Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
We review the geodynamic evolution of the Aegea-Anatolia region and discuss strain localisation there over geological times. From Late Eocene to Present, crustal deformation in the Aegean backarc has localised progressively during slab retreat. Extension started with the formation of the Rhodope Metamorphic Core Complex (Eocene) and migrated to the Cyclades and the northern Menderes massif (Oligocene and Miocene), accommodated by crustal-scale detachments and a first series of core complexes (MCCs). Extension then localised in Western Turkey, the Corinth Rift and the external Hellenic arc after Messinian times, while the North Anatolian Fault penetrated the Aegean Sea. Through time the direction and style of extension have not changed significantly except in terms of localisation. The contributions of progressive slab retreat and tearing, basal drag, extrusion tectonics and tectonic inheritance are discussed and we favour a model (1) where slab retreat is the main driving engine, (2) successive slab tearing episodes are the main causes of this stepwise strain localisation and (3) the inherited heterogeneity of the crust is a major factor for localising detachments. The continental crust has an inherited strong heterogeneity and crustal-scale contacts such as major thrust planes act as weak zones or as zones of contrast of resistance and viscosity that can localise later deformation. The dynamics of slabs at depth and the asthenospheric flow due to slab retreat also have influence strain localisation in the upper plate. Successive slab ruptures from the Middle Miocene to the Late Miocene have isolated a narrow stripe of lithosphere, still attached to the African lithosphere below Crete. The formation of the North Anatolian Fault is partly a consequence of this evolution. The extrusion of Anatolia and the Aegean extension are partly driven from below (asthenospheric flow) and from above (extrusion of a lid of rigid crust).
ISSN: 0040-1951

insu-00715950
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00715950
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00715950/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00715950/file/Jolivet-Aegean_Tectonophysics-2012.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2012.06.011

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
In the southeastern corner of the Tyrrhenian basin, in the central Mediterranean Sea, a tight alignment of earthquakes along a well-defined Benioff zone marks one of the narrowest active trenches worldwide, where one of the last fragment of the former Tethys ocean is consumed. Seismic tomography furnishes snapshot images of the present-day position of this slab, and seismic anisotropy allows to reconstruct the past kinematics of the subduction process. Using seismic anisotropy fast directions as a proxy for the present and past mantle flow, we look backward for the seismic traces of the slab motion through the western-central Mediterranean mantle, from the starting locus of subduction toward its present day position. The result of combining independent data sets provides a coherent pattern of anisotropy that illustrates an example of slab rollback from its initiation point to its present-day position.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-01389115
http://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01389115
http://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01389115/document
http://hal.univ-reunion.fr/hal-01389115/file/Lucente_medit_EPSL2006_hal.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2005.10.041

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
A variety of atypical plume-like structures and focused upwellings that are not rooted in the lower mantle have recently been discussed, and seismological imaging has shown ubiquitous small-scale convection in the uppermost mantle in regions such as the Mediterranean region, the western US, and around the western Pacific. We argue that the three-dimensional return flow and slab fragmentation associated with complex oceanic subduction trajectories within the upper mantle can generate focused upwellings and that these may play a significant role in regional tectonics. The testable surface expressions of this process are the outside-arc alkaline volcanism, topographic swell, and low-velocity seismic anomalies associated with partial melt. Using three-dimensional, simplified numerical subduction models, we show that focused upwellings can be generated both ahead of the slab in the back-arc region (though -five times further inward from the trench than arc-volcanism) and around the lateral edges of the slab (in the order of 100 km away from slab edges). Vertical mass transport, and by inference the associated decompression melting, in these regions appears strongly correlated with the interplay between relative trench motion and subduction velocities. The upward flux of material from the depths is expected to be most pronounced during the first phase of slab descent into the upper mantle or during slab fragmentation. We discuss representative case histories from the Pacific and the Mediterranean where we find possible evidence for such slab-related volcanism.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-00553075
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00553075
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2010.08.012

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
Based on global earthquake catalogs, the hypocenters, nodal planes, and seismic moments of worldwide subduction plate interface earthquakes were extracted for the period between 1900 and 2007. Assuming that the seismogenic zone coincides with the distribution of 5.5 <= M < 7 earthquakes, the subduction interface seismogenic zones were mapped for 80% of the trench systems and characterized with geometrical and mechanical parameters. Using this database, correlations were isolated between significant parameters to identify cause-effect relationships. Empirical laws obtained in previous studies were revisited in light of this more complete, accurate, and uniform description of the subduction interface seismogenic zone. The seismogenic zone was usually found to end in a fore-arc mantle, rather than at a Moho depth. The subduction velocity was the first-order controlling parameter for variations in the physical characteristics of plate interfaces, determining both the geometry and mechanical behavior. As such, the fast subduction zones and cold slabs were associated with large and steep plate interfaces, which, in turn, had large seismic rates. The subduction velocity could not account for the potential earthquake magnitude diversity that was observed along the trenches. Events with M-w >= 8.5 preferentially occurred in the vicinity of slab edges, where the upper plate was continental and the back-arc strain was neutral. This observation was interpreted in terms of compressive normal stresses along the plate interface. Large lateral ruptures should be promoted in neutral subduction zones due to moderate compressive stresses along the plate interface that allow the rupture to propagate laterally.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-00617681
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617681
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617681/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617681/file/heuretG32011.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2010GC003230