Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : SUBSURF
International audience
Similarity of form between subaerial and submarine landscapes affected by erosion could suggest similarities in the process of erosion, such as by runoff and sedimentary flows, respectively. On the other hand, if aspects of form vary, its characteristics may be used to identify the environmental origin of erosion. Towards these goals, this contribution addresses the morphology of submarine volcanoes (seamounts) with widely differing histories of erosion. One set from the Pacific Ocean never exposed above sea level includes Cretaceous-age seamounts near Hawai'i (including Apu'upu'u Seamount), two seamounts of < 3 Ma in age near a mid-ocean ridge and the 11-4 Ma Jasper Seamount. These seamounts are all isolated from continents and hence from any erosion associated with mass wasting of unstable terrigenous deposits. In such isolated submarine environments, surfaces erode slowly from in situ weathering, mass wasting and scouring by sedimentary flows initiated by slope failure in pelagic or bedrock materials. The Pacific seamounts are compared with Valencia Seamount in the western Mediterranean, exposed subaerially for 100-400 k.y. during the Messinian Salinity Crisis before 5 Ma. Multibeam and deeply towed sidescan sonar data of Valencia Seamount reveal features typical of subaerial erosion of volcanic islands, such as canyons and relatively uneroded sectors (planezes) between them. Using a simple topographical reconstruction, the apparent erosion depth typically reaches 100 m within canyons and up to 180 m in places. Whereas the younger Pacific seamounts do not show these erosional features, the much older Cretaceous seamounts do have channels, which in one example suggests up to 200 m of incision. Both Valencia and Apu'upu'u seamounts have channel longitudinal profiles that are steep and typically linear to concave upwards. The erosion depth of Apu'upu'u Seamount is significant, despite the seamount's persistent submarine environment, because of its greater age, steeper flanks and greater contributing areas to channels compared with Valencia Seamount. These results illustrate that the channel morphology resulting from submarine erosion can become similar to that produced by subaerial erosion given sufficient time.
ISSN: 0950-091X

hal-00411425
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00411425
DOI : 10.1111/j.1365-2117.2008.00355.x

Éditeur(s) : Society for Sedimentary Geology
Résumé : The Kramis deep-sea fan extends over 45 km at the base of the western Algerian continental slope between 2000 and 2550 m water depth and covers an area of approximately 1200 km2. The Kramis Fan was initiated after Messinian time, evolved during the Plio-Quaternary, and, is still active, as proved by submarine cable breaks during the 1954 Orléansville earthquake. The Kramis Fan is fed by two perpendicular canyons: the Kramis Canyon and the Khadra Canyon, merging in a single E–W-oriented channel confined at the foot of the slope. It is strongly asymmetric with a super-developed levee on the right-hand side of the channel, the Kramis Ridge. Based on recent multibeam, side-scan sonar, and sediment core data (Maradja, 2003 and 2005, Prisma, 2004, and Prisme, 2007 cruises), we describe the morphology and internal structure of the fan and particularly the sediment ridge, showing marked lateral changes in the sediment-wave morphology and their association with a series of large scours in the intermediate part of the ridge aligned in the continuity of the Khadra Canyon direction. Overall, the Kramis Ridge is formed by turbidity currents overspilling the ridge crest, which is 100 m above the channel floor, with two exceptions. In the distal part of the ridge the subdued ridge-crest height probably causes continuous overspill, testified by sediment waves migrating parallel to the channel. The scours occur in the intermediate part of the ridge where the ridge height is only 50–60 m; scours are interpreted as the result of cyclic steps due to flow stripping of currents provided by the intersection of the Khadra Canyon with the Kramis Canyon and Channel system. The scours probably postdate the main growth of the Kramis Ridge and induce the local erosion of the ridge, which could correspond to a new channel initiation cutting the ridge. The superposition or the interaction of flows with different directions is responsible of the amplification of the size of the sediment waves with erosional downside flanks and their transformation in scours. The Kramis Fan provides a clear example of flow interaction to explain the presence of large sediment waves and scours on modern submarine fans.
SEPM Special Publication (1060-071X) (Society for Sedimentary Geology), 2012 , Vol. 99 , P. 293-308

Droits : 2012 SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology)
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00129/24021/21978.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00129/24021/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Fromthe Proterozoic to the Quaternary, the evolution of the Earthwas characterised by recurrent periods of glaciation.However, the margins of many ancient ice-sheets are poorly defined on palaeogeographic reconstructions.The extent and outlines of ancient ice sheets can be better understood through careful documentation ofsediments deposited at the ice-sheet margin. An outstanding example is provided herein based on an end-Ordovician archive in Libya (Tihemboka area, Murzuq Basin). The four sets of structures include: i) subglacialglaciotectonic structures and soft sediment deformations from flowing glacier ice, such as intraformational glacialstriae, intraformational deformation (shear planes, sheath folds), normal microfaults, and large-scaleglaciotectonic folds-and-thrusts; (ii) structures resulting from overpressured subglacial (meltwater) flowssuch as clastic dykes and tunnel valleys; (iii) proglacial depositional structures and facies related to highmagnitudemeltwater floods such as sandstone intraclasts, large-scale bedforms resulting from supercriticalflows, climbing-dune cross-stratification and kettle holes; and (iv) deformation structures resulting from freefloating and nonglacier ice such as ice-keel scours and ice-crystal marks. Such a set of structures points to anice-marginal (essentially continental) depositional setting, and provides an excellent suite of criteria to identifymargins of ancient ice sheets in the stratigraphic record. At a regional scale, a reconstruction through time andspace of the related depositional wedge is proposed. This corresponded to a seismic-scale (N120 m in thickness,40 km in length) ice-marginal wedge in front of an essentially warm-based ice-sheet inducing concomitantlarge-scale glaciotectonic deformation, glacial basin and tunnel valley downcuttings. The related ice-front wasassociated with high-energy meltwater flows feeding a network of deeply incised proglacial channels downstreamand, beyond them, a fluvioglacial deltaic system. Shallow ice-marginal permafrost most likely affectedthe depositional wedge. At a larger scale, the Tihemboka ice-marginal wedge is interpreted as related to a stillstandperiod over the Gondwana platform, developed over an estimated interval of a few thousands of years.Based on these data, the conditions that arose in a particularly favourable context for the development, the preservationand the identification of ice-marginal wedges in the geological record are reviewed. Significantmeltwater-derived sediment deposition and aggradation in an accommodation space resulting either frompreglacial inheritance, glacial downcuttings and/or glacio-isostatic lithospheric flexure, or active tectonic subsidence(>1 Myr) are required for their formation and subsequent preservation.
ISSN: 0012-8252

insu-01184739
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01184739
DOI : 10.1016/j.earscirev.2015.06.006