préoccupations environnementales et de travaux scientifiques prévus sur le bassin versant attenant. Les résultats obtenus conduisent à : (i) confirmer le faible taux de contamination générale des sédiments du havre du Robert, alors que l’influence de la rivière à débit significatif de la baie du Galion marque en ce sens les sédiments proches de son exutoire ; (ii) relativiser le rôle de la matière organique liée aux particules les plus fines dans cette faible contamination marine des sédiments et enfin (iii) différencier fortement la contamination des deux baies à partir de paramètres caractéristiques. Les dynamiques sédimentaires et les cortèges minéralogiques constituent sans aucun doute des pistes explicatives aux différences de contamination des sédiments entre les deux baies dont les bassins versants sont également caractérisés par des sols présentant des composés argilo-humiques très différents.

Droits : 2012 Ifremer
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00071/18247/15810.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00071/18247/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
We report paleomagnetic results from four overlapping stratigraphic sections (55 flows) through the lava pile in Tjörnes peninsula (North Iceland). The initial aim of our study was to check the existence of intermediate directions previously interpreted as belonging to the Matuyama-Brunhes geomagnetic reversal (MBR), and complete this record with Thellier-Thellier paleointensity determinations and 40Ar/39Ar radioisotopic dating. The directional results corroborate the findings by Kristjánsson et al. (1988): a sequence of reversed, transitional, normal, and transitional polarity (R-T-N-T) is found in each section. The polarity change is characterized by a jump from reversed virtual geomagnetic poles (VGPs) to a quasi-cluster of transitional VGPs located over China, followed by a second jump to a cluster of normal polarity before moving again towards intermediate polarities. Reversely magnetized flows exhibit a magnetic mineralogy well suited for paleointensity determination. Of these 25 flows, 20 yielded paleointensity estimates of good quality. Unfortunately, the systematic presence of coarse multidomain (MD) titanomagnetite in the transitional and normal polarity flows hampered paleointensity estimates for these flows. The Virtual Dipole Moments (VDM) calculated for the reversed polarity flows vary from 4.9 to 7.0 × 1022 Am2 with an arithmetic mean value of 5.5 ± 0.8 × 1022 Am2. This value is identical to the mean VDM obtained for the 0.3-5 Ma time window and thus strengthens the conclusion that the recent geomagnetic field strength is anomalously high compared to that older than 0.3 Ma. 40Ar/39Ar isochron ages were obtained with the incremental heating technique on groundmass separates or phenocryst-poor whole rock samples. Six of the transitionally magnetized lavas yielded isochron ages that are indistinguishable from one another at the 95% confidence level. The weighted average age is 862 ± 51 ka. In the upper part of this volcanic sequence, the normally magnetized flows yielded a weighted average age of 787 ± 40 ka. This finding supports the conclusion that a geomagnetic excursion within the Matuyama chron is recorded in the lower part of the Tjörnes volcanic sequence, whereas only the latest portion of the MBR is recorded by flows in the upper part of the lava pile. This conclusion is supported via comparison of the VGPs obtained from the lavas with those predicted by a geomagnetic field model.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-00618515
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00618515
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00618515/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00618515/file/Camps-epsl2011.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2011.07.026

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Type I and Type II eclogite xenoliths from the Roberts Victor kimberlite (South Africa) show marked differences in terms of microstructures, mineralogy, major-and trace-element compositions and oxygen-isotope compositions. The unequilibrated microstructures of Type I eclogites, their typical accessory assemblages (phologopite, diamond, sulphides, fluid inclusions) and the ubiquitous presence of "melt pockets" in garnets provide strong evidence of metasomatism. Type II eclogites systematically lack such features and are microstructurally more equilibrated. Type I eclogites are more magnesium-rich than most Type II (mean Mg# = 0.56 vs. 0.46), while Type II eclogites are generally more Ca-rich (mean CaO = 9 vs. 12 wt%) and Fe-rich (mean FeO = 10 vs. 12 wt%). Type I eclogites are systematically enriched in LREE, Sr, Ba, alkali elements, HFSE, Th and U compared to the more depleted Type II eclogites. Calculated trace-element patterns of fluids in equilibrium with Type I eclogites are closely similar to those of volatile-rich small-volume mantle melts in the carbonatite-kimberlite spectrum commonly inferred to be responsible for mantle metasomatism. Although oxygen isotopes are often used to argue for a subduction origin of mantle eclogites, correlations between delta O-18 of garnet and typical metasomatic tracers suggest that the metasomatic process also has shifted the oxygen-isotope compositions of the Type I eclogites toward heavier values. Roberts Victor Type I eclogites thus carry the imprint of a metasomatic process that strongly modified their major-element, trace-element and isotopic compositions, while the more pristine Type II eclogites escaped this modification. Therefore, attempts to constrain the origin of Roberts Victor eclogites should not be based on the much more abundant Type I eclogites, which retain little geochemical memory of their protoliths. The most suitable materials for such investigations may be the less metasomatised, but more rare, Type II eclogites.
ISSN: 0016-7037

hal-00669867
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00669867
DOI : 10.1016/j.gca.2011.08.035

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Almost all Red Sea deeps contain metal-rich sediments covered by brine pools. It is generally agreed that these metal-rich deposits precipitated from overlying metal-rich brines that originated from migrating hydrothermal fluids. No brine pool has ever been reported in Thetis Deep, inciting us to evaluate if such a brine layer ever occurred in the deep during the past. In order to address that questioning, a study combining mineralogical, geochemical (major-, minor-, rare-earth elements) and isotopic (Sr. Nd. Pb) approaches was completed on cored sediments and extracted interstitial waters from inside and outside the deep.;The sediments have an overall hydrothermal origin, as shown by the REE concentrations and patterns, metal contents, and Pb-Nd isotopic data, all pointing to a mantle signature. The intensity of the hydrothermal activity varied with time in the deep; the most intense episode resulting in an almost pure Fe-oxi-hydroxide layer. Varied chemical arguments, especially the Zr and REE data of the sediments, favor the fact that the whole sedimentation in Thetis Deep occurred in the absence of a stable, salt-rich and mineralized brine pool, and that no brine layer ever existed. This conclusion is supported by the constant Sr isotope composition of the sediment and its interstitial waters that are almost identical to that of the Red Sea seawater. The study also suggests that hydrothermal activity monitored fluid supplies that interacted differently with seawater in the different Red Sea deeps, resulting in an overall formation of metal-rich sediments, but along varied local conditions. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
ISSN: 0375-6742

hal-00475646
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00475646
DOI : 10.1016/j.gexplo.2009.10.001