Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Société géologique de France
Résumé : Late Jurassic platform carbonates of Languedoc (southern France) are deeply incised by Late Miocene canyons, allowing the observation of karst systems filled with sediments containing evidences of marine origin. Field and structural relationships as well as new biostratigraphic data (planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils) provide a Latest Cretaceous-Earliest Paleocene age for the major karstification and a Paleocene (Danian-Selandian) age for the sedimentary filling. The ≥ 350 m vertical extent of this karst system and its subsequent marine filling gives a minimum amplitude for the base-level variation responsible for the karstification and then the marine flooding events. The observations suggest that at least, two marine successive events occurred in the Late Danian then in Selandian time. The large amplitude of base level is not in agreement with eustatic sea-level change, and the rate of base-level change is too fast for tectonic uplift and subsidence within the tabular, poorly deformed studied area. We propose a model of a silled endoreic basin, which was dessiccated and karstified over hundreds of meters, when it was disconnected from the World Ocean, and later suddently transgressed by the Paleocene sea and the karst flooded, when the bounding sill was submerged. Such a model is similar, although with significant differences, with the later Messinian-Zanclean event that affected the Mediterranean realm.
EISSN: 1777-5817

hal-00767556
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00767556
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.183.5.425

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Société géologique de France
Résumé : The Mesozoic series of the southern units of the Pyrenean Empordà thrust sheets (Montgrí and Figueres nappes, Catalonia, Spain) were finally emplaced over the autochthonous basement and its Cenozoic cover during Eocene times. However, they have originally been folded by the "Laramian" compressional event (Late Cretaceous/Early Paleocene), while they were still in their root zone more than 50 km to the N-NE. Postdating the Santonian, the emersion of the Cretaceous tectorogen induced karst formation at the expense of Berriasian to Santonian limestone sequences. Karst cavities of this paleokarst 1 (lapiaz and canyons) were subsequently coated with a fine, red or black, Microcodium-bearing, continental silt, and infilled with marine chaotic breccias. Following a new episode of emersion then erosion, the original paleokarst 1 was cross-cut by newly formed cavities of the paleokarst 2, filled with Lutetian-Bartonian marine breccias. Both types of marine breccias (Paleocene then Eocene in age) are now relatively well dated by means of planktonic foraminifera (Globigerinacea) occurring within the argillaceous-sandy matrix, and for the older ones, within the argillaceous-sandy or carbonate, finely laminated, interbedded hemipelagites, that mark the top of marine sequences tens of centimetres thick. The relationships of the "Laramian" and "Pyrenean" compressional tectonic events, occurring from latest Cretaceous to Bartonian, with the development of paleokarsts 1 and 2 are analysed in the perspective of the progressive southwards emplacement of the Montgrí thrust sheet, during Eocene time.
EISSN: 1777-5817

hal-00405328
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00405328
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.178.1.15

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Société géologique de France
Résumé : U-Pb ages obtained from detrital zircon from terrigenous sediments are used to determine the sources. Present fluvial sand-bars of the Ogooue river yield age spectra of detrital zircons in agreement with Archean and Early Proterozoic Sources found in the drainage. The large proportion of Late Proterozoic zircons cannot be derived from primary erosion of the watershed basement rocks, since there is no formation of that age in the area. This later group of zircons is in good agreement with reworking of the aeolian Paleogene Bateke Sands, by regressive erosion in the upper reaches of the Ogooue river, as they contain a majority of Late Proterozoic age zircons. The sources of Late Proterozoic zircons in the Bateke Sand are very distant, and transported and reworked - at least in part - by aeolian processes. Our results, together with the widely distributed Paleogene sediments over continental Africa, suggests that Paleogene was it time of subdued erosion of the cratonic areas and extensive reworking, transport and deposition within continental Africa. In contrast, our results from the Ogooue river indicate active present incision of the cratonic area, erosion of the previous continental sediments, and export of the river bed-load to the continental margin. This temporal evolution of erosion-transport-deposition is correlated with the drastic climate change that occurred during the Cenozoic, leading to a more efficient mechanical erosion, and it correlates with the increase of terrigenous flux to the margin, observed during the Neogene.
EISSN: 1777-5817

hal-00411165
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00411165
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.179.1.29

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Taylor & Francis
Résumé : The Latest Cretaceous/Paleocene paleokarsts from Bas-Languedoc (South of France) are characterized by : 1) exokarstic paleosurfaces (sink holes, pinnacles, canyons) which are mostly superimposed onto the Late Jurassic limestones and partly filled up with breccias and sandy clays containing Paleocene planktonic foraminifera; 2) endokarstic cavities filled up by sandy pelites and laminated mudstones with similar micropaleontological assemblage. All these cavities constitute three cut-and-filled paleokarstic systems. A general model of formation for this polyphase system is proposed. These paleosurfaces are generated by a Latest Cretaceous tectonic phase and Paleocene movements associated with eustatic rises inducing rapid floodings. During Upper Danian-Lower Selandian times three successive base levels drops, whose cumulated duration could be as long as 3 Ma, have induced several hundred metres of incisions within the exposed Jurassic carbonate series. A paleogeographic reconstruction shows three main marine gulfs which extend towards NE the EW Pyrenean thrust belt ("Pyrenean Paleocene Trough", PPT) located on the axis of the future Pyrenees. The similarity of the facies and micropaleontological content in the two domains suggests connexions between the marine Paleocene deposits of Bas-Languedoc and the PPT. It could thus explain the succession of the same tectono-eustatic events. We propose, as an hypothesis, that the rapid sea-level changes, as recorded by the imbricated karstic paleomorphologies, could be induced by the closing and the opening of a strait in the Eastern part of the PPT acting as a sill. This would be controlled by tectonic movements along the active orogenic axis of the Pyrenean Range and eustatic variations of the Paleocene World Ocean. The karstic systems developed during these low-stand episodes may have been later reactivated after the Early Selandian and more specifically during the Messinian desiccation event. This late evolution may have generated deep flooded karsts, now situated below the present sea level. Such karsts, partly inherited from Paleocene, could be important aquifers of economic interest.
ISSN: 0985-3111

hal-00407601
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00407601
DOI : 10.3166/ga.20.301-326

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : We have integrated the relatively unknown distal domains of the Lower Congo basin, where the main depocenters of the Congo submarine fan are located, with the better-constrained successions on the shelf and upper slope, through the analysis of thousands of km of 2D seismic reflection profiles off-shore the Congo-Angola passive margin. The basin architecture is depicted by two ca. 800-km-long regional cross sections through the northern (Congo) and southern (Angola) margin. A large unit deposited basinward of the Aptian salt limit is likely to be the abyssal-plain equivalent of the upper-Cretaceous carbonate shelf that characterized the first post-rift deposits in West-equatorial African margins. A latest-Turonian shelf-deepening event is recorded in the abyssal plain as a long period (Coniacian-Eocene) of condensed sedimentation and basin starvation. The onset of the giant Tertiary Congo deep-sea fan in early Oligocene following this event reactivates the abyssal plain as the main depocenter of the basin. The time-space partitioning of sedimentation within the deep-sea fan results from the interplay among increasing sediment supply, margin uplift, rise of the Angola salt ridge, and canyon incision throughout the Neogene. Oligocene-early Miocene turbidite sedimentation occurs mainly in NW-SE grabens and ponded inter-diapir basins on the southern margin (Angola). Seaward tilting of the margin and downslope salt withdrawal activates the up-building of the Angola escarpment, which leads to a northward (Congo) shift of the transfer zones during late Miocene. Around the Miocene-Pliocene boundary, the incision of the Congo submarine canyon confines the turbidite flows and drives a general basinward progradation of the submarine fan into the abyssal plain The slope deposition is dominated by fine-grained hemipelagic deposits ever since. Results from this work contribute to better understand the signature in the ultra-deep deposits of processes acting on the continental margin as well as the basin-wide sediment redistribution in areas of high river input.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-00424533
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00424533
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2008.04.009

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Maguelone shore extends along the northern coast of the Gulf of Lions, west of the Rhone Delta and east of high-gradient coastal streams that have provided most of the clastic sediments to the Gulf of Lions margin since the early Miocene. This 10 km-wide area is constituted by a small coastal watershed (15 km long) in low-lying carbonate hills, a kilometre-wide marsh, a sandy beach barrier and a shoreface experiencing local low sedimentation rates. This onshore-offshore transition zone is a key area to understand the relationships between erosion, by-pass, deposition and preservation processes. Unlike the neighbouring Rhone deposits that display numerous thick deltaic sequences related to a continuous sediment flux, the Maguelone shore exhibits peculiar sedimentary bodies. The analysis of about 250 km of new VHR seismic profiles acquired over the study area, 9 short cores and outcrops data allowed us to determine the three-dimensional high-resolution geometry of the coastal system tracts from Quaternary to present-day. This revealed dominant denudation processes in the Upstream catchments associated with the formation of incised valleys during Quaternary lowstands. In addition, this study investigates the erosion and deposition mechanisms controlled by littoral hydrodynamics that have been taken place on this shore since the last transgression. In particular, metre-high and hundreds of metre-long sandy bodies constructed by alongshore hydrodynamics were identified and their effect on the morphodynamics of the whole littoral system is discussed. The Maguelone shore can be used as an experimental study for onshore/offshore dynamics under the influence of microtidal wave/current hydrodynamics and very low river-derived sediment flux during a eustatic cycle. Geometry of system tracts across flood plain to shoreface is usually considered to be controlled by relative sea-level changes, and is successfully analysed with 2D sequence stratigraphy cross-shore models. It is observed that in areas like the Maguelone shore, traditional sequence stratigraphy methods might not be fully relevant and need to integrate alongshore hydrodynamical processes.
ISSN: 0025-3227

hal-00421060
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00421060
DOI : 10.1016/j.margeo.2009.06.008

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
New investigations in the Neogene Boudinar basin (Morocco) provide new information about the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) and Zanclean reflooding in the southern part of the Alboran realm (westernmost Mediterranean). Based on a new field, sedimentological and palaeontological analyses, the age and the geometry of both the Messinian erosional surface (MES) and the overlying deposits have been determined. The MES is of late Messinian age and was emplaced in subaerial settings. In the Boudinar basin, a maximum of 200 m of Miocene sediments was eroded, including late Messinian gypsum blocks. The original geometry of the MES is preserved only when it is overlain by late Messinian continental deposits, conglomeratic alluvial fans or lacustrine marly sediments. These sediments are interpreted as indicators of the sea-level fall during the MSC. Elsewhere in the basin, the contact between late Messinian and early Pliocene deposits is a low-angle dipping, smooth surface that corresponds to the early Pliocene transgression surface that subsequently re-shaped the regressive MES. The early Pliocene deposits are characterized by: (i) their onlap onto either the basement of the Rif chain or the late Miocene deposits; (ii) lagoonal deposits at the base to offshore marls and sands at the top (earliest Pliocene; 5.33–5.04 Ma interval; foraminifer zone PL1); (iii) marine recovery occurring in the 5.32–5.26 Ma interval; and (iv) the change from lagoonal to offshore environments occurring within deposits tens of metres thick. This information indicates that at least the end of the reflooding period was progressive, not catastrophic as previously thought.
ISSN: 0037-0738

hal-01306672
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01306672
DOI : 10.1016/j.sedgeo.2015.12.014