Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
We review the geodynamic evolution of the Aegea-Anatolia region and discuss strain localisation there over geological times. From Late Eocene to Present, crustal deformation in the Aegean backarc has localised progressively during slab retreat. Extension started with the formation of the Rhodope Metamorphic Core Complex (Eocene) and migrated to the Cyclades and the northern Menderes massif (Oligocene and Miocene), accommodated by crustal-scale detachments and a first series of core complexes (MCCs). Extension then localised in Western Turkey, the Corinth Rift and the external Hellenic arc after Messinian times, while the North Anatolian Fault penetrated the Aegean Sea. Through time the direction and style of extension have not changed significantly except in terms of localisation. The contributions of progressive slab retreat and tearing, basal drag, extrusion tectonics and tectonic inheritance are discussed and we favour a model (1) where slab retreat is the main driving engine, (2) successive slab tearing episodes are the main causes of this stepwise strain localisation and (3) the inherited heterogeneity of the crust is a major factor for localising detachments. The continental crust has an inherited strong heterogeneity and crustal-scale contacts such as major thrust planes act as weak zones or as zones of contrast of resistance and viscosity that can localise later deformation. The dynamics of slabs at depth and the asthenospheric flow due to slab retreat also have influence strain localisation in the upper plate. Successive slab ruptures from the Middle Miocene to the Late Miocene have isolated a narrow stripe of lithosphere, still attached to the African lithosphere below Crete. The formation of the North Anatolian Fault is partly a consequence of this evolution. The extrusion of Anatolia and the Aegean extension are partly driven from below (asthenospheric flow) and from above (extrusion of a lid of rigid crust).
ISSN: 0040-1951

insu-00715950
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00715950
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00715950/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00715950/file/Jolivet-Aegean_Tectonophysics-2012.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2012.06.011

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
We present evidence that GPS velocity estimates of plate motions and fault slip rates agree to within uncertainties with geologic estimates during the most recent phase of the geologic evolution of the E Mediterranean region (post-Late Miocene). On this basis, we use the GPS differential velocities to estimate the timing of initiation of the principal structures in NW Turkey, the N Aegean Sea, and central Greece, including, the Marmara Sea, the Gulfs of Evia (GoE) and Corinth (GoC). and the Kephalonia Transform fault (KTF). We interpret these ages to indicate that the North Anatolian fault propagated across the N Aegean, opening the GoE and GoC and initiating the KTF, during the past 1-4 Ma. We further suggest that Aegean extension that was earlier more distributed across the Aegean Basin became focused on this new fault system allowing the southern Aegean and Peloponnisos to translate SW with little internal deformation, as observed today with GPS. This change in tectonic configuration may account for the clear geologic evidence for crustal thinning throughout the S Aegean in apparent contradiction with low present-day strain rates. We further show that the low present-day strain rate along the southern edge of the Aegean micro-plate requires substantial aseismic slip along the plate interface below Crete, consistent with the low level of historic, subduction-type earthquakes along this segment of the subduction zone.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-00512634
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00512634
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2009.05.027

Éditeur(s) : Inter-Research
Résumé : The species richness pattern of groundfish species in the entire northern Mediterranean Sea was examined at 3 spatial scales: region, large biogeographical zone and basin. We analysed 1914 trawl hauls collected using a single sampling design in the trawlable areas of the continental shelves between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Strait of Dardanelles (from 36.3 to 45.7 degrees N and 5.3 degrees W to 28 E). Spatial pattern in species diversity was assessed using complementary methods (Chao2 estimates of total species richness, mean species richness and beta diversity). No matter which scale was used, the expected longitudinally decreasing trend in species richness, which has been widely described in previous studies, did not appear when comparing estimates of total species richness per unit of area. Only the mean species richness pattern showed a moderate eastwards decrease at the largest spatial scale, but the trend progressively disappeared as the scale of analysis was reduced. In contrast to what is usually expected, our results suggest that Atlantic inflow does not play a key role in the present spatial pattern of fish species richness within the northern Mediterranean Sea. Furthermore, we show that the Aegean Sea can no longer be considered the least species-diverse zone in the northern Mediterranean Sea. Our results provide the first description of a quantitative 'reference state', with which the temporal changes in species richness patterns throughout the entire northern Mediterranean Sea can be compared in the future.
Marine Ecology Progress Series (0171-8630) (Inter-Research), 2007-07 , Vol. 341 , P. 191-203

Droits : 2007 Inter-Research
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2007/publication-3569.pdf
DOI:10.3354/meps341191
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/3569/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Two opposing visions of the Aegean backarc tectonics implicitly contain contrasting images of the rheological behaviour of the lihosphere, supported by different sets of observations. The propagation of the NAF and extension in the Corinth Rift suggest a strongly localising rheology whereas the formation of MCC in the Cyclades and the Rhodope suggests instead a more viscous behaviour. This paradox was the seminal question addressed by the ANR-EGEO programme (2007-2010) that leads to the following conclusions: (1) The exhumation of the Cycladic MCC's is accommodated by the N-dipping North Cycladic Detachment System (NCDS) that partly reworks the Vardar suture and at the base by a series of thrusts, including the basal contact of the Cycladic Blueschists (CBS) over the Cycladic Basement (CB). The activity of LANF is due to the reactivation of pre-existing discontinuities such as thrusts or earlier detachments and much less to the interaction with granitic plutons. (2) Exhumation in the Cyclades has proceeded in two stages: (a) Eocene syn-orogenic exhumation within the subduction lower/upperplate interface while the post-orogenic Rhodope MCC formed further north, (b) Oligo-Miocene post-orogenic extension in an MCC mode coeval with syn-orogenic exhumation in Crete and the Peloponnese. (3) Both stages were associated with slab retreat, as early as the Eocene with an acceleration at 30-35 Ma. (4) The localisation of the presently active steeply-dipping normal faults on the southern margin of the Corinth Rift may have been preceded by a partial reworking of thrusts and syn-orogenic detachments by shallow-dipping decollements. (5) The localisation of the NAF in the Marmara Sea region and the Northern Aegean Sea is now accurately dated between 5.3 and 5 Ma Ma using the erosion and deposition surfaces that mark the Messinian salinity Crisis and nannofossils ages. (6) The formation of MCCs in the Cyclades resulted in the draining of the low viscosity lower crust from the northern Aegean Sea and led to an easier coupling between upper mantle and upper crust, easing the localisation and propagation of the NAF. (7) A comparison between crustal and mantle finite strain suggests that mantle flow due to slab retreat controls the stretching of the crust. Our model involves progressive slab retreat and mantle flow below the overriding plate inducing the observed succession of tectonic episodes with a progressive localisation of extension due to several slab tearing events. There is no paradox in the tectonic history and rheological behaviour of the Aegean lithosphere but an evolution of the kinematic boundary conditions due to slab deformation at depth.
American Geophysical Union
San Francisco, United States

insu-00860518
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00860518
BIBCODE : 2010AGUFM.T13G..04J

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
In the Chalkidiki Peninsula of northern Greece a thrust complex made of a basement (Vertiskos Unit), a cover (Circum–Rhodope belt) and arc/back-arc units (Chortiatis Magmatic Suite and eastern Vardar Ophiolites) is exposed in the Chalkidiki Peninsula of northern Greece. The complex forms the western part of the Rhodope Metamorphic Province and lies on the hanging-wall of the Kerdylion Detachment, the structure responsible for the exhumation of the Southern Rhodope Core Complex and the most prominent and visible ductile structure related to the Tertiary Aegean extension. The Chalkidiki thrust complex arguably preserves a complete record of Cretaceous deformation and related fabrics. In this contribution we describe the geometry of foliation, stretching lineation and shear sense(s) on a regional scale. The regional foliation strikes NW–SE and displays different patterns in the three studied units: (i) dominantly dipping at low angle in the Vertiskos Unit, (ii) affected by upright folding in the Circum–Rhodope belt and (iii) systematically steeply dipping to the NE in the Chortiatis Magmatic Suite. Stretching lineation trend dominantly SW–NE in the three mentioned units. On the basis of new mapping, neglecting local perturbations and deformation related to Tertiary extension, we infer the regional kinematics of Cretaceous syn-metamorphic thrusting and subsequent exhumation of the metamorphic units. Thrusting took place toward the SW (in present-day coordination) and the related fabrics are recorded throughout the metamorphic pile. On the contrary, exhumation-related fabrics are related to shear toward the NE and are preferentially recorded in the uppermost part of the metamorphic pile suggesting that extension was more localised and of less finite intensity compared to thrusting.
ISSN: 0040-1951

insu-01231485
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01231485
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2015.09.034

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Forecasting of sea-state characteristics, with warning time of a few hours, appears a necessity in Operational Oceanography. linking sophisticated marine monitoring systems with forecasting modeling tools. In this paper, instead of using conventional numerical models, a Takagi-Sugeno-rule-based Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) was developed aiming at forecasting wave parameters based on the wind speed and direction, and the lagged-wave characteristics. Initial and final antecedent fuzzy membership functions were identified using the subtractive clustering method. The model was applied on the wind and wave dataset recorded in years 2000-2006 by an oceanographic buoy deployed in the Aegean Sea. The model showed perfect fit for the training period (2000-2005; 12,274 data points), and expanded its hindcasting ability during 2006 (1044 data points), as the verification part of the series. Model results, for a lead time of 3 h, showed good agreement between the predicted and the observed significant wave height (RMSE=0.216) and zero-up-crossing period (RMSE=0.315). According to other model performance criteria, the fuzzy model slightly underpredicted both wave characteristics (the linear regression slope was 0.911 for wave height and 0.788 for wave period), and reduced its forecasting ability at higher prediction intervals (+6 to + 12 h). Overall, model results illustrated that the developed FIS could serve as a valuable tool for the operational prediction of wave characteristics in Northern Aegean Sea, through the utilization of the POSEIDON network.
ISSN: 0029-8018

hal-00456020
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00456020
DOI : 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2009.08.016

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : Zircon and apatite fission track (ZFT and AFT) and (U-Th)/He, ;40;Ar/;39;Ar hornblende, and U-Pb zircon ages from the granites of Tinos Island in the Aegean Sea, Greece, suggest, together with published ZFT data, that there are three extensional detachments on Tinos. The Tinos granites crosscut the Tinos detachment. Cooling of the granites was controlled by the Livadi detachment, which occurs structurally above the Tinos detachment. Our U-Pb zircon age is 14.6 ± 0.2 Ma and two ;40;Ar/;39;Ar hornblende ages are 14.4 ± 0.4 and 13.7 ± 0.4 Ma. ZFT and AFT ages go from 14.4 ± 1.2 to 12.2 ± 1.0 Ma and 12.8 ± 2.4 to 11.9 ± 2.0 Ma. (U-Th)/He ages are from 10.4 ± 0.2 to 9.9 ± 0.2 Ma (zircon) and 11.9 ± 0.5 to 10.0 ± 0.3 Ma (apatite). All ages decrease northeastward in the direction of hanging wall transport on the Livadi detachment and age-distance relationships yield a slip rate of 2.6 (+3.3 / −1.0) km Ma;−1;. This rate is smaller than a published slip rate of 6.5 km Ma;−1; for the Vari detachment, which is another detachment structurally above the Tinos detachment. Because of the different rates and because published ZFT ages from the footwall of the Vari detachment are ∼10 Ma, we propose that the Vari detachment has to be distinguished from the older Livadi detachment. We discuss various models of how the extensional detachments may have evolved and prefer a scenario in which the Vari detachment cut down into the footwall of the Livadi detachment successively exhuming deeper structural units. The thermochronologic ages demonstrate the importance of quantitative data for constraining localization processes during extensional deformation.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00407638
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00407638
DOI : 10.1029/2006TC001969

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Geological Society
Résumé : International audience
We constrain the slip and cooling history of the Mykonos detachment footwall using thermochronometry. A U-Pb zircon age of 13.5 +/- 0.3 Ma dates intrusion of the Mykonos monzogranite. Ar-40/ Ar-39 homblende and biotite ages from the monzogranite are 12.7 +/- 0.6 Ma and 10.9 +/- 0.6 Ma, whereas zircon and apatite fission-track ages range from 13 +/- 0.8 Ma to 10.7 +/- 0.8 Ma and 12.5 +/- 2.2 Ma to 10.5 +/- 1.8 Ma. (U-Th)/He ages range from 13.6 +/- 0.6 Ma to 9.0 +/- 0.7 Ma for zircon and 11. +/- 10.5 Ma to 8.9 +/- 0.4 Ma for apatite. The ages in part overlap within 2 sigma errors and together with the long apatite fission-track lengths (>14 mu m) support rapid cooling at rates > 100 degrees C Ma(-1). The low-temperature thermochronometric ages decrease east-northeastwards in the direction of hanging-wall transport on the Mykonos detachment. Age-distance relationships show that the Mykonos detachment slipped at an average rate of 6.0 + 9.2/-2.4 km Ma(-1) c. 30 km of offset and c. 12 km of exhumation. This result indicates that Miocene low-angle normal faulting was not important for the exhumation of the Cycladic blueschist unit. The opening of the Aegean Sea basin in the Miocene was controlled by a few large-magnitude low-angle normal faults.
ISSN: 0016-7649

hal-00412177
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00412177
DOI : 10.1144/0016-76492006-145

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Résumé : International audience
Diverse, abundant and usually well-preserved communities of skeletal organisms occur in the lower Pleistocene (Gelasian) siliciclastic deposits of the Greek island of Rhodes. Benthic foraminifers, molluscs and bryozoans have been studied in four measured and sampled sections located in the northern part of the island. Among these bottom-dwelling organisms, numerous extant taxa are good environmental indicators and, combined with field observations and sedimentological data, they provide information on the probable conditions in which they developed. The siliciclastic deposits of the Kritika Formation have been divided into 14 different bio- and lithofacies, which have been further grouped into four facies associations corresponding to four different environmental settings: (1) continental to fluviatile; (2) brackish-water (lagoonal/deltaic); (3) infralittoral (0–20 m); and (4) upper circalittoral (depths of 20–40 m, but also down to c. 50–60 m). Among the marine facies associations, several characteristic biocoenoses have been recognized: soft-bottoms (fine to coarse sands and gravels); seagrass meadows; biogenic calcareous crusts on drowned beachrock slabs; red algal rhodoliths; and bivalve shell beds. In the studied sections, 13 superimposed genetic sequences have been documented. The repetition of similar facies associations within each sequence suggests: (1) a possibly eustasy-controlled, cyclic sedimentation; (2) a general subsidence of Rhodes during the deposition of the studied facies associations; and (3) a mostly constant range of environmental conditions (i.e. sedimentation rates and temperature) throughout the Gelasian.
ISSN: 0016-7568

hal-01277829
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01277829
DOI : 10.1017/S0016756815000230

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oxford University Press (OUP)
Résumé : International audience
The distribution of the lagoon cockle Cerastoderma glaucum is strongly fragmented and usually restricted to isolated, shallow and nontidal lagoons. A high level of genetic structuring was found among the European populations of this species based on mtDNA (COI) sequences, as well as allozymic and microsatellite markers. However, the strengths and geographic locations of the major divisions differed among markers. In the present study we characterized the diversity of a new, potentially universal exon-primed intron-crossing marker, i34, for 17 C. glaucum populations. Allele frequency data at the i34 locus were informative and relevant with respect to geography. Multivariate analyses of new data together with previously published microsatellites confirmed the divergent character of the Ionian Sea and the Aegean-Ponto-Caspian populations, but also revealed the existence of a genetic cline from the Bay of Biscay to the Baltic Sea. Some noncongruent patterns among loci were detected, which may reflect either differential introgression along the genome at the hypothetical contact zone, or selective sweeps. This strong genetic differentiation, and the occurrence of private alleles, may hint at the presence of cryptic species within C. glaucum.
ISSN: 0260-1230

hal-01444646
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01444646
DOI : 10.1093/mollus/eyw019