Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer-Verlag
Résumé : International audience
With hull-mounted multibeam echosounder data, wereport for the first time along the active Ecuadorian margin,acoustic signatures of water column fluid emissions and seep-relatedstructures on the seafloor. In total 17 flare-shaped acousticanomalies were detected from the upper slope (1250 m) to the shelfbreak (140 m). Nearly half of the flare-shaped acoustic anomaliesrise 200–500 m above the seafloor. The base of the flares is generallyassociated with high-reflectivity backscatter patchescontrasting with the neighboring seafloor. We interpret these flaresas caused by fluid escape in the water column, most likely gases.High-resolution seismic profiles show that most flares occur closeto the surface expression of active faults, deformed areas, slopeinstabilities or diapiric structures. In two areas tectonic deformationdisrupts a Bottom Simulating Reflector (BSR), suggesting thatburied frozen gas hydrates are destabilized, thus supplying free gasemissions and related flares. This discovery is important as it opensthe way to determine the nature and origin of the emitted fluids andtheir potential link with the hydrocarbon system of the forearcbasins along the Ecuadorian margin.
ISSN: 0033-4533

insu-01267238
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01267238
DOI : 10.1007/s00024-015-1230-7

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : International audience
Selected high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles and multibeam bathymetry acquired along the convergent Ecuador margin during the ATACAMES cruise on onboard the R/V L’Atalante (Jan.15–Feb.18, 2012) allow a preliminary evaluation of the neotectonic development and stratigraphic evolution of the margin based on the sismo-stratigraphic analysis of Quaternary sediment preserved on the margin shelf and upper slope. We present three major preliminary results. (1) The evolution of the Esmeraldas, Guayaquil and Santa Elena canyons. The head of the Esmeraldas canyon is the location of a continuous significant sediment transport. The Guayaquil canyon shows several episodes of deposition and incision. Aggrading sedimentation pattern in the canyon records several changes in relative sea-level. The subsidence of the Gulf of Guayaquil probably contributes to the good preservation of the canyon filling stages. The Santa Elena canyon is controlled by a SW–NE trending normal fault. (2) Variations of sediment accumulation and relative vertical motions are shown along-strike the shelf edge. Offshore the uplifted Manta peninsula, a pronounced subsidence of the shelf edge is documented by sedimentary clinoforms that have deposited in a morphological reentrant, and have migrated upslope testifying of a local subsidence meanwhile the adjacent La Plata Island area underwent uplift. In the Esmeraldas canyon area, a local uplift of the shelf is documented. (3) Two neotectonic fault systems with a possible transcurrent component are imaged across the shelf edge and upper margin slope offshore Jama, and Cape Galera. This possible transcurrent motion could be related to the reactivation of ancient faults of the upper plate by the subduction. These preliminary results indicate that the ATACAMES data set has a strong potential to evaluate the spatial and temporal contribution of tectonic and climate changes on the structural development and stratigraphic evolution of the Ecuador continental margin.
ISSN: 0025-3235

insu-01131151
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01131151
DOI : 10.1007/s11001-014-9231-y

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier
Résumé : High-resolution reflection and refraction seismic data were collected in 2004 to investigate, in further detail than allowed by pre-existing low resolution seismic data, the nature of a Bottom Simulating Reflector (BSR) that extends over a broad area of the Fairway Basin, a rifted, continental structure located on the eastern flank of the Lord Howe Rise, to the southwest of New Caledonia. Two main reflectors are documented: the shallower (RN) mimics the seafloor and has a negative polarity while the deeper (RP) does not always mimic the seafloor and has a positive polarity. Using the existing regional seismic lines, we can show that reflector RN can be continuously followed up to DSDP 208 drill hole site. Reflector RP is discontinuous and cannot be traced to DSDP 208. Based on DSDP 208 stratigraphic data, Reflector RN is assigned to the Eocene/Oligocene regional unconformity; reflector RP is interpreted in terms of a diagenetic BSR, likely related to an Opal-A/Opal-CT transition front. Heat flow data collected in 2006 suggest that reflector RP lies too deep to be related to methane hydrates, strengthening our interpretation that RP is of diagenetic origin.
Marine Geology (0025-3227) (Elsevier), 2009-10 , Vol. 266 , N. 1-4 , P. 80-90

Droits : 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2009/publication-7321.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.margeo.2009.07.014
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/7321/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
Despite convergent margins being unstable systems, most reports of huge submarine slope failure have come from oceanic volcanoes and passive margins. Swath bathymetry and seismic profiles of the northern Hikurangi subduction system, New Zealand, show a tapering 65-30 km wide by 65 km deep margin indentation, with a giant, 3150+_630 km 3, blocky, debris avalanche deposit projecting 40 km out across horizontal trench fill, and a debris flow deposit projecting over 100 km. Slide blocks are well-bedded, up to 18 km across and 1.2 km high, the largest being at the avalanche deposit's leading edge. Samples dredged from them are mainly Miocene shelf calc-mudstones similar to those outcropping around the indentation. Cores from cover beds suggest that failure occurred-170 +_40 ka, possibly synchronously with a major extension collapse in the upper indentation. However, the northern part of the indentation is much older. The steep, straight northern wall is close to the direction of plate convergence and probably formed around 2.0-0.16 Ma as a large seamount subducted, leaving in its wake a deep groove obliquely across the margin and an unstable triangle of fractured rock in the 60 ø angle between groove and oversteepened margin front. The triangle collapsed as a blocky avalanche, leaving a scalloped southern wall and probably causing a large tsunami. Tentative calculations of compacted volumes suggest that the indentation is over 600 km 3 larger than the avalanche, supporting a two-stage origin that includes subduction erosion. Since failure, convergence has carried the deposits-9 km back toward the margin, causing internal compression. The eventual subduction/accretion of the Ruatoria avalanche explains the scarcity of such features on active margins and perhaps the nature of olistostromes in fold belts.
ISSN: 2169-9275

hal-01261406
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261406
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261406/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261406/file/CollotJGR2001.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2001JB900004