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) : Université des Antilles Études caribéennes
Résumé : Les « printemps » arabo-africains se suivent et ne se ressemblent pas, aux  « printemps » doux et pacifiques succèdent des « printemps » chauds et sanguinaires. Un « printemps » en chasse un autre, mais le bilan est mitigé, l’avenir encore incertain et les acquis réversibles. Indéniablement, ils n’ont pas encore dit leur dernier mot. De nouvelles raisons de préoccupations voient le jour, de nature différente ; elles ont pour nom : instabilité, intolérance, chaos, paralysie de l’État et ses institutions, menace qui plane sur le droit des femmes, des minorités de tous ordres, sur la liberté de conscience et le droit à la différence. Mais aussi de nouvelles raisons d’espérer des lendemains meilleurs.L'Afrique n’en est pas à un « printemps » près, mais les retombées sont toujours restées en deçà des attentes. La mise en place laborieuse d'un système panafricain des droits de l’homme et des peuples fut saluée, à juste titre, comme un évènement majeur et un « printemps » avant  la  lettre.L'article retrace toutes les étapes et péripéties de cette mise en place, le contexte, les tenants  et  les aboutissants de l'élaboration de la Charte africaine des droits de l'homme et des peuples qui en constitue le substratum. Il met en exergue ses spécificités, ses originalités, les mécanismes prévus et les organes érigés (Commission et Cour Africaine des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples) pour assurer l'application et la promotion des  droits de l'homme et des peuples. À beaucoup d’égards, la Charte innove courageusement et originalement par  rapport à ses illustres devancières.Dans son intitulé d'abord : il s'agit d'une Charte et non d’une Déclaration. Ensuite, les droits de l’homme sont couplés aux droits des peuples et hissés au même niveau d'importance et d'impérativité, sinon plus. Enfin, la Charte ne reconnait pas seulement des droits mais elle édicte des devoirs (envers la famille, la communauté, l'État, l'Afrique, l’environnement, etc.) et fait de l'accomplissement de ceux-ci une condition de la jouissance de ceux-là. Deux décennies de recul et seulement 12 affaires traitées (sur seulement 24 qui lui sont parvenus), on peut dire que cette dernière est loin d'avoir atteint sa vitesse de croisière et mérité tant d'espoir placé en elle. De là à jeter le bébé avec l'eau du  bain, occulter tous les bienfaits d'un système qui est loin d'avoir démérité, il n'y a qu'un pas que ne franchirons guère.
The Arab-African springs follow one after the other but are not alike, soft and peaceful springs are succeeded by hot and bloodthirsty springs. One spring expels another one, but the situation s balance sheet is mixed, the future is still uncertain and the experiences are reversible. Undeniably, they didn't say their last word. New reasons of preoccupation are born, made of different nature : they are named : instability, intolerance, chaos, paralysis of the state and its institutions, threat to the women rights, minorities of all kinds, the conscience freedom and the rights to difference ; but also new reasons to hope for a better tomorrow. Africa is not at its last "spring" but the rewards remained always below expectations.The laborious Implementation of a Pan-African system of human rights and peoples was hailed, deservedly, as a major event and a "spring" far ahead of its time. The article in attached outlines all the steps and vicissitudes of this implementation rerelease the context, the end and results of the elaboration of human and people’s rights African charter which constitutes the substratum. It highlights its specificities, its originalities, the planed mechanisms and high instruments (Commission and the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights) to ensure the application and the promotion of human and people’s rights.In many respects, the Charter innovates bravely and originally compared to its illustrious predecessors.At first in its title: it is matter of a charter and not a declaration. Then, human rights are closely connected to the people’s rights and hoisted at the same level of importance and imperativeness or more. Finally, the Charter does not only recognizes rights but it promulgates duties (to family, community, the state, Africa, the environment, etc.) and makes of the fulfillment of these a condition of enjoyment of those. Two decades backout, and only 12 cases treated (from only 24 have reached) later, in front of the Court, we can say that it is far from having reached its cruising speed and deserved so much hope placed in it.From there to throw the baby out with the bath water, hide all the benefits of a system which is far from being unworthy, there is only one step which shall exceed hardly.
Afrique

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
urn:doi:10.4000/etudescaribeennes.6735
http://journals.openedition.org/etudescaribeennes/6735

Éditeur(s) : Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh
Résumé : During the GWADASEIS cruise (Lesser Antilles volcanic arc, February-March 2009) a very high resolution (VHR) seismic-reflection survey was performed in order to constrain Late Quaternary to Present faulting. The profiles we obtained evidence frequent "ponding" of reworked sediments in the deepest areas, similar to the deposition of Mediterranean "homogenites". These bodies are acoustically transparent (few ms t.w.t. thick) and are often deposited on the hanging walls of dominantly normal faults, at the base of scarps. Their thickness appears sufficient to compensate (i.e. bury) co-seismic scarps between successive earthquakes, resulting in a flat and horizontal sea floor through time. In a selected area (offshore Montserrat and Nevis islands), piston coring (4 to 7m long) was dedicated to a sedimentological analysis of the most recent of these particular layers. It corresponds to non-stratified homogenous calcareous silty sand (reworked calcareous plankton and minor volcanoclastics). This layer can be up to 2 m thick, and overlies fine-grained hemipelagites. The upper centimeters of the latter represent the normal RedOx water/sediment interface. Pb-210 and Cs-137 activities lack in the massive sands, while a normal profile of unsupported Pb-210 decrease is observed in the hemipelagite below, together with a Cs-137 peak corresponding to the Atmospheric Nuclear Experiments (1962). The RedOx level was thus capped by a recent instantaneous major sedimentary event considered as post-1970 AD; candidate seismic events to explain this sedimentary deposits are either the 16 March 1985 earthquake or the 8 October 1974 one (M-w = 6.3 and M-w = 7.4, respectively). This leads to consider that the syntectonic sedimentation in this area is not continuous but results from accumulation of thick homogenites deposited after the earthquakes (as observed in the following weeks after Haiti January 2010 event, McHugh et al., 2011). The existence of such deposits suggests that, in the area of study, vertical throw likely results from cumulated effects of separated earthquakes rather than from aseismic creep. Examination of VHR profiles shows that all major co-seismic offsets are recorded in the fault growth sequence and that co-seismic offsets can be precisely estimated. By using a sedimentation rate deduced from Pb-210 decrease curve (0.5 mmyr(-1)) and taking into account minor reworking events detected in cores, we show that the Redonda system may have been responsible for five > M-6 events during the last 34 000 yr. The approach presented in this work differs from fault activity analyses using displaced sets of isochronous surfaces and postulating co-seismic offsets. Combining VHR seismic imagery and coring we can decipher co-seismic vs. slow continuous displacement, and thus actually estimate the amplitude and the time distribution of major co-seismic offsets.
Natural Hazards And Earth System Sciences (1561-8633) (Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh), 2012 , Vol. 12 , N. 5 , P. 1755-1767

Droits : Author(s) 2012. CC Attribution 3.0 License.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00089/20040/21990.pdf
DOI:10.5194/nhess-12-1755-2012
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00089/20040/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : International audience
In the mid-afternoon of 15 July 2007, during the Convective and Orographically induced Precipitation Study (COPS), in a very warm and dry environment, an isolated, short-lived, deep convective system developed over the southern Black Forest. Most of the high-resolution, convection-permitting models involved in COPS were unable to capture this event whereas the Meso-NH forecast was quite skilful. To assess the Meso-NH performance further, the model results were carefully checked against the various and numerous COPS observations. In full agreement with clear-air radar observations, model results underlined the triggering role of a low-level convergence line that developed in the lee of the Feldberg. The main departure from the observations was found to be in the low-level moisture fields, which appeared significantly moister in the model than in the observations and also slightly moister than in the other models. Sensitivity studies showed that this departure from the observations was strongly controlled by the initial surface moisture conditions. When the surface moisture was reduced by 20% or replaced by the value derived from a different analysis, the evolution of the planetary boundary layer was more accurately represented while the storm evolution was still correctly captured. These results demonstrate that the quality of the initial forecast cannot be ascribed to the moist bias of the model. It could therefore be hypothesized that the key parameters for a satisfactory forecast of this event lie more in the ability of the model to reproduce the dynamical forcing accurately than in the characteristics of the air-mass instability.
ISSN: 0035-9009

hal-00554400
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00554400
DOI : 10.1002/qj.710

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD World Scientific
Résumé : The present paper presents a laboratory experiment of rip current circulations over a moveable bed. The rip current characteristics over four distinct beach morphologies, exhibiting more or less developed nature-like bar-rip morphology,were investigated. For each video run, the same off shore shore-normal waves were generated by the wave maker with the same mean water level in order to study the sensitivity of the rip current characteristics as a function of the beach morphology only. In each case, a 1-hour video run was used to track a large number (~30) of drifters released within the surf zone. Image coordinates were then rectifie d to still water level Cartesian coordinates to compute drifter velocities, mean characteristics and surf zone rete ntion rates. Results show the presence of classic rip current patterns with counter-rotating cells and a relatively narrowoffshore-directed jet with, for three of the situations, a reasonably symmetric shape. Non-surprisingly, it was found that rip current intensity increases with increasing relative depth of the rip channel. The wave-driven circulations were strongly unstable. Computed standard deviation in fl ow intensity and direction provides high resolution information on the spatial variability of the rip current insta bilities with, for instance, highly-pulsating and weakly directionally variable offshore-directed flow in the rip channel. Conversely to what was previously hypothesized in the literature, there was hardly trace of vortices being shed offs hore and drifters exiting the surf zone compartment were not systematically caught by a pulsating jet. The cause for drifter exiting the semi-enclosed surf zone compartment remains, however, elusive and deserves further investigations. The computed surf zone retention rates (~90%) were of the order of those previously observed in the field, with no clear relationship with the mean rip current velocity or relative depth of the rip channel. Further video-runs will have to be analyzed to explore potential explanations
Proceedings of Coastal Dynamics 2009 Impacts of Human Activities on Dynamic Coastal Processes

ISBN : 978-981-4282-46
hal-00854534
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00854534

Résumé : La banane plantain (Musa paradisiaca) est l’aliment de base de millions de personnes dans le monde et sa culture génère des revenus permanents pour un grand nombre d’agriculteurs, dans des plantations de taille petite ou moyenne. Comme dans d’autres régions tropicales, la culture du plantain en Guadeloupe et en Haïti est soumise à de fortes contraintes parasitaires aussi bien telluriques (i.e. du sol : nématodes phytoparasites et charançon du bananier) qu’aériennes (Cercosporiose noire notamment). Les moyens de lutte conventionnels reposent sur l’usage de produits de synthèse dont les effets néfastes sur l’environnement (sols, eaux, animaux) comme sur la santé humaine ne sont plus supportables. Il est donc urgent de réfléchir à des solutions agro-écologiques permettant de rétablir les équilibres biologiques, de maintenir une bonne qualité des sols et une production optimale dans les systèmes de culture plantains. C’est le but de ce travail de thèse qui couple la réalisation d’un diagnostic agro-écologique dans des parcelles paysannes, et le test d’alternatives agro-écologiques en milieu semi-contrôlé. Pour ce faire, une typologie des systèmes de culture plantains a été réalisée à l’issue d’une enquête agro-environnementale dans les deux zones d’étude. Elle a permis de sélectionner 23 parcelles en Guadeloupe et 12 en Haïti dans lesquelles un diagnostic agro-écologique a été conduit. Sur la base de ce diagnostic et de la recherche d’alternatives agro-écologiques à l’usage des produits chimiques, une expérimentation au champ a été mise en place en Guadeloupe en station de recherche, permettant le test de trois pratiques culturales innovantes pour le plantain (seules et combinées), à savoir : i) l’introduction d’une plante de service Paspalum notatum pour la gestion des adventices et la réduction de l’utilisation d’herbicides ; ii) l’apport de vermicompost pour le contrôle des nématodes phytoparasites inféodés au bananier plantain et la fertilisation de celui-ci ; iii) l’utilisation de plants sains PIF (Plants Issus de Fragments de tiges) indemnes de nématodes et de larves de charançon du bananier. La typologie des systèmes de culture plantains révèle que : i) en Guadeloupe les précédents : jachère, ananas et banane plantain sont prédominants avec un niveau d’intensification faible (apports d’intrants chimiques faibles et peu fréquents) ou élevé (apports d’intrants chimiques élevés et plus fréquents) ; ii) en Haïti, les précédents : jachère, banane plantain et manioc prédominent avec un niveau d’intensification faible ou nul (apport d’intrants inexistant). Les résultats du diagnostic agro-écologique montrent que, i) lorsque le niveau d’intensification est faible, les bananeraies plantains pérennes et le précédent-ananas permettent de maintenir une bonne qualité du sol et une bonne régulation des parasites telluriques ; ii) lorsque le niveau d’intensification est fort, les populations d’ingénieurs du sol diminuent drastiquement, alors que le cortège parasitaire tellurique augmente sans que cela n’affecte l’obtention de bons niveaux de rendement instantannés (parcelles précédées d’ananas ou d’une jachère principalement) ; iii) en absence totale de fertilisation, il résulte une diminution de l’activité biologique du sol mais aussi du rendement du plantain, exacerbé par le choix des précédents-culturaux (manioc ou banane plantain) en lien avec les contraintes pédoclimatiques et la maladie des raies noires (Cercosporiose noire) causée par Mycosphaerella fijiensis, notamment au sein des parcelles Haïtiennes ; iv) la succession plantain/plantain est la plus pénalisante vis-à-vis de la culture du plantain, car quelque soit le niveau d’intensification, le rendement reste relativement faible, en lien avec une dégradation de l’état sanitaire, comparativement aux autres précédents.
Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) is the staple food of millions of people worldwide and its cropping generates ongoing revenues for many farmers who are planting small or medium size areas. As in other tropical regions, plantain cultivation in Guadeloupe and Haiti is under heavy parasitic constraints terrestrial (plant-parasitic nematodes and banana weevil) as well as aerial (black Sigatoka in particular). Conventional means of control based on the use of synthetic products which adverse effects on the environment (soil, water, animals ...) as on human health are not bearable any more. It is thus urgent to think about agroecological solutions allowing to restore the biological balances, to maintain good soil quality and optimal plantain cropping systems.This is the ultimate goal of this thesis which couples the realization of an agroecological diagnosis in peasants’ plots, and the test of agroecological alternatives in semi-controlled conditions. To do this, a typology of plantain cropping systems was carried out from an agrienvironmental survey in the two study areas. It allowed to select 23 plots in Guadeloupe and 12 in Haiti in which an agroecological diagnosis was implemented. Based on this diagnosis and the research of agroecological alternatives to the use of chemicals, a field experiment was set up in Guadeloupe, in an experimental station allowing the test of three innovative practices for plantain cultivation (alone and combined), namely : i) the introduction of a cover-crop Paspalum notatum for weed control while reducing the use of herbicides ; ii) the input of worms’ compost to control plant-parasitic nematodes specific to plantain and to fertilize it ; iii) the use of healthy “PIF” plants (plants issued from stem fragments) free from telluric pests (nematodes and weevil’s larvaes).The typology of plantains cropping systems shows: i) in Guadeloupe the previous crops are: fallow pineapple and plantain predominate with a low level of intensification (low and infrequent chemical inputs) or high (high and frequent chemical inputs); ii) in Haiti, the previous crops are: fallow, plantain and cassava predominate with a low level or no intensification at all (no inputs). The results of the agroecological analysis show that : i) when the level of intensification is low, perennial plantain and pineapple as previous crops help maintaining a good soil quality and a good regulation of the telluric pests ; ii) when the level of intensification is strong, the soil engineers drastically reduce, while the density of telluric parasites increases without affecting good levels of instantaneous yields (plots where the previous crop is pineapple or mostly fallow) ; iii) when the fertilization is totally missing, it decreases the biological activity of the soil furthermore the plantain yields, exacerbated by the choice of the previous crop (cassava or plantain), in connection with soils and climate constraints and the black Sigatoka caused by Mycosphaerella fijiensis, especially in the Haitian plots ; iv) the crop succession plantain/plantain is the most critical regarding the plantain’s cropping, because whatever the level of intensification, the yields remain relatively low in connection with a degradation of the health state, compared to other previous crops.The driving of an experiment in a research station shows that on the scale of one year, the three tested innovative practices allow maintaining a good soils quality. Healthy plants "PIF" have a better health state (absence of plant parasitic nematodes in the roots) which helps a significant increase of the yields. Cover-crop P. notatum helps the weeds and the soil pests control and favors the improvement of soil biological activity and plantain yields. Worms’ compost contributes to the maintenance of a better soils quality while allowing the regulation of the populations of plant-parasitic nematodes of the plantains.

http://www.theses.fr/2014AGUY0758/document

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD European Geosciences Union
Résumé : International audience
During the GWADASEIS cruise (Lesser Antilles volcanic arc, February-March 2009) a very high resolution (VHR) seismic-reflection survey was performed in order to constrain Late Quaternary to Present faulting. The profiles we obtained evidence frequent "ponding" of reworked sediments in the deepest areas, similar to the deposition of Mediterranean "homogenites". These bodies are acoustically transparent (few ms t.w.t. thick) and are often deposited on the hanging walls of dominantly normal faults, at the base of scarps. Their thickness appears sufficient to compensate (i.e. bury) co-seismic scarps between successive earthquakes, resulting in a flat and horizontal sea floor through time. In a selected area (offshore Montserrat and Nevis islands), piston coring (4 to 7 m long) was dedicated to a sedimentological analysis of the most recent of these particular layers. It corresponds to non-stratified homogenous calcareous silty sand (reworked calcareous plankton and minor volcanoclastics). This layer can be up to 2 m thick, and overlies finegrained hemipelagites. The upper centimeters of the latter represent the normal RedOx water/sediment interface. 210Pb and 137Cs activities lack in the massive sands, while a normal profile of unsupported 210Pb decrease is observed in the hemipelagite below, together with a 137Cs peak correspond- ing to the Atmospheric Nuclear Experiments (1962). The RedOx level was thus capped by a recent instantaneous major sedimentary event considered as post-1970 AD; candidate seismic events to explain this sedimentary deposits are either the 16 March 1985 earthquake or the 8 October 1974 one (Mw=6.3 and Mw=7.4, respectively). This leads to consider that the syntectonic sedimentation in this area is not continuous but results from accumulation of thick homogenites deposited after the earthquakes (as observed in the following weeks after Haiti January 2010 event, McHugh et al., 2011). The existence of such deposits suggests that, in the area of study, vertical throw likely results from cumulated effects of separated earthquakes rather than from aseismic creep. Examination of VHR profiles shows that all major co-seismic offsets are recorded in the fault growth sequence and that co-seismic offsets can be precisely estimated. By using a sedimentation rate deduced from 210Pb decrease curve (0.5 mm yr−1) and taking into account minor reworking events detected in cores, we show that the Redonda system may have been responsible for five >M6 events during the last 34 000 yr. The approach presented in this work differs from fault activity analyses using displaced sets of isochronous surfaces and postulating co-seismic offsets. Combining VHR seismic imagery and coring we can decipher co-seismic vs. slow continuous displacement, and thus actually estimate the amplitude and the time distribution of major co-seismic offsets.
ISSN: 1561-8633

insu-00844581
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00844581
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00844581/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00844581/file/nhess-12-1755-2012.pdf
DOI : 10.5194/nhess-12-1755-2012

Éditeur(s) : Université de Bucarest - Université de Bretagne occidentale
Résumé : This study is focusing on the architecture and recent sedimentary evolution of the Danube channel, the youngest channel-levee system in the Danube deep-sea fan. The study was conducted as part of the BlaSON French-Romanian Project, and combined high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles and chirp profiles with multibeam bathymetry and piston cores. This data set was acquired in 1998 during a joint survey IFREMER-GeoEcoMar of the north-western Black Sea. Previous seismic and acoustic data were also used. The Danube deep-sea fan is a large passive-margin mud-rich fan. Like the other systems of this type (Amazon fan, Mississippi fan or Indus fan) the Danube fan consists of stacked channel-levee systems intercalated with mass-transport deposits. Seismic and sedimentary facies in the Danube fan are similar to those identified in most of the mud-rich systems. Nevertheless, the Danube fan is distinguished by a specific feature: its development in a freshwater environment. This is due to the peculiar water-level history of the Black Sea controlled by the link to the Mediterranean through the Strait of Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara. This connexion was successively interrupted (during sea level lowstands) and re-established (when the sea level was rising above the Bosphorus). Temporary absence of marine water influx during lowstands together with large freshwater inputs from the Danube and other major rivers changed the Black Sea into a freshwater lake during times of fan activity. This peculiarity possibly favourised the development of hyperpycnal flow at the Danube mouth and the initiation of turbidity currents in the deep-sea fan. The Danube channel is directly connected to the large shelf-indenting Danube canyon (also known as Viteaz canyon). The Danube canyon is deeply incised into the shelf margin for 26 km landward of the shelfbreak. During lowstands this canyon acted as the most important path for sediment supply to the deep sea in this part of the continental margin. It consists of a main trough with steep flanks, and a meandering thalweg cut into the flat canyon floor, attesting for the development of the canyon by erosion in the entrenched axial thalweg. Sections with specific morphology, orientation and gradient identified along the canyon, are interpreted as phases of landward expansion of the canyon. Internal structure of the canyon shows several erosional surfaces, which indicate that the present morphology of the canyon is the result of its polyphasic evolution. Instability in the zone of the canyon is related to the important sediment supply at the Danube mouth, to the presence of the gas in the surficial sediment, and possibly under a structural control. The upper part of the Danube channel (between the Danube canyon and ~1400 m depth) consists in a single leveed-channel that has undergone significant overbank deposition, as attested by the well-developed levees. The levees are strongly asymmetrical, being higher and wider on the right-hand side looking downstream. This type of asymmetry is rather common in deep-sea fans, and is generally attributed to the Coriolis effect (Menard, 1955). The channel is slightly sinuous, partially filled and incised by an entrenched thalweg, connected to the axial thalweg of the Danube canyon. Detailed seismic investigation inside the channel trough documented several depositional phases within the channel fill, separated by erosional surfaces. These surfaces are associated with distinct terraces identified on the multibeam bathymetry, that can be followed downward along the main trough axis. The valley fill deposits (where not removed by the subsequent erosional event) show an axial HAR (High Amplitude Reflections) seismic facies with lateral lower amplitude continuous reflections consisting in a levee facies, as proved by sampling. This indicates that filling up was associated with flow within the channel, and not with interruption of fan activity. On the middle slope below 1400 m, this single channel bifurcates through repeated avulsions. As a result, several highly meandering channels developed. The onlap relationships between these channels indicate that only one channel was active at a time. Each phase of avulsion resulted in a depositional unit consisting in a basal unchannelized lobe defined as High Amplitude Reflection Packets (HARP, Flood et al., 1991) that underlies a channel-levee system. The deposition of HARPs was associated with the readjustment of the longitudinal profile of the channel after the breaching of a levee, which resulted in remobilization of upslope channel deposits and eroded levees. When this adjustment was complete, erosion ceased and levees began to develop above the HARPs (Pirmez et al., 1997). All the identified phases of avulsion followed the same pattern: (1) breaching of the lower and narrower left levee; (2) building of a unit of High Amplitude Reflector Packets (HARP) basinward of the bifurcation point by the unchannelized flow, while the former channel was abandoned; and (3) initiation of a new meandering leveed channel. The northward migration of the resulting units through repeated bifurcations is influenced by the asymmetry between levees (hence by the Coriolis effect), and confined between the high levees of the initial phase of the Danube channel (to the south) and the steep relief of the Dniepr fan (to the north). Structure of the fan valley fill indicate that the erosional surfaces inside the upper channel could be formed in response of successive avulsions, by the adjustment of the longitudinal profile of the channel following the breaching of a levee wall. Sediments removed by erosion formed the HARP lobes basinward of the avulsion point. When this adjustment was complete, a channel-levee system developed downward of the bifurcation, overlying the HARPs, but also upward of this point, as a confined channel-levee system inside the erosional trough of the fan valley. Fluvial incisions identified on the continental shelf, together with the coastline location during the last active period of the Danube channel, indicated that the paleo-Danube was directed towards the head of the Danube canyon. Paleo-Danube mouth was fairly close (ca. 10 km) to the Danube canyon, supplying sediment to the Danube channel. Furthermore, hyperpycnal flow probably prevailed in the freshwater environment that characterized the Black Sea during times of fan activity. These conditions would have enabled the development of a quasi-continuous river-canyon-deep-sea fan system, ensuring the effective transfer of the sediment between the coastal zone and the deep sea.
Ce travail est consacré à l'étude de l'architecture et de l'évolution sédimentaire récente de l'éventail profond du Danube, en particulier de son dernier système chenal-levée: le chenal du Danube. L'étude a été réalisée dans le cadre du projet de coopération franco-roumaine BlaSON, à partir des données sismiques, bathymétriques-acoustiques et sédimentologiques acquises en 1998 lors d'une campagne en mer Noire réalisée par IFREMER et GeoEcoMar. Des données sismiques et acoustiques antérieures ont été également utilisées. L'éventail profond du Danube s'enserre dans la catégorie des grands éventails vaseux. Comme les autres systèmes de ce genre (tel que les éventails de l'Amazone, du Mississippi ou de l'Indus) il est constitué d'une succession de systèmes chenaux-levées intercalés avec des dépôts de transport en masse. Le fonctionnement de l'éventail était conditionné par la baisse du niveau marin lors des périodes glaciaires. Ses faciès sismiques et sédimentaires s'apparentent aux faciès qui caractérisent la plupart des éventails de ce type. L'éventail du Danube constitue néanmoins un cas particulier parmi les autres systèmes étudiés, du fait de son fonctionnement dans un bassin lacustre. Ceci est dû à la situation spécifique de la mer Noire dont la connexion avec la Méditerranée, par le détroit de Bosphore et la mer de Marmara, a été successivement interrompue (au cours de périodes de bas niveau) et reprise (quand le niveau marin remontait en dépassant le seuil du Bosphore). L'absence de l'apport d'eau salée pendant les périodes glaciaires, associée avec l'augmentation de l'apport fluvial, ont déterminé l'installation d'un milieu d'eau douce dans la mer Noire à chaque fois que la baisse du niveau permettait la reprise du fonctionnement de l'éventail profond. Cette situation particulière aurait favorisé la formation des courants hyperpycnaux à l'embouchure d'un fleuve du débit du Danube qui déversait ses eaux turbides dans un bassin lacustre, et aurait donc influencé l'apparition de courants de turbidité dans l'éventail profond. Le chenal du Danube s'est développé sur la pente continentale en prolongation du canyon du Danube (ou Viteaz) auquel il est directement connecté. Le canyon est incisé de manière significative (26 km) dans la plate-forme continentale. Au cours de bas-niveaux marins il constituait la principale voie de transfert des sédiments terrigènes vers le bassin profond dans cette partie de la marge. Le canyon est constitué par une entaille avec des flancs abrupts et un talweg axial incisé, qui montre l'importance du processus d'érosion du fond pour le développement du canyon. Les segments qui ont été identifiés le long du canyon, avec des morphologies, des orientations et des pentes spécifiques, sont interprétés comme des phases d'avancement du canyon vers la côte. Plusieurs incisions sont visibles dans la structure interne du canyon et témoignent que la morphologie actuelle du canyon est le résultat de son évolution polyphasée. L'instabilité de la zone du canyon est en relation avec les apports sédimentaires importants à l'embouchure du Danube, avec la présence du gaz dans les sédiments superficiels, et possiblement sous un contrôle structural. Sur la pente supérieure (entre le canyon du Danube et environ 1400 m de profondeur) le chenal du Danube présente des levées bien développées et fortement asymétriques, avec la levée droite plus haute et plus large que la levée gauche. Ce type d'asymétrie, fréquemment décrit dans les éventails profonds est généralement attribué à l'effet Coriolis (Menard, 1955). Le chenal est légèrement sinueux, partiellement comblé et incisé par un talweg axial qui représente la continuation sur la pente du talweg incisé dans le canyon du Danube. L'analyse sismique détaillée du remplissage de la vallée montre plusieurs phases de dépôt, séparées par des discontinuités érosives. Ces surfaces d'érosion correspondent à des terrasses emboîtées, relativement parallèles le long de la vallée, visibles dans la bathymétrie. Les dépôts qui constituent le remplissage du chenal présentent un faciès sismique de type HAR (High Amplitude Reflections) dans l'axe du chenal, partiellement (ou parfois totalement) enlevé par les phases d'érosion subséquentes, qui continue latéralement avec des réflexions litées correspondant à un faciès sédimentaire de levée. Le remplissage de la vallée a été donc associé avec des écoulements dans le chenal, et non pas avec l'interruption de son fonctionnement. Sur la pente inférieure, le chenal unique bifurque plusieurs fois par avulsion et forme de nouveaux systèmes chenaux-levées méandriformes. Ces systèmes se succèdent verticalement en onlap, ce qui montre qu'un seul chenal a été actif à la fois. Chaque phase d'avulsion a eu comme résultat la mise en place d'une unité constituée par un lobe défini comme "High Amplitude Reflection Packets" (HARP, Flood et al., 1991) à la base, et un système chenal-levée au sommet. Le dépôt d'un lobe HARP est associé avec de l'érosion dans le chenal en amont du point d'avulsion pour l'ajustement de son profil après la rupture de la levée. Quand le chenal a retrouvé son profil d'équilibre, l'érosion a cessé et des levées ont commencé à se développer au-dessus des HARPs (Pirmez et al., 1997). Toutes les phases d'avulsion se sont développées d'après le même modèle: (1) la rupture de la levée gauche, plus étroite; (2) le dépôt d'un lobe HARP par les écoulements non-chenalisés en aval du point d'avulsion, et l'abandon de l'ancien chenal; (3) l'initiation d'un nouveau système chenal-levée. La migration systématique du chenal vers le nord est influencée par l'assymétrie des levées (donc par la force de Coriolis), et confinée entre les grandes levées de la phase initiale du chenal du Danube, au sud, et le relief abrupt de l'éventail du Dniepr au nord. La structure sédimentaire du chenal du Danube indique que les surfaces érosives à l'intérieur du remplissage du chenal se seraient formées en réponse aux avulsions, du fait de l'ajustement du profil du chenal après la rupture d'une levée. Les sédiments du chenal érodés au cours de ce processus ont formé les lobes HARP. Quand le chenal a retrouvé son profil d'équilibre, un système chenal-levée s'est développé en aval du point d'avulsion au dessus du lobe HARP, mais aussi en amont de ce point, où il se trouve confiné dans la vallée érosive. Les incisions fluviatiles identifiés sur la plate-forme continentale et la position de la ligne de côte pendant la dernière période d'activité du chenal du Danube montrent que le paléo-Danube se dirigeait directement vers la tête du canyon du Danube. Son embouchure était située à proximité du canyon, qui alimentait le chenal du Danube. Cependant, les courants hyperpycnaux devaient prévaloir dans le milieu de salinité réduite qui caractérisait la mer Noire lors des périodes actives de l'éventail. Ces conditions auraient favorisé la mise en place d'un système quasi-continu fleuve-canyon-éventail profond, qui contrôlait le transfert des sédiments entre la côte et le bassin profond.

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2002/these-1206.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/1206/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
o abstract
Coastal Engineering Proceedings

hal-01426586
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01426586

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union
Résumé : International audience
During the GWADASEIS cruise (Lesser Antilles volcanic arc, February–March 2009) a very high resolution (VHR) seismic-reflection survey was performed in order to constrain Late Quaternary to Present faulting. The profiles we obtained evidence frequent " ponding " of reworked sediments in the deepest areas, similar to the deposition of Mediterranean " homogenites ". These bodies are acoustically transparent (few ms t.w.t. thick) and are often deposited on the hanging walls of dominantly normal faults, at the base of scarps. Their thickness appears sufficient to compensate (i.e. bury) co-seismic scarps between successive earthquakes, resulting in a flat and horizontal sea floor through time. In a selected area (offshore Montserrat and Nevis islands), piston coring (4 to 7 m long) was dedicated to a sedimento-logical analysis of the most recent of these particular layers. It corresponds to non-stratified homogenous calcareous silty sand (reworked calcareous plankton and minor volcanoclas-tics). This layer can be up to 2 m thick, and overlies fine-grained hemipelagites. The upper centimeters of the latter represent the normal RedOx water/sediment interface. 210 Pb and 137 Cs activities lack in the massive sands, while a normal profile of unsupported 210 Pb decrease is observed in the hemipelagite below, together with a 137 Cs peak corresponding to the Atmospheric Nuclear Experiments (1962). The RedOx level was thus capped by a recent instantaneous major sedimentary event considered as post-1970 AD; candidate seismic events to explain this sedimentary deposits are either the 16 March 1985 earthquake or the 8 October 1974 one (M w = 6.3 and M w = 7.4, respectively). This leads to consider that the syntectonic sedimentation in this area is not continuous but results from accumulation of thick homogen-ites deposited after the earthquakes (as observed in the following weeks after Haiti January 2010 event, McHugh et al., 2011). The existence of such deposits suggests that, in the area of study, vertical throw likely results from cu-mulated effects of separated earthquakes rather than from aseismic creep. Examination of VHR profiles shows that all major co-seismic offsets are recorded in the fault growth sequence and that co-seismic offsets can be precisely estimated. By using a sedimentation rate deduced from 210 Pb decrease curve (0.5 mm yr −1) and taking into account minor reworking events detected in cores, we show that the Redonda system may have been responsible for five > M 6 events during the last 34 000 yr. The approach presented in this work differs from fault activity analyses using displaced sets of isochronous surfaces and postulating co-seismic offsets. Combining VHR seismic imagery and coring we can decipher co-seismic vs. slow continuous displacement, and thus actually estimate the amplitude and the time distribution of major co-seismic offsets.
Natural Hazards and Earth System Science

insu-01585969
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01585969
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01585969/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01585969/file/nhess-12-1755-2012-beck.pdf
DOI : 10.5194/nhess-12-1755-2012