Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : The evolution of mountain belt piedmont is controlled by interactions between tectonics, erosion and sedimentation. To study coupling between these processes, we analyze morphometric data collected in the eastern Tian Shan piedmont (NW China) and develop a new analogue modelling technique. The modeling approach uses an experimental set-up and analog material specifically designed to study simultaneously tectonic structures (faults, folds), detailed morphology (drainage basins, channels, alluvial fans, etc.) and stratified sedimentation. Measurement techniques based on laser interferometry and image correlation are also developed to quantify the topographic and kinematic evolution of models.
Our experiments allow a new approach for the study of piedmont morphotectonic evolution. Our results indicate that tectonics mainly controls this evolution. The propagation of deformation and the formation of relief both significantly influence the development of drainage networks, the evolution of drainage basins and the formation of morphotectonic markers. Particularly, a study of alluvial fans and watershed metrics suggests that there is a dynamical equilibrium between uplift, erosion and morphology. In addition, our results show that terrace nucleation is controlled by thrust activity and hydrography adjustments. Folding of terraces responds to a homothetic deformation pattern.
This new methodology brings promising perspectives in the fields of geomorphology, seismotectonics and sedimentology.
L'évolution d'un piémont de chaîne de montagnes est contrôlée par les interactions entre la tectonique, l'érosion et la sédimentation. Pour étudier ces processus, nous avons analysé des données morphométriques issues des piémonts orientaux du Tian Shan (NW Chine) et développé un nouveau type de modélisation analogique. Cette approche utilise un dispositif et un matériau expérimental spécialement conçus pour modéliser simultanément des structures tectoniques (failles, plis), une morphologie détaillée (bassins versants, rivières, cônes alluviaux, etc.) et une sédimentation stratifiée. Des techniques de mesure optique ont été également mises en oeuvre afin de quantifier l'évolution topographique et cinématique des modèles.
Les expériences réalisées offrent une opportunité inédite d'étudier l'évolution morphotectonique d'un piémont. Nos résultats montrent que la tectonique exerce un contrôle de premier ordre sur cette évolution. La propagation de la déformation et la formation des reliefs influencent en effet significativement le développement du réseau de drainage, l'évolution des bassins versants et la formation des marqueurs morphotectoniques. En particulier, l'analyse de la morphométrie des cônes alluviaux et de leurs bassins versants suggère qu'un équilibre dynamique s'installe entre la surrection, l'érosion et la morphologie. Nos résultats montrent également que l'apparition des terrasses est guidée par l'activité des chevauchements et les adaptations de l'hydrographie. Leur modèle de plissement répond à une déformation homothétique.
Cette nouvelle approche ouvre des perspectives d'étude prometteuses en géomorphologie, sismotectonique et stratigraphie.
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00339145

tel-00339145
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00339145
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00339145v2/document
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00339145/file/These_Graveleau08.pdf

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
We studied the patterns, rates and evolution of fluvial terraces and fault system during the building process of an intracontinental transpressional mountain in the Gobi-Altay (Mongolia). By analyzing incisions and offsets of fluvial terraces and alluvial fans, we show that the massif has grown by outward migration of thrust faults through time. On the northern flank, the present bounding thrust fault began its activity ~600 ka ago, while a more internal sub-parallel fault was still active until ~200-100 ka. Vertical offset of an alluvial fan abandoned ~100 ka ago allows an estimate of 0.1 mm/yr Upper Pleistocene - Holocene uplift rate. The morphology of the catchment-piedmont system strongly suggests a periodical formation of the alluvial surfaces, controlled by the climatic pulses, at the beginning of the wet interglacial periods. The abandonment of the alluvial terraces lags by several thousand years the abandonment of the alluvial fans, showing a diachronous incision propagating upstream. The incision rate deduced from the different elevations of straths exceeds of one order of magnitude the rock uplift rate. This excess is mostly due to ongoing drainage network growth at the core of the massif, and incision due to alluvial apron entrenchment near the outlet. This implies that fluvial response is mainly controlled by drainage growth, interaction with piedmont and cyclic climatic variations, rather than by rock uplift.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00323558
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00323558
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00323558v2/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00323558/file/Vassallo2007.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2006TC002081

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Mass balances are often used to calculate sediment fluxes in foreland basins and denudation rates in adjacent mountain ranges on intermediate to long timescales (from a few tens of thousand to a million years). Here, we study the simple Quaternary catchment-alluvial fan system of the Kuitun River, in northern Tian Shan, to discuss some ideas about sediment storage, release, and bypass in relatively short (100 km long) sediment routing systems. This study shows that the Kuitun catchment and piedmont areas clearly present evidence of a significant and temporary storage of sediments during the Pleistocene. These sediments were then excavated and delivered farther into the foreland basin during the Holocene. The difference between the volumes of materials released from the catchment and piedmont areas (5.5 ± 1.7 km3) and the volume stored in a contemporaneous fan downstream (2.6 ± 0.6 km3) indicates that the latter did not trap the whole sediment load transported by the river. The alluvial fan was bypassed by 27 to 78% of this load toward its distal alluvial plain. If this value is well estimated, it implies a major volumetric partitioning of the deposits between the fan and the alluvial plain, with a very high sedimentation rate in the fan (1.97 ± 0.52 mm*y− 1) and a much lower one downstream (0.11 ± 0.11 mm*y− 1). However, this volumetric partitioning might only occur during periods with a very specific hydrological regime such as the Holocene deglaciation. Eventually, the peculiar sediment storage and release pattern within the Kuitun catchment and piedmont areas during the Pleistocene and Holocene complicates the calculation of mean paleodenudation rates using either sediment budgets or in situ produced cosmogenic nuclides.
ISSN: 0169-555X

insu-00985283
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00985283
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00985283/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00985283/file/jolivet-et_al-2014_HAL.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.geomorph.2014.01.024

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : National audience
Mass balances are often used to calculate sediment fluxes in sedimentary basins and denudationrates in adjacent topographies on intermediate to long timescales (from a few tens ofthousand to a million years). In this study, we focus on simple Quaternary catchment–alluvial fansystems in the northern Tian Shan Range and its foreland basin to discuss some ideas about sedimentproduction, storage, release, and bypass in relatively short (100 km long) sediment routing systems.Based on a geometrical reconstruction of the fans, we estimated the volumes of sediments exportedout of the range and deposited in its alluvial piedmont during the Middle- Late Pleistocene andthe Holocene. This work shows that the two areas clearly present evidence of a temporary butsignificant storage of sediments during the Pleistocene. These sediments were then excavated anddelivered farther into the foreland basin during the Holocene. The difference between the volumesof materials released from the range and piedmont areas and the volume stored in thecontemporaneous fans downstream indicates that the latter did not trap the whole sediment loadtransported by the rivers. The alluvial fans were bypassed by 27 to 78% of this load toward thedownstream alluvial plain. It implies a major volumetric partitioning of the deposits between thefans and the alluvial plain, with a sedimentation rate about twenty times higher in the fans thanin the plain. However, this volumetric partitioning might only occur during periods with a veryspecific hydrological regime such as the Holocene deglaciation. Eventually, the peculiar sedimentstorage and release pattern within the range and piedmont areas during the Pleistocene and Holocenecomplicates the calculation of mean paleodenudation rates using either sediment budgets or in situproduced cosmogenic nuclides.
Association des Sédimentologistes Français. 15ème congrès français de sédimentologie
Chambéry, France

hal-01252100
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01252100

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
This study examines the response of the Central Patagonian Cordillera to the subduction of the active South Chile Ridge and the development of the asthenospheric slab window beneath Patagonia since the Pliocene. We investigated the eastern part of the Cordillera where the glacio-volcanic piedmont is topographically inverted. Glacial morphology and associated deposits capping the top of these piedmonts reveal that during the Pliocene (after 3 Ma), glaciers were flowing to the east over a regional surface connecting the western Cordillera and the palaeo-piedmont. N160-trending normal faulting along the western edge of the inverted plateau disrupted the geomorphic surface after 3 Ma. At a regional scale, extensional tectonics is responsible for a relief inversion with a minimum value of 800 m. The timing of extensional tectonics is contemporaneous with the subduction of the spreading axis and the development of the slab window beneath Central Patagonia.
ISSN: 0954-4879

hal-00595547
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00595547
DOI : 10.1111/j.1365-3121.2010.00981.x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
The Tian Shan Mountains constitute central Asia's longest and highest mountain range. Understanding their Cenozoic uplift history thus bears on mountain building processes in general, and on how deformation has occurred under the influence of the India-Asia collision in particular. In order to help decipher the uplift history of the Tian Shan, we collected 970 samples for magnetostratigraphic analysis along a 4571-m-thick section at the Jingou River (Xinjiang Province, China). Stepwise alternating field and thermal demagnetization isolate a linear magnetization component that is interpreted as primary. From this component, a magnetostratigraphic column composed of 67 polarity chrons are correlated with the reference geomagnetic polarity timescale between ~1 Ma and ~23.6 Ma, with some uncertainty below ~21 Ma. This correlation places precise temporal control on the Neogene stratigraphy of the southern Junggar Basin and provides evidence for two significant stepwise increases in sediment accumulation rate at ~16–15 Ma and ~11–10 Ma. Rock magnetic parameters also undergo important changes at ~16–15 Ma and ~11–10 Ma that correlate with changes in sedimentary depositional environments. Together with previous work, we conclude that growth history of the modern Tian Shan Mountains includes two pulses of uplift and erosion at ~16–15 Ma and ~11–10 Ma. Middle to upper Tertiary rocks around the Tian Shan record very young (<~5 Ma) counterclockwise paleomagnetic rotations, on the order of 15° to 20°, which are interpreted as because of strain partitioning with a component of sinistral shear that localized rotations in the piedmont.
ISSN: 0278-7407

insu-00376345
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00376345
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00376345/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00376345/file/2007TC002137.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2007TC002137

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : International audience
The structure and dynamic evolution of a mountain belt piedmont are controlled by strong interactions between tectonics, surface processes (erosion, sedimentation), and climate. Studying these couplings relies on detailed geometric and kinematic analysis of morphostructural markers (folds, faults, terraces, alluvial surfaces) and analysis of syntectonic sedimentation. To study quantitatively how these markers form, evolve and record deformation, we developed a new analogue modelling approach using a specific composite granular material. The originality stands in the simultaneous modelling of orogenic deformation mechanisms and erosion-transport-sedimentation processes, but also in the use of techniques allowing quantitative measurement of morphostructural evolution. This methodology opens new perspectives in the fields of geomorphology (relief dynamics), seismotectonics (study of active faults), and sedimentology (including sequential stratigraphy).
ISSN: 0010-7999

hal-00411972
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00411972
DOI : 10.1016/j.crte.2008.01.005

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Résumé : International audience
BACKGROUND: Women of reproductive age can be exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) at work, and exposure to EDCs in pregnancy may affect fetal growth. OBJECTIVES: We assessed whether maternal occupational exposure to EDCs during pregnancy as classified by application of a job exposure matrix was associated with birth weight, term low birth weight (LBW), length of gestation, and preterm delivery. METHODS: Using individual participant data from 133,957 mother-child pairs in 13 European cohorts spanning births from 1994 through 2011, we linked maternal job titles with exposure to 10 EDC groups as assessed through a job exposure matrix. For each group, we combined the two levels of exposure categories (possible and probable) and compared birth outcomes with the unexposed group (exposure unlikely). We performed meta-analyses of cohort-specific estimates. RESULTS: Eleven percent of pregnant women were classified as exposed to EDCs at work during pregnancy, based on job title. Classification of exposure to one or more EDC group was associated with an increased risk of term LBW [odds ratio (OR) = 1.25; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.49], as were most specific EDC groups; this association was consistent across cohorts. Further, the risk increased with increasing number of EDC groups (OR = 2.11; 95% CI: 1.10, 4.06 for exposure to four or more EDC groups). There were few associations (p < 0.05) with the other outcomes; women holding job titles classified as exposed to bisphenol A or brominated flame retardants were at higher risk for longer length of gestation. CONCLUSION: Results from our large population-based birth cohort design indicate that employment during pregnancy in occupations classified as possibly or probably exposed to EDCs was associated with an increased risk of term LBW.
ISSN: 0091-6765

hal-01405823
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01405823
DOI : 10.1289/EHP208
PUBMED : 27152464

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The investigation of deformation rates on a mountain piedmont can provide key information for improving our understanding of the overall dynamics of a mountain range. Here, we estimate the shortening rate absorbed by a Quaternary emergent detachment fold on the southeastern piedmont of the Tianshan (China). Our work is primarily based on new 10Be cosmogenic exposure dating of deformed alluvial surfaces. The method we have developed combines depth profiling with sampling of surface cobbles, thereby allowing exposure time, erosion rate and inheritance to be simultaneously constrained. The exposure ages of the uppermost uplifted alluvial surfaces are around 140±17 ka140±17 ka, 130±9 ka130±9 ka and 47±9 ka47±9 ka, from west to east. A terrace lying below the 140 ka surface is dated at 65±5 ka65±5 ka. The ages of the uplifted and folded alluvial surfaces were then combined with estimates of shortening obtained using two distinct methods: (1) the excess area method, where sedimentation rates, extracted from magnetostratigraphic studies, are used to determine the amount of sedimentation after the abandonment of the river; and (2) a folding model derived from sandbox experiments. The late Pleistocene shortening rates are shown to be between 0.4±0.1 mm/yr0.4±0.1 mm/yr and 0.8±0.5 mm/yr0.8±0.5 mm/yr on the western part of the fold and 2.1±0.4 mm/yr2.1±0.4 mm/yr along its central part. The central part of the frontal Yakeng anticline therefore accommodates up to 25% of the total shortening currently absorbed across the whole Eastern Tianshan range (8 mm/yr). However, this situation seems to have prevailed for only the last 150 ka, as the shortening rate absorbed by this nascent fold was previously ten times slower. While the initiation of folding of the Yakeng anticline can be traced back to 5.5 Ma ago, the basinward migration of the active deformation front onto the Yakeng fold is a relatively recent phenomenon and appears to be diachronous from west to east, probably in relation to the tectonic activity of the folds in the hinterland.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-01306997
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01306997
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2015.11.041

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Mass balances are often used to calculate sediment fluxes in sedimentary basins and denudationrates in adjacent topographies on intermediate to long timescales (from a few tens ofthousand to a million years). In this study, we focus on simple Quaternary catchment–alluvialfan systems in the northern Tian Shan Range and its foreland basin to discuss some ideasabout sediment production, storage, release, and bypass in relatively short (100 km long) sedimentrouting systems. Based on a geometrical reconstruction of the fans, we estimated thevolumes of sediments exported out of the range and deposited in its alluvial piedmont duringthe Middle-Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. This work shows that the two areas clearlypresent evidence of a temporary but significant storage of sediments during the Pleistocene.These sediments were then excavated and delivered farther into the foreland basin during theHolocene. The difference between the volumes of materials released from the range and piedmontareas and the volume stored in the contemporaneous fans downstream indicates thatthe latter did not trap the whole sediment load transported by the rivers. The alluvial fans werebypassed by 27 to 78% of this load toward the downstream alluvial plain. It implies a majorvolumetric partitioning of the deposits between the fans and the alluvial plain, with a sedimentationrate about twenty times higher in the fans than in the plain. However, this volumetricpartitioning might only occur during periods with a very specific hydrological regime suchas the Holocene deglaciation. Eventually, the peculiar sediment storage and release patternwithin the range and piedmont areas during the Pleistocene and Holocene complicates thecalculation of mean paleodenudation rates using either sediment budgets or in situ producedcosmogenic nuclides.
Source to Sink: a long term perspective of sediment budgets and sources characterization, Abstracts
Rennes, France

insu-01406440
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01406440

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Patagonia is well known for spectacular occurrences of a variety of glacial-derived landforms and deposits and for a long history of ancient glaciations. In this paper, we first review the diverse evidence that demonstrates the development of glacial-related sedimentary units within the Central Patagonian Cordillera since 7 Ma. Well preserved glacial landforrns at the top surface of mesetas on both sides of the Lago General Carrera-Buenos Aires are described: the Meseta Guenguel to the north, and the volcanic Meseta del Lago Buenos Aires to the south. The latter meseta corresponds to a 3 Ma old, morphologically inverted paleo-piedmont, based on Ar/Ar dates of the uppermost lava flows. It shows evidence of glacier advances to the NE direction. Over a distance of 20 km, glacial landforms observed by remote sensing data and digital elevation model define glacial tongues that were fed by the Cordillera reliefs to the west. These lobes are now beheaded from their westward sources along a morpho-structural corridor that bounds the Meseta del Lago Buenos Aires to the west. These remnants can be correlated with the oldest glacial landforms recognized north of Lago General Carrera-Buenos Aires, on the Meseta Guenguel that form the Chipanque moraine system. From these features it is concluded that the glacial drainage network of Central Patagonia has been strongly modified following relief inversion in response to erosion processes and to tectonic causes. Changes occurred after 3 Ma, from a smooth piedmont surface covered by an extensive ice mantle ending with ample glacial lobes, to the current series of deeply incised glacial valleys such as the Lago General Carrera-Buenos Aires depression. These new data bear important constraints on the history and development of the first glaciations in southern South America.
ANDEAN GEOLOGY

hal-00512682
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00512682

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : The spreading ridge subduction is an unavoidable process during the subduction-related belt elovution. The aim of this thesis concerns the evolution of the Central Patagonian Cordillera, at the latitude of the Chile triple junction, in relation with the Chile spreading ridge subduction inducing the opening of a slab-window beneath the South American plate. By a morphologic, and a structural analysis, coupled with the analysis of satelittes and topographic images, we show the influence of the slab-window development at 3 Ma on the morphostructural evolution of the Central Patagonia. During the Pliocene, the Central Patagonian Cordillera experiences a major extensional phase inducing the formation of transverse and internal depressions. Negative tectonic inversion, responsible to the rift-type topography, induces the inversion of the morphotectonic front and the disruption of the volcano-sedimentary piedmont with the rest of the Cordillera at 3 Ma. Radial extensional regime is characterized by a magnitude comprises between 800 m and 3500 meters and vertical movements are localized along polyphazed faults. We suggest that the Plio-Quaternary morphostructural evolution is related to the opening of the slab-window at 3 Ma beneath the Central Patagonia. The upwelling of asthenospheric hot mantle through the slab window induces the regional collapse of the Central Patagonian Cordillera.
La subduction d'une dorsale active sous un continent est un processus inévitable dans l'évolution des chaînes de subduction. Le travail de cette thèse concerne l'évolution de la Cordillère de Patagonie Centrale, à la latitude du point triple du Chili, en relation avec la subduction de la dorsale active du Chili induisant le développement d'une fenêtre asthénosphérique sous la plaque sudaméricaine. A l'aide d'une approche morphologique, structurale, couplée à l'analyse d'images satellites et topographiques, nous montrons l'influence de la fenêtre asthénosphérique depuis 3 Ma sur l'évolution morphostructurale de la Patagonie Centrale. Au cours du Pliocène, la Cordillère de Patagonie Centrale est marquée par une phase d'extension majeure induisant la formation de dépressions transverses et internes à la chaîne. L'inversion négative du relief responsable de la topographie générale de type rift induit l'inversion du front morphotectonique et la déconnexion du piedmont volcano-sédimentaire du reste de la Cordillère à partir de 3 Ma. L'extension radiale dont l'amplitude est comprise entre 800 mètres et 3500 mètres, se localise dans la plupart des cas au niveau de failles polyphasées. L'évolution morphostructurale plioquaternaire proposée est directement reliée à l'ouverture de la fenêtre asthénosphérique à 3 Ma sous la Patagonie et à la remontée de matériel asthénosphérique chaud induisant la collapse régionale de la Cordillère de Patagonie Centrale.
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00557618

tel-00557618
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00557618
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00557618/document
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00557618/file/scalabrinothese.pdf

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : The North Tehran Fault is located at the southernmost piedmont of Central Alborz, north of Iran. It stands out as a major active fault menacing directly the city of Tehran, a 12 million people metropolis, and would have been the source of several major historical earthquakes in the past. The fault zone extends up to 110km and corresponds mainly to a reverse fault mostly crossing the northern suburbs of the Tehran metropolis, although NTF in its eastern part is characterized more as a left lateral strike slip active fault. We carried out a paleoseismological study of the fault zone in order to determine whether the fault was activated during the Holocene, and to define the characteristics of its activity in terms of kinematics and magnitude. Here in this paper we present only a part of our paleoseismological investigations trench TE2. Observations fromtwo trenches dug across the North Tehran fault scarp reveal evidence for a maximum of six surface-rupturing events within the late quaternary. According to the empirical relationships among average displacement per event and Moment magnitude [25], we can estimate six events Mw~ 6.5 associated with these ruptures in TE2 trench.
Journal of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering

hal-00758375
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00758375

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Cette étude se situe dans la perspective de l'analyse de l'évolution post-messinienne de la marge ouest-tyrrhénienne (programme Metyss). Les pentes accidentées des reliefs granitiques au dessus de la vallée du Cedrino sont couvertes de l'amont vers l'aval par des blocs chaotiques, des accumulations de poudingues et brèches polygéniques ou monogéniques qui sont irrégulièrement cimentées et, plus localement, par des séquences gravelo-sableuses granoclassées de crues torrentielles dessinant des structures en auge. Plus bas, d'autres séquences plutôt sablo-silteuses correspondent à des éventails de chenaux anastomosés de plaine alluviale. En transgression sur ces dépôts de piedmont ou plus ou moins directement sur un socle granitique ou encore schisteux, plusieurs faciès marins composés aussi de sables granitiques relativement bien triés sont observés en bordure d'un golfe. L'ensemble des dépôts ont livré une microfaune permettant de leur attribuer un âge Pliocène supérieur et parfois proche de la limite Pliocène-Pléistocène. Ils correspondent à des environnements bathymétriques variés (littoral côtier, pro-delta, plateforme ou haut de pente) qui se succèdent verticalement sur seulement quelques dizaines de mètres. Les successions observées ne correspondent pas à des séquences transgressives classiques: en plusieurs cas, la séquence débute par un dépôt relativement profond, puis montre des oscillations variables avec des tendances très littorales, avant l'émersion finale, ailleurs la séquence marine est réduite à un seul dépôt littoral. Ces séquences dont les termes sont variables dans l'espace impliquent une activité tectonique synsédimentaire qui est attestée par plusieurs accidents et par des éboulements de falaise. Enfin, tous ces dépôts marins et continentaux sont cachetés par un ensemble de coulées basaltiques d'âge pléistocène. Les accumulations détritiques marines évoquent des corps sableux de type " Gilbert delta ". Cette étude montre que de tels édifices n'existent pas tout au moins à l'échelle de cette zone périlittorale. En effet, la géométrie des corps sableux n'est pas orientée vers la mer, mais présente des directions variables dictées par les axes gravitaires de plus grande pente, puis par des basculements post-sédimentaires d'origine tectonique. Par ailleurs, des lambeaux résiduels d'une surface d'érosion renfermant des blocs, des galets ou des nummulites oxydées de l'Éocène, ou encore des microfaunes allant de l'Oligocène jusqu'au Miocène moyen pourraient correspondre à la surface d'érosion messinienne. Cette marge est-sarde est cependant atypique dans la mesure où les premiers témoins d'une transgression n'apparaissent qu'à partir du Pliocène supérieur.
13ème Congrès Français de Sédimentologie
Dijon, France

hal-00657312
https://hal-brgm.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00657312

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
We developed a new granular material (MatIV) to study experimentally landscape evolution in active mountain belt piedmonts. Its composition and related physical properties have been determined using empirical criteria derived from the scaling of deformation, erosion-transport and sedimentation natural processes. MatIV is a water-saturated composite material made up with 4 granular components (silica powder, glass microbeads, plastic powder and graphite) whose physical, mechanical and erosion-related properties were measured with different laboratory tests. Mechanical measurements were made on a modified Hubbert-type direct shear apparatus. Erosion-related properties were determined using an experimental set-up that allows quantifying the erosion/sedimentation budget from tilted relaxation topographies. For MatIV, we also investigated the evolution of mean erosion rates and stream power erosion law exponents in 1D as a function of slope.;Our results indicate that MatIV satisfies most of the defined criteria. It deforms brittlely according to the linear Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion and localizes deformation along discrete faults. Its erosion pattern is characterized by realistic hillslope and channelized processes (slope diffusion, mass wasting, channel incision). During transport, eroded particles are sorted depending on their density and shape, which results in stratified alluvial deposits displaying lateral fades variations. To evaluate the degree of similitude between model and nature, we used a new experimental device that combines accretionary wedge deformation mechanisms and surface runoff erosion processes. Results indicate that MatIV succeeded in producing detailed morphological and sedi-mentological features (drainage basin, channel network, terrace, syntectonic alluvial fan). Geometric, kinematic and dynamic similarity criteria have been investigated to compare precisely model to nature. Although scaling is incomplete, it yields particularly informative orders of magnitude. With all these characteristics, MatIV appears as a very promising material to investigate experimentally a wide range of scientific questions dealing with relief dynamics and interactions between tectonics, erosion and sedimentation processes.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-00669904
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00669904
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2011.09.029

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
We use digital elevation models and satellite imagery data completed with field observations to develop an integrated morphotectonic analysis of the anomalous topography of the Central Cordillera of Patagonia between 46 degrees S and 48 degrees S, in a region overlying subducted segments of the Chile Spreading Ridge. This region shows a number of peculiar features, not expected in a normal subduction-related belt located away from a buried spreading center. First, it is characterized by overall short-wavelength topography and highly contrasted reliefs, typical of deeply incised young mountain belts, but surprisingly, also by an average very low elevation of similar to 900 m. Second, the Cordillera lacks central high reliefs; instead, there is a central, depressed domain with average low slope gradients including the deepest point of the study area (300 m below sea level in the bottom of Lake General Carrera/Buenos Aires). This depressed area is flanked by western and eastern regions of higher elevation having opposite general slope dips. To the east, the central Patagonian Cordillera is now separated from the flat plains of the Pampean domain (representing its former piedmont) and several elevated basaltic plateaus (mesetas) by 160 degrees N-180 degrees N trending morphotectonic corridors and the western border scarps of the mesetas. These scarps correspond to neotectonic features controlled by recent vertical faults, mostly active after 3 Ma. Remnants of a former peneplain, the Avellanos surface, are widespread within the entire Cordilleran region. From geological evidence, this peneplain formed between 15 and 4 Ma and was connected originally with the mesetas domain and now is dissected by these corridors. It is shown that a negative inversion related to extensional and strike-slip faulting occurred in the frontal region of the Cordillera at 3 Ma synchronously with the emplacement of magmatic products. Timing of the extensional deformation in central Patagonia is concomitant with the migration at depth of different segments of the South Chile Ridge, which entered the trench at 6 and 3 Ma, respectively, and the consequent opening of a slab window allows asthenospheric hot mantle to reach lithospheric regions. Finally, migration of segments of the Chile Spreading Ridge since 6 Ma triggered regional uplift of the Cordillera followed by limited extension in relation with increased thermal weakening of the crust.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00486334
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00486334
DOI : 10.1029/2009TC002453

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
The North Tehran Fault (NTF) is located at the southernmost piedmont of Central Alborz and crosses the northern suburbs of the Tehran metropolis and adjacent cities, where ∼15 million people live. Extending over a length of about 110 km, the NTF stands out as a major active fault and represents an important seismic hazard for the Iranian capital after historical seismicity. In order to characterize the activity of the NTF in terms of kinematics, magnitude and recurrence intervals of earthquakes, we carried out a first paleoseismological study of the fault within its central part between Tehran and Karaj cities. We opened a trench across a 3 m-high fault scarp affecting Quaternary deposits. Our study shows that the scarp is the result of repeated events along a main N115°E trending shallow dipping thrust fault, associated with secondary ruptures. From the trench analysis and Infrared Stimulated Luminescence (IRSL) dating of fault-related sediments, we interpreted between 6 and 7 surface-rupturing events that occurred during the past 30 kyrs. Their magnitudes (estimated from the displacements along the faults) are comprised between 6.1 and 7.2. The two last events - the largest - occurred during the past 7.9 ± 1.2 ka, which yields a Holocene slip rate of ∼0.3 mm/yr. The 7 earthquakes scenario suggests a regular periodicity with a mean recurrence interval of ∼3.8 kyrs. However, the two most recent events could correspond to the two largest historical earthquakes recorded in the area (in 312-280 B.C. and 1177 A.D.), and therefore suggest that the NTF activity is not regular.
ISSN: 0148-0227

hal-00757568
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00757568
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00757568v2/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00757568/file/ritz2012.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2012JB009147

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Geological Society of America
Résumé : International audience
We combine surface structural measurements, subsurface seismic imaging, and magneto-stratigraphic dating to retrieve, through geometric modeling, the detailed history of fold growth and sedimentation across the Huerguosi anticline, on the northern Tianshan piedmont, taking advantage of a beautifully exposed section of growth strata. The model assumes a fault-bend folding mechanism, consistent with subsurface fold geometry. The shortening history is obtained by least-squares fitting of the measured dip angles of the growth strata. The shortening rate across the anticline is shown to have been remarkably constant: it increased only slightly from 0.84 ± 0.04 mm/yr between 10 and 4 Ma to 1.14 ± 0.02 mm/yr over the past 4 m.y. This approach also allows correcting syntectonic sedimentation rates for the effect of the fold growth and shows that the sedimentation rates in the piggyback basin increased abruptly from ~0.4 to ~0.7 mm/yr ca. 4 Ma.
ISSN: 0091-7613

insu-00338254
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00338254
DOI : 10.1130/G25073A.1