Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
Microbathymetry data, in situ observations, and sampling along the 13°20′N and 13°20′N oceanic core complexes (OCCs) reveal mechanisms of detachment fault denudation at the seafloor, links between tectonic extension and mass wasting, and expose the nature of corrugations, ubiquitous at OCCs. In the initial stages of detachment faulting and high-angle fault, scarps show extensive mass wasting that reduces their slope. Flexural rotation further lowers scarp slope, hinders mass wasting, resulting in morphologically complex chaotic terrain between the breakaway and the denuded corrugated surface. Extension and drag along the fault plane uplifts a wedge of hangingwall material (apron). The detachment surface emerges along a continuous moat that sheds rocks and covers it with unconsolidated rubble, while local slumping emplaces rubble ridges overlying corrugations. The detachment fault zone is a set of anostomosed slip planes, elongated in the along-extension direction. Slip planes bind fault rock bodies defining the corrugations observed in microbathymetry and sonar. Fault planes with extension-parallel stria are exposed along corrugation flanks, where the rubble cover is shed. Detachment fault rocks are primarily basalt fault breccia at 13°20′N OCC, and gabbro and peridotite at 13°30′N, demonstrating that brittle strain localization in shallow lithosphere form corrugations, regardless of lithologies in the detachment zone. Finally, faulting and volcanism dismember the 13°30′N OCC, with widespread present and past hydrothermal activity (Semenov fields), while the Irinovskoe hydrothermal field at the 13°20′N core complex suggests a magmatic source within the footwall. These results confirm the ubiquitous relationship between hydrothermal activity and oceanic detachment formation and evolution.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-01571973
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01571973
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01571973v2/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01571973/file/Escart-n_et_al-2017-Geochemistry%2C_Geophysics%2C_Geosystems.pdf
DOI : 10.1002/2016GC006775

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Tsavorite is exclusively hosted in the Neoproterozoic Metamorphic Mozambique Belt (NMMB). The gemstone mines, widespread between Kalalani (Tanzania) and Mgama Ridge (Kenya), define a continuous corridor over a hundred kilometers in length. The tsavorite is hosted by a metasedimentary sequence defined as the Kurase tsavorite-bearing metasediments (Kurase-TB metasediments) that also hosts rubies. These metasediments underwent amphibolite-facies metamorphism and are surrounded by granulitic gneisses that are also of sedimentary origin (the Kurase high-temperature gneisses). All these rocks lie below the Kasigau Group, a unit dominated by granulite-facies metamagmatic rocks.To constrain the timing of events that led to this peculiar occurrence of tsavorite, we have performed geochronological analyses of thin sections and of separated grains of zircon, monazite, and rutile using LA-ICP-MS and ID-TIMS, as well as 40Ar/39Ar of muscovite and phlogopite from various lithologies. The results show that the different terranes were metamorphosed synchronously between 620–580 Ma but under different P-T strain conditions. The Kurase-HT gneisses and the rocks from the Kasigau Group are highly strained and underwent granulite-facies metamorphism with abundant partial melting and emplacement of felsic melts between 620 and 600 Ma. Textural observations also underlined a late regional water flux controlling the occurrence of V-free muscovite and monazite mineralizations at 585 Ma. The latter event can be related to the activity of the Galana shear zone, in the east. The Kurase-TB metasediments escaped strain and partial melting. They record amphibolite-facies conditions with static heating, since initial sedimentary structures were locally preserved. The age of the tsavorite mineralization was inferred at 600 Ma from metamorphic zircon rims and monazite from the closest host-rocks, sampled in the mines. Hence, tsavorite crystallization occurred statically at the end of the metamorphic event, probably when the temperature and the amount of volatiles were at maximum levels.Conversely, the ruby formed by local metasomatism of felsic dikes and isolated ultramafic bodies. The rubies are older and zircons and monazites from a ruby-bearing felsic dike (plumasite) were dated at 615 Ma. Finally, data from rutile and micas indicate a global cooling below 430 °C of the whole region between 510 and 500 Ma.
The Canadian Mineralogist

hal-01616037
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01616037
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01616037/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01616037/file/JEM.pdf
DOI : 10.3749/canmin.1700019

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
The El Oro metamorphic province of SW Ecuador is a composite massif made of juxtaposed terranes of both continental and oceanic affinity that has been located in a fore-arc position since Late Paleozoic times. Various geochemical, geochronological, and metamorphic studies have been undertaken on the El Oro metamorphic province, providing an understanding of the origin and age of the distinct units. However, the internal structures and geodynamic evolution of this area remain poorly understood. Our structural analysis and thermal modeling in the El Oro metamorphic province show that this fore-arc zone underwent four main geological events. (1) During Triassic times (230–225 Ma), the emplacement of the Piedras gabbroic unit at crustal-root level (~9 kbar) triggered partial melting of the metasedimentary sequence under an E-W extensional regime at pressure-temperature conditions ranging from 4.5 to 8.5 kbar and from 650 to 900°C for the migmatitic unit. (2) At 226 Ma, the tectonic underplating of the Arenillas-Panupalí oceanic unit (9 kbar and 300°C) thermally sealed the fore-arc region. (3) Around the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary, the shift from trench-normal to trench-parallel subduction triggered the exhumation and underplating of the high-pressure, oceanic Raspas Ophiolitic Complex (18 kbar and 600°C) beneath the El Oro Group (130–120 Ma). This was followed by the opening of a NE-SW pull-apart basin, which tilted the massif along an E-W subhorizontal axis (110 Ma). (4) In Late Cretaceous times, an N-S compressional event generated heterogeneous deformation due to the presence of the Cretaceous Celica volcanic arc, which acted as a buttress and predominantly affected the central and eastern part of the massif.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-01115714
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01115714
DOI : 10.1002/2014TC003618

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
A reactive percolation experiment was conducted by injecting seawater into a permeable olivine aggregate at 190 °C and 19 MPa to explore the relationships between hydration reactions and hydrodynamic properties during the onset of serpentinization in the ultramafic lithosphere exposed at mid-ocean ridges. The experiment was stopped after 23 days when the sample became impermeable. The initial flow rate was 0.2 mL/h and then was decreased down to 0.06 mL/h after 8 days. Permeability decreased continuously throughout the experiment. The analyses of fluid chemistry time series and of the mineralogy and structure of the reacted sample showed olivine dissolution and precipitation of proto-serpentine, brucite and Fe-oxides. These reactions are controlled by coupled hydrodynamic and chemical processes interacting at different time and spatial scales. Their first characteristic is the production of silica rich outlet fluids in disequilibrium with the observed reacted mineral assemblages. These compositions are interpreted as resulting from a suite of coupled dissolution-precipitation reactions, controlled at the pore scale by surface kinetic processes, that rapidly reaches steady-state (constant fluid composition independent of fluid flux). Hence, the effective rate of serpentinization was controlled, to the first order, by the transport of reactants during the experiment. Mass balance calculations show that the rate of olivine conversion was fast (0.2-0.5 wt%/day), yet only ∼8 wt% of the olivine sample reacted, because the permeability drop limited fluid circulation. Porosity varied little during the experiment compared to permeability changes: the decrease of permeability was explained by the structure of the newly formed serpentine favouring the clogging of fluid paths. The rate at which permeability decreased was the fastest at low flux conditions. This suggests that permeability changes were not controlled simply by the kinetics of the serpentinization reactions, but mainly reflected the development of low Peclet pore scale zones forming micro-environments that control the serpentinization reaction-paths. These results outline the need to take into account the coupling of hydrodynamic and chemical processes when modelling the effects of reactive transport within the hydrating oceanic lithosphere.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-00855043
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00855043
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2013.03.052

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Société géologique de France
Résumé : International audience
Age constraints on the protoliths, deformation, metamorphism and melting events are key parameters when correlating different continental lithospheric remnants among each other and disentangling their evolution within large-scale orogens. In situ U-Th-Pb chemical dating on monazites using Electron Probe Micro-Analyser (EPMA) has been performed on eight samples throughout the Variscan Maures-Tanneron massif (SE France) in order to date the medium to high-tectonothermal events related to the Variscan orogeny.Results indicate a polyphased crustal evolution : (i) U-Th-Pb ages obtained in polygenetic monazite grain cores gave inherited Upper Ordovician (456 ± 11 Ma) age, highlighting the large scale occurrence of the Ordovician magmatic activity in the North Gondwanian margin. An Early Devonian (404 ± 10 Ma) age may date a protolith emplacement related to calc-alkaline supra-subduction magmatism or could be associated to an early medium-grade metamorphism, prior to collisional stage. (ii) The crustal thickening stage has been further recorded in prograde metamorphic monazites formed during the underthrusting and subsequent nappe stacking events, under amphibolite facies conditions. This stage is dated between 382 ± 11 (Middle Devonian) and 331 ± 5 Ma (Late Visean). (iii) An orogenic partial melting event took place during Middle Carboniferous and is accompanied by the crystallization of crustal peraluminous magmas (Plan-de-la-Tour granite, 329 ± 3 Ma).This contribution demonstrates the capacity of monazite to record the prograde path of rocks during increasing metamorphic conditions related to stages of crustal thickening, and the robustness of the U-Th-Pb chronometer in monazite despite the overprinting of high-grade thermal events, including partial melting. The age ranges of the different orogenic stages reported in this study are in good agreement with those reported in adjacent Variscan Corsica and Sardinia; while correlations with other nearest Variscan massifs like the Argentera massif in the southwestern Alps or the French Massif Central remain more hypothetic. The Internal Zone of the Maures-Tanneron massif, and more widely the Internal Zone of the Maures-Tanneron-Corsica-Sardinia segment, is part of the southern orogenic root system of the Variscan belt.
EISSN: 1777-5817

insu-01140973
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01140973
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.186.2-3.145

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Blackwell Publishing
Résumé : International audience
Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits from Grande-Terre (Guadeloupe archipelago, French Lesser Antilles) provide a remarkable example of an isolated carbonate system built in an active margin setting, with sedimentation both controlled by rapid sea-level changes and tectonic movements. Based on new field, sedimentological and palaeontological analyses, these deposits have been organized into four sedimentary sequences (S1 to S4) separated by three subaerial erosion surfaces (SB0, SB1 and SB2). Sequences S1 and S2 ('Calcaires inférieurs à rhodolithes') deposited during the late Zanclean to early Gelasian (planktonic foraminiferal Zones PL2 to PL5) in low subsidence conditions, on a distally steepened ramp dipping eastward. Red algal-rich deposits, which dominate the western part of Grande-Terre, change to planktonic foraminifer-rich deposits eastward. Vertical movements of tens of metres were responsible for the formation of SB0 and SB1. Sequence S3 ('Formation volcano-sédimentaire', 'Calcaires supérieurs à rhodolithes' and 'Calcaires à Agaricia') was deposited during the late Piacenzian to early Calabrian (Zones PL5 to PT1a) on a distally steepened, red algal-dominated ramp that changes upward into a homoclinal, coral-dominated ramp. Deposition of Sequence S3 occurred during a eustatic cycle in quiet tectonic conditions. Its uppermost boundary, the major erosion surface SB2, is related to the Cala1 eustatic sea-level fall. Finally, Sequence S4 ('Calcaires à Acropora') probably formed during the Calabrian, developing as a coral-dominated platform during a eustatic cycle in quiet tectonic conditions. The final emergence of the island could then have occurred in late Calabrian times.
ISSN: 1469-3496

hal-00760906
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00760906
DOI : 10.1111/j.1365-3091.2011.01311.x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Underground CO2 sequestration is highly recommended as an effective means of significantly decreasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Mineral storage is the more secure technology, but requires the presence of high concentration of divalent cations in the pore-fluid. Results from CO2 percolation experiments through chlorite/zeolite-rich sandstone samples from the Pretty Hill Formation (Otway Basin, Australia) are presented. The dissolution of the laumontite (7 wt.%) and chamosite (7 wt.%) are the potential sources of calcium, iron and magnesium required for carbonate precipitation. The percolation experiment was setup to reproduce, at laboratory scale, the in situ temperature and pressure conditions (T = 95 degrees C and P = 10 MPa). The fluid injected at constant flow rate is a rock-equilibrated brine subsequently enriched in CO2 up to partial pressure of 6 MPa. We observe feldspars, laumontite and chamosite dissolution, kaolinite and silica precipitation and a noticeable sink of CO2 in the sample which is attributed to the precipitation of both amorphous carbon due to the reduction of CO2 and Fe-rich carbonate. Permeability decreases of about one order of magnitude due to the localization of the kaolinite precipitation in the main flow paths, while porosity increases. The high reactivity of this sandstone makes this reservoir a valuable target for CO2 mineralization, but the associated permeability decrease may limit the injection rate and the spreading of the CO2 in the reservoir.
ISSN: 0009-2541

hal-00712829
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00712829
DOI : 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2011.11.018

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Serpentinites from subduction environments represent an important sink for fluid-mobile elements. In order to constrain geochemical behavior of fluid-mobile elements hosted by serpentine phases during subduction processes, we carried out a geochemical study (trace elements and Pb isotopes) of a series of serpentinites and cumulates from the accretionary wedge of Greater Caribbean (Cuba and Dominican Republic). The trace element compositions of the primary and alteration-related phases were analyzed in situ using LA-HR-ICP-MS techniques. The studied samples represent parts of the subducted proto-Atlantic oceanic lithosphere, which has experienced low to high grade metamorphism (greenschist to eclogite facies), before being exhumed; a subset of these samples were derived from the mantle wedge. This sampling provides the opportunity to trace the chemical mobility of fluid-mobile elements during prograde metamorphism along a cold geotherm in an oceanic subduction setting.
ISSN: 0009-2541

hal-00720895
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00720895
DOI : 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2012.04.009

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
ISSN: 0264-3707

hal-00680683
https://hal-brgm.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00680683
DOI : 10.1016/j.jog.2011.11.010

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier Masson
Résumé : International audience
Late Jurassic coral reefs are present in the Western High Atlas of Morocco along the eastern paleomargin of the young Atlantic Ocean. The Izwarn section shows two reef units made of scleractinian corals and microbialites, included in a progradational shallowing-upward succession. Changes in reefal composition and structure observed in a ca. 50 cm-thick interval at the base of the reef unit 1 are interpreted to represent the first well-documented ecological succession in Late Jurassic reefs. Bioclastic deposits, sparse and poorly diversified corals (five genera) preserved in life position, and finally a more diversified coral assemblage (11 genera) building a reef framework with stromatolitic crusts reflect pioneer, colonization and diversification stages, respectively. A specific depth window, where light was reduced but sufficient for a catch-up growth mode and below the erosive action of waves, probably at the lower slope of a fore-reef area, has made possible the development and the record of this ecological succession. With a more diversified coral assemblage (16 genera), the reef unit 2 reflects shallower and well-agitated waters of a fore-reef area. Overlaying this second reef unit, the upper part of the section reveals back-reef deposits made of reworked reef elements, whereas a putative reef crest area is not recorded.
ISSN: 0016-6995

hal-00795549
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00795549
DOI : 10.1016/j.geobios.2012.05.002

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
To test the impact of fluid flow on the reactivity of porous (ultra-)mafic rocks, reactive percolation experiments were realized during which CO2-enriched water was injected at two different injection rates (Q = 0.1 and 1 mL h−1) through sintered analogues of olivine-accumulation zones in basaltic flows at temperature and fluid composition conditions (T = 180 °C; NaHCO3 buffered solution) favorable for CO2-mineralization (carbonation).All experiments resulted in silicate dissolution, carbonate precipitation upstream and (proto-)serpentine formation downstream indicating a decrease in the fluid reactivity along flow paths. The measured bulk carbonation rates ranged from 4 to 7 × 10−8 s−1; these values were significantly lower than previously published values of olivine carbonation rate obtained on powders in closed batch and flow-through reactors. Our study show complex couplings, at pore scale, between fluid flow, localization of reaction zones, and chemical reaction kinetics which in turn control hydrodynamic properties, carbonation rate and efficiency and fluid reactivity. This results in carbonation rates being higher when injection rates are high and permeability ultimately controlling carbonation reactions by limiting fluid input. During experiments, notable changes in permeability occurred for only minor changes in porosity indicating a control by the geometry of the porous network: heterogeneities in the distribution of flow paths favored the localization of precipitated minerals which in turn resulted in the closure of flow paths. This mechanism was particularly efficient at low injection rates. These results imply that controlling the injection rate could allow enhancing/limiting the efficiency of in situ carbonation.
ISSN: 0883-2927

hal-01115284
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01115284
DOI : 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2014.11.024

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Mineralogical Society of America
Résumé : International audience
In situ mineralization of CO2 in ultramafic rock-hosted aquifers is one of the promising solutions for decreasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. Naturally altered ultramafic rocks suggest that carbonation processes are controlled by local heterogeneities in the structure of the rock and fluid transport at the water-rock interfaces. We studied the role of rock crystallographic anisotropy relative to the global fluid flow direction on the mineralization of CO2 by means of electron microscope analyses from the macro- to the micrometer scale (EBSD-FIB). The sample used for the measurements was a hot pressed olivine core percolated by water enriched in CO2 (pCO2 = 10 MPa) at 180 °C. During the percolation experiment, olivine was dissolved and two types of carbonates, dolomite, and magnesite, were precipitated on olivine surfaces. The results showed that the dissolution of olivine is controlled by its crystallographic properties as shown by the development of etch-pits only on the (010)ol planes and with elongated shapes parallel to the [010]ol axes. In contrast, the precipitation of carbonates is governed by hydrodynamic properties. Carbonates are heterogeneously distributed in the percolated rock. They are mainly located along the moderate (for dolomite) and the minor (for magnesite) flow paths, both oriented parallel to the principal fluid flow direction, which allow carbonates to be supplied with divalent cations (e.g., Ca2+, Mg2+, and Fe2+). In these flow paths, carbonate growth is systematically oriented normal to the flow that facilitates the development of chemical gradients with cationic supersaturation conditions for carbonate precipitation near the walls.In natural systems, the (010)ol planes are parallel to the Moho and the (100)ol planes are vertical; our study suggests that flow of CO2-rich fluids will induce precipitation of carbonates localized along, and preferentially clogging, vertical flow paths while favoring olivine dissolution along horizontal fluid pathways. This dual control of structure and fluid flow on carbonation mechanisms could be an important parameter allowing sustainable CO2 storage in peridotites, while limiting the risks of leakage toward the surface.
ISSN: 0003-004X

hal-01143393
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01143393
DOI : 10.2138/am-2015-4913

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Field evidence for syn-deformation migmatization and crystallization along the Karakorum fault contradicts the study of Wang et al. (2012). The ages of such magmatic rocks provide minimum ages for the onset of deformation at similar to 23 Ma in North Ayilari and similar to 19 Ma in Tangtse. The onset of deformation at 12 Ma in the Ayilari range inferred by Wang et al. (2012) from a muscovite Ar/Ar age is a cooling age, thus only a minimum age. The similar to 60 Ma granodiorite bodies, the ophiolitic rocks and the south Kailash thrust that are correlated across the fault to provide a 52 +/- 2 km finite offset do not define reliable piercing points. Such observations as well as our previous work concur to show that the Karakorum fault initiated in the Oligo-Miocene, and has a long-term dextral slip-rate between 7.5 and 13 mm/yr, approximately twice that proposed by Wang et al. (2012).
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-00829469
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00829469
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.12.012

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD National Academy of Sciences
Résumé : International audience
The Isua Supracrustal Belt, Greenland, of Early Archean age (3.81-3.70 Ga) represents the oldest crustal segment on Earth. Its complex lithology comprises an ophiolite-like unit and volcanic rocks reminiscent of boninites, which tie Isua supracrustals to an island arc environment. We here present zinc (Zn) isotope compositions measured on serpentinites and other rocks from the Isua supracrustal sequence and on serpentinites from modern ophiolites, midocean ridges, and the Mariana forearc. In stark contrast to modern midocean ridge and ophiolite serpentinites, Zn in Isua and Mariana serpentinites is markedly depleted in heavy isotopes with respect to the igneous average. Based on recent results of Zn isotope fractionation between coexisting species in solution, the Isua serpentinites were permeated by carbonate- rich, high- pH hydrothermal solutions at medium temperature (100-300 degrees C). Zinc isotopes therefore stand out as a pH meter for fossil hydrothermal solutions. The geochemical features of the Isua fluids resemble the interstitial fluids sampled in the mud volcano serpentinites of the Mariana forearc. The reduced character and the high pH inferred for these fluids make Archean serpentine mud volcanoes a particularly favorable setting for the early stabilization of amino acids.
ISSN: 0027-8424

insu-00674714
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00674714
DOI : 10.1073/pnas.1108061108

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Field study, thermochronology and geochemistry of the east Lungmu Co (LMC) range highlight some of the geological events that shaped western Tibet. The LMC fault zone has long been interpreted as the boundary between the Tianshuihai terrane of Laurasian affinity and the Qiangtang block of Gondwanian affinity. In the LMC range, the Paleozoic series is intruded by the Mangtsa leucogranite whose zircon have a U/Pb age of 116.9 ± 1 Ma and by mafic rocks with U/Pb zircon ages ranging from 116.9 ± 1 to 95.1 ± 1.7 Ma. Geochemistry of the mafic rocks indicates that they have been emplaced in a supra-subduction zone setting, probably the north dipping Nujiang suture zone. 40Ar/39Ar micas ages of the granite indicate that cooling below ~ 350 °C occurred between 105 and 85 Ma. 40Ar/39Ar K-feldspar data suggest a fast cooling event at 60-55 Ma, which we relate to the reactivation of the LMC suture zone as a thrust at the onset of the India-Eurasia collision. The last, and still active, deformation event corresponds to left-lateral strike-slip faulting along the ENE-WSW LMC fault.
ISSN: 1342-937X

hal-00660491
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00660491
DOI : 10.1016/j.gr.2011.07.026

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 American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
New structural observations coupled with 15 U/Pb and 24 Ar/Ar new ages from the Karakorum shear zone (KSZ) constrain the timing and slip rate of the right-lateral Karakorum fault zone (KFZ), one of the great continental Asian strike-slip faults. In the Tangtse-Darbuk area, the Tangtse (SW) and Muglib (NE) mylonitic strands of the KSZ frame the less deformed Pangong Range. Inherited U/Pb ages show that granitic protoliths are mostly from the Karakorum and Ladakh batoliths, with a major Miocene melting event lasting from ≥21.5 to 13.5 Ma. Some of the Miocene granitic bodies show structural evidence for intrusion synkinematic to the KSZ. The oldest of these granitoids is 18.8 ± 0.4 Ma old, implying that deformation started prior to ∼19 Ma. Microstructural data show that right-lateral deformation pursued during cooling. Ar/Ar data show that ductile deformation stopped earlier in the Tangtse (∼11 Ma) than in the Muglib strand (∼7 Ma). Deformation ended at ∼11 Ma in the Tangtse strand while it is still active in the Muglib strand, suggesting a progressive localization of deformation. When merged with published observations along the KFZ, these data suggest that the KFZ nucleated in the North Ayilari range at least ∼22 Ma ago. The long-term fault rate is 0.84 to 1.3 cm/yr, considering a total offset of 200 to 240 km. The KSZ collected magma produced within the shear zone and/or deeper in crust for which the producing mechanism stays unclear but was not the lower crustal channel flow.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00745066
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00745066
DOI : 10.1029/2011TC003049

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
Expeditions 304 and 305 of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program cored and logged a 1.4 km section of the domal core of Atlantis Massif. Postdrilling research results summarized here constrain the structure and lithology of the Central Dome of this oceanic core complex. The dominantly gabbroic sequence recovered contrasts with predrilling predictions; application of the ground truth in subsequent geophysical processing has produced self-consistent models for the Central Dome. The presence of many thin interfingered petrologic units indicates that the intrusions forming the domal core were emplaced over a minimum of 100-220 kyr, and not as a single magma pulse. Isotopic and mineralogical alteration is intense in the upper 100 m but decreases in intensity with depth. Below 800 m, alteration is restricted to narrow zones surrounding faults, veins, igneous contacts, and to an interval of locally intense serpentinization in olivine-rich troctolite. Hydration of the lithosphere occurred over the complete range of temperature conditions from granulite to zeolite facies, but was predominantly in the amphibolite and greenschist range. Deformation of the sequence was remarkably localized, despite paleomagnetic indications that the dome has undergone at least 45 degrees rotation, presumably during unroofing via detachment faulting. Both the deformation pattern and the lithology contrast with what is known from seafloor studies on the adjacent Southern Ridge of the massif. There, the detachment capping the domal core deformed a 100 m thick zone and serpentinized peridotite comprises similar to 70% of recovered samples. We develop a working model of the evolution of Atlantis Massif over the past 2 Myr, outlining several stages that could explain the observed similarities and differences between the Central Dome and the Southern Ridge.
ISSN: 0148-0227

hal-00617528
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617528
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617528/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617528/file/2010JB007931.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2010JB007931

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The coastal sediments of Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean have recorded transgression-regression cycles that took place during the early Pleistocene. The sedimentary deposits from the Kritika Member of the Rhodes Formation consist in conglomerates, sandstones, siltstones and clays deposited in brackish to shallow marine environments. Faunal associations are dominated by molluscs and reveal rapid ecological changes. Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of aquatic skeletal carbonates show that these ecological changes were most likely driven by large salinity changes while water temperature remained rather constant at about 22.0 ± 1.5 °C. The tectonic activity of the island rather than glacio-eustatic variations of climatic origin is advocated to be responsible for the ecological and salinity changes and sea-level variations recorded in the sedimentary sequence.
ISSN: 0031-0182

hal-00767568
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00767568
DOI : 10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.06.009

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy B - Oxford Open Option A Oxford University Press (OUP)
Résumé : International audience
Peridotites exhumed in the footwall of axial detachment faults at slow-spreading ridges are highly serpentinized. Most mid-ocean ridge detachment settings are magmatically active and hydrous fluid circulation in and near the fault has been shown to be influenced by the presence of melt or magmatic lithologies. Our working area along the Southwest Indian Ridge (62–65°E) is nearly amagmatic and represents an end-member to study the hydrous alteration of exhumed peridotites without these magmatic influences. We use an integrated petrological approach combining microstructural, mineralogical and chemical observations to unravel the sequence of serpentinization in 272 dredged samples of variably serpentinized peridotites and to document the circulation of serpentinizing fluids in and near the exhumation faults. We find that serpentine recrystallization and veins overprint the initial serpentinite mesh texture in ∼25% of the samples. Oxygen isotope data suggest that this sequence developed at relatively high temperatures (271–336°C) and under increasing fluid–rock ratios, from near stoichiometry for mesh texture formation to >10 during recrystallization. Increasing fluid supersaturation relative to serpentine favors the replacement of mesh texture lizardite by chrysotile and polygonal or polyhedral serpentine. We attribute local recrystallization into antigorite to moderate Si-metasomatism, possibly following pyroxene serpentinization. We do not observe the more pronounced Si-metasomatism leading to talc replacing serpentine that is reported for the more magmatically active Mid-Atlantic Ridge detachment settings and is attributed to prior leaching of magmatic rocks. Scales of preferential fluid pathways in our samples evolved from pervasive and close-spaced (<500 µm) microfractures during the formation of the initial serpentine mesh texture, to centimeter-thick planar domains of enhanced fluid flux, spaced at ∼10 cm intervals and probably grouped in corridors that may be up to ∼100 m across. Serpentine minerals are enriched in some fluid-mobile elements (Cl, B, U) relative to the peridotite protolith, and several elements (Al, Fe, Si, Cu, As, Sb, REE) are redistributed at the millimeter to decimeter scale. Serpentinizing fluids were seawater-derived, probably mildly alkaline (small to no europium anomalies), reducing and H2-enriched (formation of magnetite). These fluids may have been similar to, though warmer than, those venting at the ultramafic-hosted Lost City hydrothermal fluid (30°N, Mid-Atlantic Ridge).
ISSN: 0022-3530

hal-01174047
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01174047
DOI : 10.1093/petrology/egv014