Éditeur(s) : Elsevier
Résumé : To better understand the recent motion of the Pacific plate relative to the Rivera plate and to better define the limitations of the existing Rivera-Pacific plate motion models for accurately predicting this motion, total-field magnetic data, multibeam bathymetric data and sidescan sonar images were collected during the BART and FAMEX campaigns of the N/O L'Atalante conducted in April and May 2002 in the area surrounding the Moctezuma Spreading Segment of the East Pacific Rise, located offshore of Manzanillo, Mexico, at 106 degrees 16'W, between 17.8 degrees N and 18.5 degrees N. Among the main results are: (1) the principle transform displacement zone of the Rivera Transform is narrow and well defined east of 107 degrees 15'W and these azimuths should be used preferentially when deriving new plate motion models, and (2) spreading rates along the Moctezuma Spreading Segment should not be used in plate motion studies as either seafloor spreading has been accommodated at more than one location since the initiation of seafloor spreading in the area of the Moctezuma Spreading Segment, or this spreading center is not a Rivera-Pacific plate boundary as has been previously assumed. Comparison of observed transform azimuths with those predicted by the best-fit poles of six previous models of Rivera-Pacific relative motion indicate that, in the study area, a significant systematic bias is present in the predictions of Rivera-Pacific motion. Although the exact source of this bias remains unclear, this bias indicates the need to derive a new Rivera-Pacific relative plate motion model.
Tectonophysics (0040-1951) (Elsevier), 2008-06 , Vol. 454 , N. 1-4 , P. 70-85

Droits : 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2008/publication-4486.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.tecto.2008.04.013
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/4486/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The geologic evolution of the South Armenian Block (SAB) in the Mesozoic is reconstructed from a structural, metamorphic, and geochronologic study including U–Pb and 40Ar/39Ar dating. The South Armenian Block Crystalline Basement (SABCB) outcrops solely in a narrow tectonic window, NW of Yerevan. The study of this zone provides key and unprecedented information concerning closing of the Northern Neotethys oceanic domain north of the Taurides-Anatolides platform from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. The basement comprises of presumed Proterozoic orthogneiss overlain by metamorphosed pelites as well as intrusions of granodiorite and leucogranite during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Structural, geochronological and petrological observations show a multiphased evolution of the northern margin of the SAB during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. A south-dipping subduction under the East Anatolian Platform-South Armenian Block (EAP-SAB) is proposed in order to suit recent findings pertaining emplacement of relatively hot subduction related granodiorite as well as the metamorphic evolution of the crystalline basement in the Lesser Caucasus area. The metamorphism is interpreted as evidencing: (1) M1 Barrovian MP–MT conditions (staurolite–kyanite) at c. 157–160 Ma and intrusion of dioritic magmas at c. 150–156 Ma, (2) near-adiabatic decompression is featured by partial melting and production of leucogranites at c. 153 Ma, followed by M2 HT–LP conditions (andalusite–K-feldspar). A phase of shearing and recrystallization is ascribed to doming at c. 130–150 Ma and cooling at 400 °C by c. 123 Ma (M3). Structural observations show (1) top to the north shearing during M1 and (2) radial extension during M2. The extensional event ends by emplacement of a thick detrital series along radial S, E and W-dipping normal faults. Further, the crystalline basement is unconformably covered by Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene series dated by nannofossils, evolving from Maastrichtian marly sandstones to Paleocene limestones.
ISSN: 0743-9547

hal-01174077
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01174077
DOI : 10.1016/j.jseaes.2014.07.018

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The continental South Armenian Block – part of the Anatolide–Tauride South Armenian microplate – of Gondwana origin rifted from the African margin after the Triassic and collided with the Eurasian margin after the Late Cretaceous. During the Late Cretaceous, two northward dipping subduction zones were simultaneously active in the northern Neo-Tethys between the South Armenian Block in the south and the Eurasian margin in the north: oceanic subduction took place below the continental Eurasian margin and intra-oceanic subduction resulted in ophiolite obduction onto the South Armenian Block in the Late Cretaceous.The paleolatitude position of the South Armenian Block before its collision with Eurasia within paleogeographic reconstructions is poorly determined and limited to one study. This earlier study places the South Armenian Block at the African margin in the Early Jurassic. To reconstruct the paleolatitude history of the South Armenian Block, we sampled Upper Devonian–Permian and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks in Armenia. The sampled Paleozoic rocks have likely been remagnetized. Results from two out of three sites sampled in Upper Cretaceous strata pass fold tests and probably all three carry a primary paleomagnetic signal. The sampled sedimentary rocks were potentially affected by inclination shallowing. Therefore, two sites that consist of a large number of samples (> 100) were corrected for inclination shallowing using the elongation/inclination method.These are the first paleomagnetic data that quantify the South Armenian Block's position in the Tethys ocean between post-Triassic rifting from the African margin and post-Cretaceous collision with Eurasia. A locality sampled in Lower Campanian Eurasian margin sedimentary rocks and corrected for inclination shallowing, confirms that the corresponding paleolatitude falls on the Eurasian paleolatitude curve. The north–south distance between the South Armenian Block and the Eurasian margin just after Coniacian–Santonian ophiolite obduction was at most 1000 km.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-01365871
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01365871
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2015.01.012

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
This article summarizes the geodynamic evolution of the Variscan to Mesozoic Tethyan subduction history, based on a review of geochronological data from Eastern Anatolia and the Lesser Caucasus, and new isotopic ages for the Georgian crystalline basements. The geological history of the basements of Georgia (Transcaucasus) and NE Turkey (eastern Pontides) appears to be similar and provides evidence for a continuously active continental margin above a north-dipping subduction since at least the Lower Jurassic. New La-ICPMS U-Pb ages from the Georgian basement provide further evidence for the derivation of the Transcaucasus and its western continuation (the eastern Pontides) from Gondwana. A migmatized granodiorite provides preserved magmatic zircon cores with an age of 474 ± 3 Ma, while the age of migmatization is constrained by its 343 ± 2 Ma metamorphic rims. Metamorphism is synchronous with widespread I-type granites that were emplaced at 335 ± 8 Ma in the neighbouring Dzirula massif, and in the eastern Pontides. These U-Pb ages are in close agreement with recently obtained Ar/Ar ages from biotites and muscovites from metamorphic schists and U-Pb ages ranging from 340 to 330 Ma in the Georgian basement. The narrow range of ages suggests that the Variscan LP-HT metamorphic event in the eastern Pontides and Georgia was of short duration and likely related to mantle-derived intrusives. Furthermore, we suggest that (1) rifting of the Pontides-Transcaucasus block (PTB) from Gondwana at 450–350 Ma could have been driven by roll-back of the south-dipping Rheic slab, (2) that the main metamorphic and coeval magmatic events are related to the accretion of the PTB to the Eurasian margin at c. 350 Ma, while the source of magmatism is ascribed to slab detachment of the south-dipping slab at 340 Ma and that (3) three subduction zones may have been contemporaneously active in the Tethyan domain during the Jurassic: (i) the Lesser Caucasus South Armenian Block (SAB) shares a similar Gondwana affinity, but bears younger ages for its MP-MT metamorphic evolution and calc-alkaline magmatism bracketed from 160 to 123 Ma; (ii) north-dipping subduction below the PTB from c. 210 Ma to 150 Ma; (iii) northward intra-oceanic subduction bracketed from 180 to 90 Ma between the SAB and the PTB.
ISSN: 0264-3707

hal-01347761
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01347761
DOI : 10.1016/j.jog.2016.03.003