Éditeur(s) : Springer
Résumé : Two highly active mud volcanoes located in 990-1,265 m water depths were mapped on the northern Egyptian continental slope during the BIONIL expedition of R/V Meteor in October 2006. High-resolution swath bathymetry and backscatter imagery were acquired with an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)-mounted multibeam echosounder, operating at a frequency of 200 kHz. Data allowed for the construction of similar to 1 m pixel bathymetry and backscatter maps. The newly produced maps provide details of the seabed morphology and texture, and insights into the formation of the two mud volcanoes. They also contain key indicators on the distribution of seepage and its tectonic control. The acquisition of high-resolution seafloor bathymetry and acoustic imagery maps with an AUV-mounted multibeam echosounder fills the gap in spatial scale between conventional multibeam data collected from a surface vessel and in situ video observations made from a manned submersible or a remotely operating vehicle.
Marine Geophysical Researches (0025-3235) (Springer), 2008-12 , Vol. 29 , N. 4 , P. 275-290

Droits : 2008 Springer. Part of Springer Science+Business Media
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2008/publication-6395.pdf
DOI:10.1007/s11001-009-9063-3
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/6395/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
We surveyed the junction between the central and southern Philippine Trench and the Sangihe Trench near 6øN using swath bathymetry, gravity, and magnetics. These data, along with seismicity, allow us to discuss the genetic relations between these trenches and the forces acting on converging plates. Our final model favors the northern extension of the Halmahera Arc up to 8øN, with three segments offset left-laterally along NW-SE transform faults. Accretion of the northern segment to Mindanao Island 4 to 5 m.y. ago resulted in the failure within the Philippine Sea Plate east of the arc. Initiation of the Philippine Trench between 7øN and 10øN agrees with the maximum recorded depth of the Philippine Trench floor (10,000 m below sea-level) and Philippine Sea slab (200 km). South of 6øN (trench junction), another segment of the arc is being subducted beneath the Sangihe margin, while south of 3øN, the southern segment of the Halmahera Arc is still active. The rapid southward shallowing of the trench floor along the southern Philippine Trench, the type of faulting affecting both sides of the trench, the lack of significant interplate seismicity, and the concentration of the seismicity beneath the Miangas-Talaud Ridge are interpreted as a slowing down of the subduction along this branch of the Philippine Trench compared with the rest of the subduction zone. The Sangihe deformation front has been recognized up to 7øN but seems active only south of 6øN.
ISSN: 2169-9275

hal-01261614
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261614
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261614/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261614/file/lallemandJGR1998.pdf

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier
Résumé : The Danube Canyon is a large shelf-indenting canyon that has developed seaward of the late Pleistocene paleo-Danube valley. Mechanisms of canyon evolution and factors that controlled it are revealed by analyzing the morphology and the sedimentary structure of the canyon, as well as the main features of the continental margin around the canyon. This is based on investigation by swath bathymetry in the canyon area combined with different types of seismic data. The canyon is a major erosional trough with a flat bottom cut by an entrenched axial thalweg. The thalweg path varies from highly meandering to fairly straight in relation to the local gradient. Segments of the canyon are characterized by specific morphology, orientation and gradient along the axial thalweg. We interpret these segments in terms of canyon maturity. The sedimentary structure of the canyon documents an older phase of erosion followed by partial infilling, and thus attests for repeated cycles of canyon development. Canyon morphology is interpreted as a result of erosive sediment flows along the entrenched axial thalweg that caused downcutting into the canyon bottom and instability of the canyon walls, and hence enlargement of the canyon and expansion by headward erosion. During the last lowstand level of the Black Sea the canyon was located in an area of high sediment supply close to the paleo-Danube River mouths. This is indicated by buried fluvial channels on the shelf and by a wave-cut terrace associated with a water level situated about - 90 m below the present level. We infer that erosive flows in the canyon resulted from hyperpycnal currents at the river mouths, probably favored by the low salinity environment that characterized the Black Sea during lowstand times. Other mechanisms could have contributed to trigger sediment failure along the canyon, such as instability related to the presence of shallow gas, or the effect of a deep fault.
Marine Geology (0025-3227) (Elsevier), 2004-05 , Vol. 206 , N. 1-4 , P. 249-265

Droits : 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2004/publication-476.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.margeo.2004.03.003
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/476/

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier
Résumé : We present new results from the MARADJA'03 cruise depicting the geological structures offshore central and western Algeria. Using swath bathymetry and seismic reflection data, we map and discuss the offshore limits of the Internal Zones corresponding to relics of the AIKaPeCa domain that drifted and collided the African plate during the Miocene. We identify large reverse faults and folds that reactivate part of these limits and are still active today. The morphology of the westernmost NE-SW margin suggests a former strike-slip activity accommodating a westward block translation responsible for the shift of the Internal Zones towards the Moroccan Rif.
Nous présentons les résultats récents de la campagne MARADJA'03, qui visent à mettre en évidence les structures géologiques dans le domaine marin au nord-ouest de l'Algérie. Grâce aux données de bathymétrie multifaisceau et de sismique réflexion, nous cartographions et discutons les limites en mer des Zones internes correspondant aux reliques du domaine AlKaPeCa qui a dérivé, puis est entré en collision avec la plaque africaine au Miocène. De grandes failles inverses et plis, actifs dans le champ de contrainte actuel, réactivent certaines de ces limites. La marge ouest-algérienne, orientée NE¿SW, indique la présence d'une ancienne activité en décrochement ayant accommodé la translation des Zones internes vers l'ouest.
Comptes Rendus Geoscience (1631-0713) (Elsevier), 2006 , Vol. 338 , N. 1-2 , P. 80-91

Droits : 2005 Académie des sciences Published by Elsevier SAS
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2006/publication-1211.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.crte.2005.11.009
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/1211/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Gibraltar arc, spans a complex portion of the Africa-Eurasia plate boundary marked by slow oblique convergence and intermediate and deep focus seismicity. The seemingly contradictory observations of a young extensional marine basin surrounded by an arcuate fold-and-thrust belt, have led to competing geodynamic models (delamination and subduction). Geophysical data acquired in the past decade provide a test for these models and support a narrow east-dipping, subduction zone. Seismic refraction studies indicate oceanic crust below the western Gulf of Cadiz. Tomography of the upper mantle reveals a steep, east-dipping high P-wave velocity body, beneath Gibraltar. The anisotropic mantle fabric from SKS splitting shows arc-parallel "fast directions", consistent with toroidal flow around a narrow, westward retreating subducting slab. The accompanying WSW advance of the Rif-Betic mountain belt has constructed a thick pile of deformed sediments, an accretionary wedge, characterized by west-vergent thrust anticlines. Bathymetric swath‐mapping images an asymmetric embayment at the deformation front where a 2 km high basement ridge has collided. Subduction has slowed significantly since 5 Ma, but deformation of recent sediments and abundant mud volcanoes suggest ongoing activity in the accretionary wedge. Three possible origins for this deformation are discussed; gravitational spreading, overall NW-SE convergence between Africa and Iberia and finally a WSW tectonic push from slow, but ongoing roll-back subduction. In the absence of arc volcanism and shallow dipping thrust type earthquakes, evidence in favor of present-day subduction can only be indirect and remains the object of debate. Continued activity of the subduction offers a possible explanation for great (M > 8.5) earthquakes known to affect the area, like the famous 1755 Great Lisbon earthquake. Recent GPS studies show SW motion of stations in N Morocco at velocities of 3-6 mm/yr indicating the presence of an independent block, a "Rif-Betic-Alboran" microplate, situated between Iberia and Africa.
ISSN: 0040-1951

insu-00769762
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00769762
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2012.08.038

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier Science Bv
Résumé : Recent oceanographic surveys revealed the existence of five volcaniclastic deep-sea fans off La Reunion Island. The Cilaos fan is a large volcaniclastic submarine fan, connected to rivers that episodically experience torrential floods through a narrow and steep shelf-slope system. New piston cores presented in this study together with echosounder profiles give new insight into the evolution, of this extensive and sand-rich turbidite system. The Cilaos fan extends over 15,000 km(2) on an abyssal plain and is compartmentalized by topographic highs. Located southwest of the island, the sedimentary system consists of a canyon area and a deep sea fan divided into a proximal and a distal fan. The proximal fan is characterized by its wide extent and coarse-grained turbidites. The distal fan is characterized by elongated structures and fine-grained turbidites. A detailed morphological study of the fan which includes the analysis of swath bathymetry, backscatter, echosounder, and piston core data shows that the Cilaos fan is a complex volcaniclastic deep-sea fan, highly influenced by preexisting seafloor irregularities. The canyons and the slope area show a complex and evolving sediment feeding system with a direct sediment input by the river and irregular sediment supply by submarine landslide. Three main construction stages are identified for this system: (1) an old incision phase of the channels forming wide turbidites extending over the entire distal fan; (2) a period of no or low activity characterized by a thick layer of hemipelagic mud; and (3) a local reactivation of the channel in the proximal fan. Each stage seems to be linked to a different sediment source with a progressively increasing contribution of hemipelagic sediment and mud in younger stages. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Marine Geology (0025-3227) (Elsevier Science Bv), 2011-10 , Vol. 288 , N. 1-4 , P. 1-17

Droits : 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00056/16704/14203.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.margeo.2011.06.011
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00056/16704/

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier
Résumé : Emplacement of post-glacial turbidites is commonly controlled by rapid changes in sea level or by seismicity. On the continental rise of the Gulf of Lions (Western Mediterranean), an aseismic area, we identified turbiditic beds deposited during the rising stage and highstand of sea level. Swath bathymetry, sediment cores, in situ Cone Penetrating Tests (CPTU), heavy mineral associations and radiocarbon dating determined the source, composition, distribution and age of the turbiditic beds. Turbidites are composed of homogeneous to positively graded silts to medium sand with quartz (up to 90%), shell debris and shelfal benthic faunas. Their distribution on the sea floor is very patchy and controlled by abundant inherited erosional bedforms. Their source is found in relict regressive sands at the outershelf. Their deposition occurred just after the onset of the post-glacial sea level rise and the concomitant sediment starvation of the Rhone deep sea turbiditic system until recently. Whilst canyons are fed with sand by strong seasonal hydro-sedimentary dynamics on the outershelf, the emplacement of post-glacial turbidites is not controlled by sea level changes but probably by the periodic flushing of the canyons. Our study revealed that this low energy aseismic margin undergoes significant transport of sand, down to the base of slope, during the sea-level rise and the Holocene highstand.
Marine Geology (0025-3227) (Elsevier), 2009-02 , Vol. 257 , N. 1-4 , P. 65-86

Droits : 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2009/publication-6316.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.margeo.2008.10.013
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/6316/

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier
Résumé : We describe for the first time a set of large active thrusts and folds near the foot of the easternmost Algerian margin, Western Mediterranean, from swath bathymetry and high-resolution seismic data acquired in 2005 during the Maradja2/Samra cruise. This active system resumes a previous passive margin and creates growth strata deposition on the limbs of large folds, resulting in the development of perched basins at the foot of the margin since less than similar to 1 Ma. They form a set of overlapping fault segments verging toward the Algerian basin, in a way similar to what has been observed off eastern Algiers on the rupture zone of the 2003 Mw 6.8 Boumerdes earthquake. The horizontal shortening rate across large folds is estimated to be of the order of 1 mm/yr. Although no historical earthquakes are reported here, these fault segments could have been responsible for large (M similar to 7.5) events in the past. This young tectonic system further supports the hypothesis of subduction inception of the Neogene oceanic lithosphere in the context of the Africa-Eurasia convergence.
Marine Geology (0025-3227) (Elsevier), 2009-06 , Vol. 261 , N. 1-4 , P. 17-32

Droits : 2009 Published by Elsevier Inc.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2009/publication-6850.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.margeo.2008.05.016
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/6850/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
Despite convergent margins being unstable systems, most reports of huge submarine slope failure have come from oceanic volcanoes and passive margins. Swath bathymetry and seismic profiles of the northern Hikurangi subduction system, New Zealand, show a tapering 65-30 km wide by 65 km deep margin indentation, with a giant, 3150+_630 km 3, blocky, debris avalanche deposit projecting 40 km out across horizontal trench fill, and a debris flow deposit projecting over 100 km. Slide blocks are well-bedded, up to 18 km across and 1.2 km high, the largest being at the avalanche deposit's leading edge. Samples dredged from them are mainly Miocene shelf calc-mudstones similar to those outcropping around the indentation. Cores from cover beds suggest that failure occurred-170 +_40 ka, possibly synchronously with a major extension collapse in the upper indentation. However, the northern part of the indentation is much older. The steep, straight northern wall is close to the direction of plate convergence and probably formed around 2.0-0.16 Ma as a large seamount subducted, leaving in its wake a deep groove obliquely across the margin and an unstable triangle of fractured rock in the 60 ø angle between groove and oversteepened margin front. The triangle collapsed as a blocky avalanche, leaving a scalloped southern wall and probably causing a large tsunami. Tentative calculations of compacted volumes suggest that the indentation is over 600 km 3 larger than the avalanche, supporting a two-stage origin that includes subduction erosion. Since failure, convergence has carried the deposits-9 km back toward the margin, causing internal compression. The eventual subduction/accretion of the Ruatoria avalanche explains the scarcity of such features on active margins and perhaps the nature of olistostromes in fold belts.
ISSN: 2169-9275

hal-01261406
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261406
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261406/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261406/file/CollotJGR2001.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2001JB900004

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier Sci Ltd
Résumé : A detailed morphological analysis of the outer shelf and continental slope of the Western Gulf of Lion is presented, based on swath bathymetry data together with sub-bottom profiles and high resolution seismic reflection profiles. These data reveal two main erosive features, of very different dimensions: the axial incision and the canyon's major valley. The height of axial incisions' flanks with respect to the canyon deepest point (the thalweg) ranges from 40 to 150 m. It creates a small axial erosive path within the canyon's major valley, which is typically bounded by flanks of more than 700 m in height. We interpret the axial incision observed in the sea floor as the imprint of turbidity currents that eroded the floor of canyons during phases of connection to rivers (hyperpycnal turbidity current). Such currents are most likely to have formed during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) as both proximity of the shoreline (due to the lowstand of sea level) and high detrital sediment supply (due to glacial abrasion upstream) increased the flow of sediments delivered to the canyon heads. Fossil axial incisions, observed in seismic lines, are related to equivalent conditions. The axial incision, however, has a key influence on canyon evolution as it triggers mass wasting of different sizes that affect the canyon's major valley (head and flanks). We interpret the geometry of the canyon's major valley as the result of recurrent activity of axial incisions. These periods of activity occurred during low sea levels at glacial maxima and show a cyclicity of 100,000 years for the last 400,000 years.
Marine And Petroleum Geology (0264-8172) (Elsevier Sci Ltd), 2005-06 , Vol. 22 , N. 6-7 , P. 805-826

Droits : 2005 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2005/publication-353.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2005.03.011
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/353/