Éditeur(s) : Springer
Résumé : Based on new multibeam bathymetric data, seismic-reflection profiles and side-scan sonar images, a great number of submarine failures of various types and sizes was identified along the northern margin of the Ligurian Basin and characterized with 3 distinct end-members concerning their location on the margin, sedimentary processes and possible triggering mechanisms. They include superficial landslides mainly located in the vicinity of the main mountain-supplied rivers and on the inner walls of canyons (typically smaller that 10(8) m(3) in volume: Type 1), deep scars 100-500 m high along the base of the continental slope (Type 2), and large-scale scars and Mass Transport Deposits (MTDs) affecting the upper part of the slope (Type 3 failures). The MTDs are located in different environmental contexts of the margin, including the deep Var Sedimentary Ridge (VSR) and the upper part of the continental slope in the Gulf of Genova (Finale Slide and Portofino Slide), with volumes of missing sediment reaching up to 1.5 x 10(9) m(3). High sedimentation rates related to hyperpycnal flows, faults and earthquake activity, together with sea-level fluctuations are the main factors invoked to explain the distribution and sizes of these different failure types.
Marine Geophysical Research (0025-3235) (Springer), 2011-03 , Vol. 32 , N. 1-2 , P. 225-243

Droits : Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00043/15387/14028.pdf
DOI:10.1007/s11001-011-9123-3
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00043/15387/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
This study aims at assessing the population vulnerability in the Pasig-Potrero River basin threatened by the recurrent lahars of Mt Pinatubo volcano (Philippines) subsequent to its 1991 eruption. A survey carried out between February and March 1998 enabled us to define and to map different levels of risk perception, the quality of the potential behaviors in the event of further lahars and of the demeanors in case of evacuation order. It was then possible to work out a typology and a cartography of human vulnerability in this study area.This study points out that, even though the risk perception is quite high, some problems remain, notably concerning warning and behaviors in case of evacuation.This work is part of a larger framework including population vulnerability assessment around Mt Pinatubo (social and institutional vulnerability). It also aims at estimating the effects, notably the territorial consequences, occurred as a result of a crisis linked to the volcano and its lahars, and that has been lasting for eight years. These results should allow to elaborate some risk and disaster scenarios. They are intended to be used as operational purposes in crises management such as relief arrangement, land use planning.
Cette étude a pour objectif d'évaluer la vulnérabilité des populations du bassin de la rivière Pasig-Potrero menacé par les lahars récurrents du volcan Pinatubo (Philippines) suite à l'éruption de 1991. A partir d'une campagne d'enquêtes sur le terrain, réalisée entre février et mars 1998, on a pu définir et cartographier différents niveaux de perception du risque, la qualité des comportements potentiels face aux lahars ainsi que des attitudes en cas d'ordre d'évacuation. Ces données ont ensuite permis de réaliser une typologie et une cartographie de la vulnérabilité dans le secteur d'étude.Il en ressort que si la perception du risque est assez élevée, des problèmes subsistent, notamment en matière d'alerte et de comportements en cas d'évacuation. La qualité de l'alerte a aussi montré, dans le passé, des carences qu'il convient aujourd'hui de combler.Ce travail s’inscrit dans un cadre plus large d'évaluation de la vulnérabilité des populations face au volcan Pinatubo (vulnérabilité sociale, institutionnelle...) el des conséquences, notamment territoriales, de huit années de crises liées à l'éruption, puis aux lahars.Ces conclusions peuvent guider l'élaboration de scénarios de risque et de catastrophe, utiles à des fins opérationnelles (planification des secours, aide à la gestion des crises, aménagement du territoire...).
Pangea

hal-01169313
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01169313
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01169313/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01169313/file/Gaillard%20D%27Ercole%20Leone%201998%20-%20Cartographie%20de%20la%20vuln%C3%A9rabilit%C3%A9%20des%20populations%20Pinatubo%20Philippines.pdf

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) : Elsevier
Résumé : The combined use of Lu-Hf and Sm-Nd isotope systems potentially offers a unique perspective for investigating continental erosion, but little is known about whether, and to what extent, the Hf-Nd isotope composition of sediments is related to silicate weathering intensity. In this study, Hf and Nd elemental and isotope data are reported for marine muds, leached Fe-oxide fractions and zircon-rich turbidite sands collected off the Congo River mouth, and from other parts of the SE Atlantic Ocean. All studied samples from the Congo fan (muds, Fe-hydroxides, sands) exhibit indistinguishable Nd isotopic composition (epsilon(Nd)similar to - 16), indicating that Fe-hydroxides leached from these sediments correspond to continental oxides precipitated within the Congo basin. In marked contrast, Hf isotope compositions for the same samples exhibit significant variations. Leached Fe-hydroxide fractions are characterized by epsilon(Hf) values (from -1.1 to +13) far more radiogenic than associated sediments (from -7.1 to -12.0) and turbidite sands (from -27.2 to -31.6). epsilon(Hf) values for Congo fan sediments correlate very well with Al/K (i.e. a well-known index for the intensity of chemical weathering in Central Africa). Taken together, these results indicate that (1) silicate weathering on continents leads to erosion products having very distinctive Hf isotope signatures, and (2) a direct relationship exists between epsilon(Hf) of secondary clay minerals and chemical weathering intensity. These results combined with data from the literature have global implications for understanding the Hf-Nd isotope variability in marine precipitates and sediments. Leached Fe-hydroxides from Congo fan sediments plot remarkably well on an extension of the 'seawater array' (i.e. the correlation defined by deep-sea Fe-Mn precipitates), providing additional support to the suggestion that the ocean Hf budget is dominated by continental inputs. Fine-grained sediments define a diffuse trend, between that for igneous rocks and the,seawater array', which we refer to as the 'zircon-free sediment array' (epsilon(Hf)=0-91 epsilon(Nd)+3.10). Finally, we show that the Hf-Nd arrays for seawater, unweathered igneous rocks, zircon-free and zircon-bearing sediments (epsilon(Hf)= 1.80 epsilon(Nd)+2.35) can all be reconciled, using Monte Carlo simulations, with a simple weathering model of the continental crust. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Earth and Planetary Science Letters (0012-821X) (Elsevier), 2009 , Vol. 277 , N. 3-4 , P. 318-326

Droits : 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2009/publication-6451.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.10.028
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/6451/