Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Présentation orale
Colloque International organisé au Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle
Paris, France

hal-00481854
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00481854

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Poster
The Lesser Caucasus in Armenia is an active volcanic and tectonic zone which resulted from the collision of the Arabian and the Eurasian plates since Neogene times. The During Quaternary, Lesser Caucasus was uplifted (0.3 mm/yr; Mitchell and Westaway, 1999) and experienced extensional tectonics times. Large lakes developed in graben structures. The diatomitic sequences of the Shamb paleo-lake (South Armenia) offer a rare opportunity to give new insights of Western Asia paleo-climate. Based on macroflora analysis, Bruch and Gabrielyan (2002) proposed a cooling and drying general climate trend through Pleistocene times in relation with a general uplift of the chain. Several questions have to be answer for this poorly investigated region. Did the climate record humid glacials and arid interglacials as suggested northward in Kazakhstan? What are the vegetation and climate responses to orbital parameters and to the monsoon? Moreover the lesser Caucasus is known as the entrance way used by the first hominids in Eurasia during Pleistocene time. How was the environment at this time? We present an integrated palynological, 40Ar/39Ar isotopic and magnetostratigraphic study for the most complete section (Joannin et al., in press). 40Ar/39Ar dating of two volcaniclastic layers provided ages of 1.24 ± 0.03 and 1.16 ± 0.02 Ma (2. Magnetostratigraphic data show that the entire Shamb section is of reversed polarity which correlates with part of the Matuyama period (1.785-1.070 Ma). Pollen assemblages and macroremains diversity revealed an alternation of glacial and interglacial phases that are compared with climate changes inferred from the global isotopic curve. The Shamb section ranges from approximately 1.300 to 1.080 Ma in age (marine isotopic stages 40 to 31). The vegetation of the Lesser Caucasus developed in a mosaic pattern in a Pleistocene continental, mostly arid climate, similar to the present-day climate. The vegetation changes record a dominant climate response to the obliquity orbital parameter. The influence of precession could not be established from the Shamb data. Pollen and macroflora both indicate that glacial periods were cold and dry and that interglacials were warm with local humidity. The early Pleistocene climatic model for Western Asia is thus similar to the climatic model for the Mediterranean area. Bruch, A., Gabrielyan, I.G., 2002. Quantitative data of the Neogene climatic development in Armenia and Nakhichevan. Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Geologica 46, 41–48. Joannin, S., Cornée, J.J., Münch, P., Fornari, M., Vasiliev, J., Krijgsman, W., Nahapetyan, S., Gabrielyan, Y., Ollivier, V., Roiron, P., Chataîgnier, C. In press. Early Pleistocene climatic cycles in continental deposits of the Lesser Caucasus of Armenia inferred from palynology, magnetostratigraphy, and 40Ar/39Ar dating. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Mitchell, J., Westaway, R., 1999. Chronology of Neogene and Quaternary uplift and magmatism in the Caucasus: constraints from K-Ar dating of volcanism in Armenia. Tectonophysics 304, 157–186.
EGU Eurasian Climate and Tectonics
Vienne, Austria

hal-00481799
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00481799

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Présentation orale
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
Copenhague, Denmark

hal-00481851
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00481851

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Société géologique de France
Résumé : Upper Carboniferous heating and melting of the middle orogenic crust associated with the emplacement of syntectonic granitoids are documented in the Upper Gneissic Unit of the Livradois area (central part of the French Massif Central). Crustal melting post-dates peak metamorphism conditions (800-625 degrees C, 10-8 kb) dated at 360 +/- 4 Ma (U-Th-Pb on monazite). The P-T evolution of the metamorphic series indicates that Barrovian metamorphism was followed by a decompression (from 10 +/- 1 kbar to 6 +/- 1 kbar) associated with either a decrease in temperature in the southern part of the series or with an increase in temperature (of about 150 degrees C) in the northern part of the series. This evolution records the first step of the exhumation of the series coeval with granitoids intrusion, of which the emplacements were dated at 315 +/- 4 and 311 +/- 18 Ma (U-Pb on zircon). The final stage of the exhumation is associated with an isobaric cooling of the whole series. Similarity of Ar-40/Ar-39 ages for biotite in the paragneisses (307-300 Ma) and K-feldspar in the granitoids (306-300 Ma) document rapid cooling for this stage. Moreover dextral reverse mylonites, at the border and the northern part of the metamorphic series indicate north-south compression coeval with the unroofing of the series. Youngest Ar-40-Ar-39 ages on K-feldspar (274.6 +/- 5 Ma) combined with normal shearing in mylonites limiting the Carboniferous Brassac-les-Mines basin document the late Carboniferous-early Permian stage of extension coeval with the upwelling of the Velay granitic dome.
EISSN: 1777-5817

hal-00617429
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617429
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.182.1.5

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oxford University Press (OUP)
Résumé : International audience
Ash flow tuffs, or ignimbrites have been recently proposed to be a good material for palaeointensity determination. In this paper, we present a multidisciplinary study, combining geochronology, petrology, rock magnetism and palaeomagnetism, carried out on Oligocene to Early Miocene ignimbrites and related flows from the southern part of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Two new 40Ar/39Ar ages were determined for ignimbrites; 20.4 ± 0.2 Ma (the youngest age obtained so far in this area) and 29.2 ± 0.5 Ma. Density measurements, as a proxy for welding, proved to be extremely useful to estimate the emplacement temperature and the origin of the magnetizations carried by the ignimbrites. After alternating field and thermal demagnetizations, the mean palaeomagnetic pole (Lat = 66.8°N; Long = 180.5°E; Kappa = 142; A95 = 6.3°), calculated for the period 28-31 Ma, is in close agreement with our only Miocene determination. Comparison with the North America Synthetic Apparent Polar Path indicates a net counter-clockwise vertical axis rotation of about 10 ± 4° compared to stable North America, which occurred likely during the last extensional episode in the Late Miocene (ca. 12-9 Ma). Palaeointensity estimates, obtained with the Thellier-Coe method, are mainly questionable and should not be used for global interpretation. Therefore, these ignimbrites are not a viable material for reliable palaeointensity determinations.
ISSN: 0956-540X

hal-00854457
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00854457
DOI : 10.1093/gji/ggt079