Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
Phyllosilicate content and related permeability of fault zones form primary controls on hydraulic and mechanical behavior of the brittle crust. Hence, understanding and predicting the localization of these ubiquitous minerals is a major issue for fundamental and applied geosciences. We describe normal fault zones cutting a foreland arkosic turbiditic formation suffering high-T diagenesis and formed under conditions (~200°C) typical of deeply buried reservoirs and common within the seismogenic interval. Microstructural analyses show a large proportion of phyllosilicates (up to 34%) in the fault rock, derived from near-complete feldspar alteration and disaggregation during deformation. This study shows that even faults with offsets (~20 cm) much lower than bed thickness can have such large feldspar-to-phyllosilicate transformation ratios, implying that the origin of the phyllosilicates is purely transformation related. These results imply that the potential sealing capacity and strength of faults could be predicted from the host rock feldspar content. Where sealing capacity and fault strength can be related to phyllosilicate content, these properties can then also be inferred from the predicted phyllosilicate content: this opens up new horizons concerning the hydraulic and the mechanical behavior of the upper crust.
ISSN: 0094-8276

hal-00903574
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00903574
DOI : 10.1002/grl.50829

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Tin mineralization in Achmmach deposit (NE of Moroccan Central Massif) is associated with tourmaline-rich alteration halos and faults, within N70 shear zones, hosted in sandstones and metapelites of the Upper Visean-Namurian. Such deposits were reported as late-Variscan in age and related to the emplacement of late orogenic granite not outcropping in the studied area.From field constraints, it appears that the late Variscan phase is marked by a transition from transpression to extension with conditions of deformation evolving from ductile to brittle environments. During the transpressive phase (horizontal shortening direction roughly trending E-W), pervasive tourmaline is deposited under the form of metasomatic halos around fractures in the upper levels relative to the deep batholith. This hydrothermal activity is coeval with ductile shear zones within a large corridors trending N70. Tourmaline-rich alteration appears as a hardening stage contributing to the modification of the tectonic style of rocks. Thereafter, a strong brecciation occurs in response of re-using and re-opening of the strike-slip structure. The result is (1) the formation of dextral (N070, N020) and sinistral (N120) shears, and (2) the circulation of fluids within early tourmalinites and formation of tourmaline-rich breccia. Subsequently, during the late orogenic extensional phase, tourmalinite breccias reopened as normal faults acting as overpressure fluid pathways for developing other breccias and veins. Such event is marked by deposition of tin mineralization i.e., cassiterite followed by sulphides, and then fluorite and carbonates at the end.From analysis of the shear-zone structure and superimposition of tourmalines and tin mineralization in the same structures, it is possible to suggest a structural control continuum. Such control is well expressed during metasomatism and deposition of hydrothermal tourmaline under the transpressive phase. Thereafter, under the extensive phase allowing open-space, tin-mineralization were trapped.This study has been supported by AI MA/09/210
24ème RST
Pau, France

insu-01546927
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01546927

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The analysis of three cataclastic band sets from Provence (France) reveals that the band density, their conjugate angles, their ratio of shear displacement to compaction, and the amount of cataclasis within the bands differ and can be expressed as functions of tectonic setting and petrophysical properties. We identify (1) a dense and closely spaced network of shear-enhanced (reverse) compaction bands; (2) a regularly spaced less dense network of reverse compactional shear bands; and (3) a localized network of normal shear bands. The field data show that strain localization is favored in an extensional regime and is characterized by shear bands with a large shear to compaction ratio and a small conjugate band angle. In contrast, distributed strain is favored in a contractional regime and is characterized by compactional bands with a low ratio of shear to compaction and a large conjugate band angle. To explain the mechanical origin of this strain localization, we quantify the yield strength and the stress evolution in extensional and contractional regimes in a frictional porous granular material. We propose a model of strain localization in porous sands as a function of tectonic stresses, burial depth, material properties, strain hardening and fluid pressure. Our model suggests that stress reduction, inherent to extensional regime, favors strain localization as shear bands, whereas stress increase during contraction favors development of compactional bands.
ISSN: 0191-8141

hal-00856921
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00856921
DOI : 10.1016/j.jsg.2012.11.011

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
The Achmmach tin mineralization (NE of theMoroccan Central Massif) is associated with tourmaline-richalteration halos, veins, and faults hosted in sandstones andmetapelites of the Upper Visean-Namurian. These depositsare reported to be late Hercynian in age and related to theemplacement of late-orogenic granite not outcropping in thestudied area. Structural and paragenetic studies of theAchmmach tin deposit were conducted in order to establisha general model of the mineralization. From field constraints,the late Hercynian phase is marked by a transition fromtranspression to extension with deformation conditions evolvingfrom ductile to brittle environments. The transpression(horizontal shortening direction roughly trending E-W) is coevalwith the emplacement of the first tourmaline halos alongseveral conjugated trends (N070, N020, and N120).Thereafter, a tourmaline-rich breccia formed in response tothe fracturing of early tourmaline-altered rocks.Subsequently, during the extensional phase, these structureswere reactivated as normal faults and breccias, allowing theformation of the main tin mineralization (cassiterite) associatedwith a wide variety of sulfides (arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite,sphalerite, galena, pyrrhotite, bismuthinite, pyrite, and stannite). This evolution ends with fluorite and carbonate deposition.The hydrothermal fluid flow velocity, calculated byapplying statistical measures on the tourmaline growth bands,varies with the lithology. Values are lower in metapelites andhigher in breccia. In the general evolution model proposedhere, tourmaline alteration makes the rock more competent,allowing for brittle fracturing and generation of open spacewhere the main Sn mineralization was precipitated.
Mineralium Deposita

insu-01240481
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01240481
DOI : 10.1007/s00126-015-0613-0

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Geological Society
Résumé : Extensional basins often evolve both with the generation of normal faults at all scales, and with tilting in the hanging walls and footwalls of major structures. This paper examines the effect of regional tilting on the development of normal fault arrays in an anisotropic sequence, using the asymmetric Lodève Basin, France, as a case study. The orientation range of normal faults is found not to match that expected by continued symmetric generation of conjugate normal faults during tilting. Instead, continued generation of new faults preferentially occurred for faults dipping opposite to the direction of tilt, with propagation perpendicular to bedding. The presence of early bedding-perpendicular joints in the competent sandstone units aided propagation of these faults during tilting and this preferential asymmetric development. Bedding-parallel slip surfaces were activated as normal faults during the later stages of bedding tilting, showing complex interaction patterns with later faults downthrowing in the direction opposite to bedding tilting. Hence knowledge of the timing between tilting of the strata and deformation helps in evaluating the likely complexity of fault arrays at subseismic scales in extensional basins, and may also help in understanding the evolution of fault systems in tilted normal fault blocks at the reservoir scale.
ISSN: 0016-7649

hal-00404753
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00404753
DOI : 10.1144/0016-76492006-047