Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
This study addresses the mechanical and chemical behavior of allanite during shear zone formation under high-pressure metamorphism. Understanding physico-chemical processes related to the retention or resetting of Pb isotopes in allanite during geological processes is essential for robust petrochronology. Dating of allanite in meta-granodiorite showing variable amounts of strain (from an undeformed protolith to mylonite) at Monte Mucrone (Sesia Zone, NW Italy) gave surprising results. Based on structural and petrographic observations the shear zones at Mt Mucrone are Alpine, yet allanite located within an eclogite facies mylonite yielded Permian ages (208Pb/232Th average age: 287 ± 7 Ma). These mm-sized allanite grains are rimmed by an aggregate of coarse-grained garnet + phengite, thought to derive from former epidote. These aggregates were immersed in a weak matrix that experienced granular flow, and they were thus chemically and mechanically shielded during Alpine mylonitization. In undeformed samples (8a and 8b), two populations of epidote group minerals were found. Allanite forms either coronas around Permian monazite or individual grains with patchy zoning. Both types yield Permian ages (208Pb/232Th age: 291 ± 5 Ma). On the other hand, grains of REE-rich clinozoisite of Cretaceous age are found in undeformed rocks. These grains appear as small fragments with embayed surface outlines and minute satellites or rims around Permian allanite. These (re)crystallized grains are Sr-rich and show mosaic zoning. These results indicate that allanite crystals retained their chemical and isotopic characteristics, and thus their Permian age, as a result of strong strain partitioning between the epidote group porphyroclasts and the eclogite facies matrix in HP-mylonites. The observed partial mobilization of Pb isotopes, which lead to the Cretaceous-aged rims or grains in undeformed samples was facilitated by (re)crystallization of allanite and not by mere Pb diffusion alone under the HP conditions.
ISSN: 0024-4937

insu-00679730
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00679730
DOI : 10.1016/j.lithos.2011.01.005

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
Observations from deep boreholes at several locations worldwide, laboratory measurements of frictional strength on quartzo-feldspathic materials, and earthquake focal mechanisms indicate that crustal faults are strong (apparent friction μ ≥ 0.6). However, friction experiments on phyllosilicate-rich rocks and some geophysical data have demonstrated that some major faults are considerably weaker. This weakness is commonly considered to be characteristic of mature faults in which rocks are altered by prolonged deformation and fluid-rock interaction (i.e., San Andreas, Zuccale, and Nankai Faults). In contrast, in this study we document fault weakening occurring along a marly shear zone in its infancy (<30 m displacement). Geochemical mass balance calculation and microstructural data show that a massive calcite departure (up to 50 vol %) from the fault rocks facilitated the concentration and reorganization of weak phyllosilicate minerals along the shear surfaces. Friction experiments carried out on intact foliated samples of host marls and fault rocks demonstrated that this structural reorganization lead to a significant fault weakening and that the incipient structure has strength and slip behavior comparable to that of the major weak faults previously documented. These results indicate that some faults, especially those nucleating in lithologies rich of both clays and high-solubility minerals (such as calcite), might experience rapid mineralogical and structural alteration and become weak even in the early stages of their activity.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-01211481
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01211481
DOI : 10.1002/2014TC003716

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 E Schweizerbart Science Publishers
Résumé : International audience
Mass balance calculations have been performed through a comparison of published graphical and statistical approaches applied to two contrasted geological settings: (i) the development of a greenschist-facies ductile shear-zone that recorded a weak volume change but significant mass transfers, and (ii) the formation of exoskarns in metacarbonate xenoliths that recorded a large volume decrease related to huge mass transfers. The comparison of the four mass-balance approaches shows that, if uncertainties are ignored, (1) they yield similar results concerning the mobile vs immobile behaviour of many components; (2) they yield similar mass-change values on bulk rock and on individual chemical elements (bulk-rock mass-change values differ by a maximum of ca. 15 % between graphical and statistical treatments of the metacarbonate xenolith evolution). The main difference concerns the uncertainties on mass changes (for bulk rocks and individual elements), which are much larger with the graphical than with the statistical approaches when uncertainties on chemical elements are taken into account, as they should be.The main advantage of the graphical methods is their rapid implementation and the clarity of the diagrams. Their main disadvantages are that uncertainties on each chemical element and bulk compositions are not taken into account and the difficulty in choosing an accurate immobility field to precisely define errors. Graphical methods need to be completed by a statistical treatment that gives absolute mass transfer results. The statistical approaches have the advantage of taking into account the chemical heterogeneities of the compared populations, in conjunction to a precise data treatment. The statistical treatment is an important and necessary step to decipher and to be pertinent in interpreting mobility/immobility of chemical elements, and, thus, in the absolute quantification of mass and volume changes.
ISSN: 0935-1221

hal-01260258
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01260258
DOI : 10.1127/ejm/2015/0027-2475

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The late Carboniferous accretionary system of the South Tianshan orogen (North-Western China) underwent complex structural and polymetamorphic evolution. Combined petrological, geochronological and microstructural analysis of (ultra)high-pressure (UHP) metabasites (eclogites and blueschists) enclosed in metapelites show a relict coarse-grained eclogitic fabric S2 surrounded by a dominant fine-grained eclogite and blueschist facies retrograde fabric S2. The S2 fabric is reworked by upright folds F3 that are responsible for a major shortening of the whole accretionary system. For both the eclogite and blueschist, peak and retrograde P–T conditions have been thermodynamically constrained at 25–26 kbar and 425–500 °C and 10–13 kbar and 500−550 °C respectively, suggesting a shared exhumation history. The garnet-whole rock-amphibole isochron in the blueschist yielded Lu–Hf and Sm–Nd ages of 326.0 ± 2.9 Ma and 318.4 ± 3.9 Ma respectively, interpreted to date the prograde to peak metamorphic assemblage. The retrograde path of the eclogite is characterized by heterogeneous omphacite recrystallization into a mylonitic fine-grained matrix and crystallization of blue amphibole. Microstructures in both pristine porphyroclastic and recrystallized fine-grained domains in the eclogite indicate a gradual evolution from constriction-dominated (L>S-type) to flattening-dominated (S>L-type) type of deformation, increase of fabric intensity reflected by gradually growing M-indexes and the development of lattice preferred orientation (LPO) typical for dislocation creep under slightly hydrated conditions. Recrystallization of the matrix in the blueschist is homogeneous, which indicates a matrix dominated channel flow during exhumation. These LPOs evolutions suggest a significant mechanical coupling with the upper plate concomitant with oroclinal bending of the Kazakh orocline. Lock up of Kazakh orocline is responsible for further stress increase resulting in horizontal shortening of South Tianshan accretionary wedge and development of D3 upright folding and steepening of the whole sequence.
ISSN: 1342-937X

hal-01481263
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01481263
DOI : 10.1016/j.gr.2016.07.007

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
bulletin de la societe geologieque de france

hal-01146017
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01146017
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.186.2-3.131

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : In order to address the question of the processes involved during shear zone nucleation, we present a petro-structural analysis of millimetre-scale shear zones within the Roffna rhyolite (Suretta nappe, Eastern central Alps). Field and microscopic evidences show that ductile deformation is localized along discrete fractures that represent the initial stage of shear zone nucleation. During incipient brittle deformation, a syn-kinematic metamorphic assemblage of white mica + biotite + epidote + quartz precipitated at ca. 8.5 ± 1 kbar and 480 ± 50 °C that represent the metamorphic peak conditions of the nappe stacking in the continental accretionary wedge during Tertiary Alpine subduction. The brittle to ductile transition is characterized by the formation of two types of small quartz grains. The Qtz-IIa type is produced by sub-grain rotation. The Qtz-IIb type has a distinct CPO such that the orientation of c-axis is perpendicular to the shear fracture and basal and rhombhoedric slip systems are activated. These Qtz-IIb grains can either be formed by recrystallization of Qtz-IIa or by precipitation from a fluid phase. The shear zone widening stage is characterized by a switch to diffusion creep and grain boundary sliding deformation mechanisms. During the progressive evolution from brittle nucleation to ductile widening of the shear zone, fluid–rock interactions play a critical role, through chemical mass-transfer, metasomatic reactions and switch in deformation mechanisms.
ISSN: 0191-8141

hal-01355954
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01355954
DOI : 10.1016/j.jsg.2016.02.015

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
At the time of the collision with India (55Ma), the southern margin of Asia was a composite continental domainresulting from an already long history of successive accretions of different terranes having different rheologies.Knowledge about the structure, composition and thermal state of the Tibetan lithosphere through time is thusfundamental to understand the respective contributions of pre-Cenozoïc and Cenozoïc tectonics in the building ofthe Plateau to its present-day elevations.We focused on the boundary between the Qiangtang terrane to the south, and the Songpan-Ganze terrane to thenorth.We jointly studied deep crustal xenoliths and associated (ultra-)potassic magmatism from the Eocene basinsof Nangqian and Xialaxiu (Qinghai Province, China), north of the Qiangtang terrane. The aims were to retrievethe composition and the thermal state of the lower crust during Eocene times, to study the behavior of the lowercrust and lithospheric mantle of the Eastern Qiangtang terrane and the adjacent Songpan-Ganze terrane at the timeof the collision, and the link with the magmatic activity.Crustal xenoliths are of two types: biotite-rich, amphibole bearing metasediments; and garnet-bearing quartzofeldspathicgneisses. Such assemblages are typical of very high-grade amphibolite and granulite faciesmetamorphism; further study should allow us to quantify the pressures and temperatures those rocks experienceduntil the time they were sampled by their host lavas.Major element geochemistry places the c.a. 51-49 Ma (Spurlin et al., 2005) Xialaxiu volcanic field in a fairlydifferentiated (SiO265-70 wt%) high-K field of the calc-alcaline series. Trace element analysis suggests a strongcrustal contamination of the primary mantellic melts. C.a. 38-37 Ma (Spurlin et al., 2005) Nangqian magmaticbodies span across the alkaline series, with high to extreme (K2O6wt%) values. Complex major and traceelement patterns, coupled with high-resolution microprobe data on pyroxene xenocrysts, suggest that enrichmentoccurred at the source by metasomatism of the lithospheric mantle.Further work will precise which mechanisms could have accounted for such a metasomatism of the mantle beneaththe Northern Qiangtang terrane during Eocene, and whether the lower crust had an autochtonous or allochtonousnature.
Geophysical Research Abstracts
Vienne, Austria

insu-01308919
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01308919