Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The NW-trending Talas-Ferghana Fault (TFF) in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, is one of the largest intracontinental strike-slip faults in the world. It extends over a distance of more than 2000 km from southern Tourghai to western Tarim and exhibits a maximum dextral offset of ∼200 km during the late Palaeozoic to present. The history of the fault provides important insights for the understanding of the evolution of southern Central Asia but remains poorly constrained due to lack of reliable geochronological data. We present new Ar-Ar ages and structural data from the Kyrgyz West Tianshan, that elucidate the kinematic history of the TFF in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic. 40Ar/39Ar ages on mylonitic white micas document a deformational history consisting of several episodes. A late Carboniferous age of 312 ± 4 Ma point to initiation of top-to-the-south and dextral transpressional deformation during a metamorphic overprint in Precambrian and Palaeozoic rocks along the northern compartment of the TFF. The main phase of dextral motion along the entire fault occurred in the Permian as suggested by minimum ages of 260-290 Ma obtained at two different locations in the NW and central parts of the TFF. Partial isotopic resetting occurred between 240 and 210 Ma and younger ages of <200-210 Ma are ascribed to late brittle reactivation and hydrothermal fluid flow in the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic times. The Jurassic trans-tensional phase is featured by emplacement of 195 ± 3 Ma pegmatitic dykes. The Ar-Ar mineral ages and structural data argue for a major phase of dextral shearing, affecting the entire region from the West Tianshan to Mongolia in the late Permian and leading to formation of almost equally spaced major NW-trending dextral strike-slip faults. The uniform character of this deformation indicates that the process of amalgamation in this part of the CAOB ended prior to the late Permian, and Central Asia evolved as a single coherent continental block since that time.
ISSN: 0743-9547

hal-00831326
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00831326
DOI : 10.1016/j.jseaes.2013.02.012

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Geophysical Research Abstracts
Wien, Austria

hal-00417298
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00417298

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
Located east of Guadeloupe, the island of La Désirade exhibits the oldest rocks of the Lesser Antilles arc and the eastern Caribbean plate. An old magmatic basement is composed of (1) late Jurassic ophiolitic complex with meta-basaltic pillow lavas and interbedded radiolarites, (2) acid igneous complex comprising meta-quartz-diorite and meta-rhyolitic lavas flows, and (3) meta-diabasic/microdioritic dyke swarm complex. We present and discuss the discovery of synmetamorphic thrust tectonics in this island. Based on detailed structural analysis we evidenced two main compressive events. The first event (D1) is characterized by pervasive folding associated with thrust development. In the northeastern part of the island, a major thrust fault, the Grand Abaque Thrust, has been discovered which displaces for several kilometers the acid igneous complex onto the ophiolitic unit. The second deformation event (D2) is featured by a main pervasive cleavage S2 observed at the regional scale associated with upright folding (F2) and by the development of two sets of conjugated steeply dipping strike-slip shear zones, dextral 130°N and sinistral 20°N striking, respectively. Microstructural observations indicate that Greenschist facies metamorphism is clearly contemporaneous with the development of D1 and D2 superimposed tectonic structures. Ar/Ar geochronology was performed on two bulk of adularia minerals sampled in the northeast volcanic complex within a deformed zone related to a D2 event. These analyses yield well-defined and concordant plateau ages at 106.2 ± 1.7 Ma and 107.2 ± 1.8 Ma. Thus, shortening and thickening tectonics occurred during Lower Cretaceous (Albian). In the available framework of Caribbean geodynamics, the synmetamorphic thrust tectonics we discovered in the French Lesser Antilles is related to the collision between an Aptian-Albian oceanic plateau and the Andean-Cordilleran east-dipping subduction zone. Our results support subduction polarity reversal during Lower Cretaceous.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00620555
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00620555
DOI : 10.1029/2011TC002875

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Souttoufide belt is situated between the High-Atlas in the north, the Mauritanides in the south and the West African Craton as well as the Tindouf basin in the east. Thus, this belt is a part of the West African fold belt system which surrounds the West African Craton. Outcrops occur only in three areas, while the rest of the Souttoufide belt is covered by Meso- to Cenozoic sediments. These areas are, from the south to the north, the Adrar Souttouf Massif, the Smara Zemmour area, and the western part of the Anti-Atlas. Because of the continuing processing and numerous publications, the Anti-Atlas cannot be dealt with in detail. Fundamental geological work in both of the other areas was mainly done during the second third of the 20th century, followed by several decades of inactivity. Numerous studies were done in the Adrar Souttouf massif during the last decade, while the Smara-Zemmour area still remains poorly investigated. Most of them were focused on geochronological analyses and geochemistry. Accordingly, the obtained data led to a new interpretation. The Adrar Souttouf is interpreted as a Pan-African belt exhibiting a Neoproterozoic island arc reworked by the Variscan collision between the North American Craton (NAC) and the West African Craton (WAC). The Smara-Zemmour area is considered as the external part of this Variscan belt thrusted onto the Palaeozoic Tindouf basin. The western Anti-Atlas as considered as a Pan-African active margin reworked during the Variscan orogen. Together, these three areas, lead to the hypothesis of a Late Pan-African belt capped by the Early and Middle Palaeozoic covers and then affected by the Middle Carboniferous tectonic event (330 Ma) related to the Pangaean assembly. Correlations with adjacent belts (Mauritanides and Anti-Atlas) are considered.
ISSN: 0899-5362

hal-01382815
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01382815
DOI : 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2015.04.016

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Société géologique de France
Résumé : International audience
In this paper we present and discuss new investigations performed on both the magmatic basement and the sedimentary formations of La Désirade. We report structural and sedimentary evidences for several episodes of deformation and displacement occurring prior to the present day tectonics. The main faults, respectively N130 ± 10°, N040 ± 10° and N090 ± 10°, previously considered as marker of the current tectonic regime corresponds to reactivated tectonic structures developed first during late Cretaceous compression and second during Pliocene to early Pleistocene extension. We demonstrate also the importance of late Pliocene-early Pleistocene and middle-late Pleistocene vertical movements in this part of the Lesser Antilles fore-arc as well as the role of compressive tectonics in the over thickened character of the arc basement in the Guadeloupe archipelago
EISSN: 1777-5817

hal-00830329
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00830329
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.184.1-2.21

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Located on the margin of the west Alboran basin, the Gibraltar Arc (Betic-Rif mountain belt) displays post-Pliocene vertical movements evidenced by uplifted marine sedimentary basins and marine terraces. Quantification of vertical movements is an important clue to understand the origin of present-day relief generation in the Betic-Rif mountain chain together with the causes of the Messinian Salinity Crisis. In this paper, we present the results of a pluridisciplinary study combining an analysis of low temperature thermochronology and Pliocene basins evolution to constrain the exhumation history and surface uplift of internals units of the Rif belt (Northern Morocco). The mean (U-Th)/He apatite ages obtained from 11 samples are comprised between 14.1 and 17.8 Ma and display a wide dispersion, which could be explained by a great variability of apatite chemistries in the analyzed samples. No correlations between altitude and age have been found along altitudinal profile suggesting a rapid exhumation during this period. Thermal modeling using our (U-Th)/He apatite ages and geochronological data previously obtained in the same area (40Ar/39Ar and K/Ar data on biotite, zircon and apatite fission track) allow us to propose a cooling history. The rocks suffered a rapid cooling at 60-100 °C/Ma between 22.5 and 19 Ma, then cooled to temperatures around 40 °C between 19 and 18 Ma. They were re-heated at around 110 °C between 18 and 15 Ma then rapidly cooled and exhumed to reach the surface temperature at around 13 Ma. The re-heating could be related to a renewal in thrusting and burying of the inner zones. Between 15 and 13 Ma the cooling resumed at a rate of 50 °C/Ma indicating an exhumation rate of 0.8 mm/y considering an average 40 °C/km geothermal gradient. This exhumation may be linked to the extension in the Alboran Sea. Otherwise biostratigraphic and sedimentological analysis of Pliocene basins of the internal Rif provided informations on the more recent events and vertical movements. Pliocene deposits of the Rifian coast represent the passive infilling of palaeo-rias between 5.33 and 3.8 Ma. The whole coastal area was uplifted at slow average rates (0.01-0.03 mm/y) in relation with a northeastward tilting of 0.2-0.3° since the Lower-Pliocene. A late Pliocene to present extensional tectonics associated to uplift has been identified all along the coastal ranges of the Internal Zone of the Rif chain. This extension was coeval with the major late Pliocene to Pleistocene extensional episode of the Alboran Sea and appears to be still active nowadays. No significant late Messinian uplift was evidenced, thus calling into question the geodynamic models relating the closure of the marine gateways and the MSC to slab roll back.
ISSN: 0264-3707

hal-01053531
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01053531
DOI : 10.1016/j.jog.2014.01.006