Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
[1] Zircons and monazites from 6 samples of the North Ayilari dextral shear zone (NAsz), part of the Karakorum fault zone (KFZ), have been dated with the U-Th-Pb method, using both ID-TIMS and SIMS techniques. The ages reveal (1) inheritance from several events spanning a long period between the late Archean and the Jurassic; (2) an Eocene-Oligocene magmatic event (similar to 35-32 Ma); (3) an Oligo-Miocene magmatic event (similar to 25-22 Ma), at least partly synkinematic to the right-lateral deformation; and (4) a period of metamorphism metasomatism (similar to 22-14 Ma) interpreted as thermal and fluid advection in the shear zone. The Labhar Kangri granite located similar to 375 km farther Southeast along the KFZ is dated at 21.1 +/- 0.3 Ma. Such occurrence of several Oligo-Miocene granites along the KFZ, some of which show evidence for synkinematic emplacement, suggests that the fault zone played an important role in the genesis and /or collection of crustal melts. We discuss several scenarios for the onset and propagation of the KFZ, and offset estimates based on the main sutures zones. Our preferred scenario is an Oligo-Miocene initiation of the fault close to the NA range, and propagation along most of its length prior to similar to 19 Ma. In its southern half, the averaged long-term fault-rate of the KFZ is greater than 8 to 10 mm/a, in good agreement with some shorter-term estimates based on the Indus river course, or Quaternary moraines and geodesy. Our results show the KFZ cannot be considered as a small transient fault but played a major role in the collision history.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00412570
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00412570
DOI : 10.1029/2007TC002184

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
We studied the patterns, rates and evolution of fluvial terraces and fault system during the building process of an intracontinental transpressional mountain in the Gobi-Altay (Mongolia). By analyzing incisions and offsets of fluvial terraces and alluvial fans, we show that the massif has grown by outward migration of thrust faults through time. On the northern flank, the present bounding thrust fault began its activity ~600 ka ago, while a more internal sub-parallel fault was still active until ~200-100 ka. Vertical offset of an alluvial fan abandoned ~100 ka ago allows an estimate of 0.1 mm/yr Upper Pleistocene - Holocene uplift rate. The morphology of the catchment-piedmont system strongly suggests a periodical formation of the alluvial surfaces, controlled by the climatic pulses, at the beginning of the wet interglacial periods. The abandonment of the alluvial terraces lags by several thousand years the abandonment of the alluvial fans, showing a diachronous incision propagating upstream. The incision rate deduced from the different elevations of straths exceeds of one order of magnitude the rock uplift rate. This excess is mostly due to ongoing drainage network growth at the core of the massif, and incision due to alluvial apron entrenchment near the outlet. This implies that fluvial response is mainly controlled by drainage growth, interaction with piedmont and cyclic climatic variations, rather than by rock uplift.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00323558
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00323558
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00323558v2/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00323558/file/Vassallo2007.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2006TC002081

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
Numerical models show that small-scale convection (SSC) occurring atop a mantle plume is a plausible mechanism to rejuvenate the lithosphere. The triggering of SSC depends on the density contrast and on the rheology of the unstable layer underlying the stagnant upper part of the thermal boundary layer (TBL). Partial melting may change both properties. We analyze, using 2-D numerical simulations, how partial melting influences the dynamics of time-dependent SSC instabilities and the resulting thermo-mechanical rejuvenation of an oceanic plate moving atop of a plume. Our simulations show a complex behavior, with acceleration, no change, or delay of the SSC onset, due to competing effects of the latent heat of partial melting, which cools the plume material, and of the buoyancy increase associated with both melt retention and depletion of residue following melt extraction. The melt-induced viscosity reduction is too localized to affect significantly SSC dynamics. Faster SSC triggering is promoted for low melting degrees (low plume temperature anomalies, thick lithosphere, or fast moving plates), which limit both the temperature reduction due to latent heat of melting and the accumulation of depleted buoyant residue in the upper part of the unstable layer. In contrast, high partial melting degrees lead to a strong temperate decrease due to latent heat of melting and development of a thick depleted layer within the sublithospheric convecting layer, which delay the development of gravitational instabilities. Despite differences in SSC dynamics, the thinning of the lithosphere is not significantly enhanced relatively to simulations that neglect partial melting.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-01277175
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01277175
DOI : 10.1002/2015GC005967

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
In the Wadi Haymiliyah of the Oman ophiolite (Haylayn block), discordant wehrlite bodies ranging in size from tens to hundreds of meters intrude the lower crust at different levels. We combined investigations on natural wehrlites from the Wadi Haymiliyah section with an experimental study on the phase relations in a wehrlitic system in order to constrain the petrogenesis of the crustal wehrlites of the Oman ophiolite. Secondary ion mass spectrometry analyses of clinopyroxenes from different wehrlite bodies imply that the clinopyroxenes were crystallized from tholeiitic, mid-ocean ridge (MORB)-type melts. The presence of primary magmatic amphiboles in some wehrlites suggests a formation under hydrous conditions. Significantly enhanced Sr-87/Sr-86 isotope ratios of separates from these amphiboles imply that the source of the corresponding magmatic fluids was either seawater or subduction zone-related. The experiments revealed that under wet conditions at relatively low temperatures, a MORB magma has the potential to produce wehrlite in the ocean crust by accumulation of early olivine and clinopyroxene. These show typically high Mg# which is a consequence of the oxidizing effect of the prevailing high aH(2)O. First plagioclases crystallizing after clinopyroxene under wet conditions are high in An content, in contrast to the corresponding dry system. Trace element compositions of clinopyroxenes of those wehrlites from the Moho transition zone are too depleted in HREE to be in equilibrium with present-day MORB, implying a genetic relation to the V2 lavas of the Oman ophiolite, which are interpreted to be the result of fluid-enhanced melting of previously depleted mantle. We present a model on the petrogenesis of the crustal wehrlites in an upper mantle wedge above an initial, shallow subduction zone at the beginning of the intraoceanic thrusting.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-00429373
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00429373
DOI : 10.1029/2009GC002488

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : The role of the Karakorum fault zone (KFZ) is debated. South of 33°N, ongoing dextral-oblique slip along the SW edge of the Gar basin exhumes metamorphic and magmatic rocks of the Ayilari range. Minerals have recorded a continuum of deformation from temperatures >600–400°C down to <250_C. The 40Ar/39Ar ages, the oldest being 21.2 ± 1.0 Ma, yield minimum estimates for the initiation of the KFZ. These are in agreement with the U-Th/Pb ages constraining the onset of deformation at ca 25–22 Ma. Thermochronologic results show slow cooling for the period ca 21– 14 Ma, followed by rapid cooling between 14 and 4 Ma. These data demonstrate that right-lateral motion was in progress in the early Miocene and that shear continued at least until 4 Ma, pointing to >20 Ma of deformation along the fault. Greenschist facies deformation superimposed upon the medium- to high-grade deformation marks a kinematic change from pure dextral to dextral-normal motion associated with the onset of rapid cooling. At the regional scale, the coexistence of transtension in the Gar basin with transpression documented along the Pangong range farther north suggests another example of the ‘‘zipper tectonics'' model developed along the Red River fault. The kinematic shift induced the rise of the Ayilari range starting at 16–12 Ma and the incision of major river courses. The Indus River might have become captive of the relief at this time. The river's 120 km of apparent offset implies dextral motion at a long-term rate of ca 8.5 ± 1.5 mm/yr.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00197561
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00197561
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00197561/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00197561/file/Valli_Karakorum_thermochron_Tectonics_07_pre_print.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2005TC001913

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
The Vertiskos Unit of northern Greece is an elongated basement belt with a complex poly-metamorphic history. It extends from Greece (Chalkidiki peninsula), to the south, up to Serbia, in the north, and arguably represents the westernmost part of the Rhodope Metamorphic Province (northern Greece to southern Bulgaria). The Vertiskos Unit experienced a medium pressure lower amphibolite-facies metamorphic overprint during the Alpine Orogeny. The available medium-temperature geochronology implies that it remained at temperature of approximately 300°C (or slightly higher) during Lower Cretaceous. In order to constrain its post-Lower Cretaceous thermal history, until near-surface exposure, we applied apatite fission track analysis. The central ages obtained range from 68.5 ± 3.8 to 46.6 ± 3.6 Ma (uppermost Cretaceous to Middle Eocene) and mean track lengths between 13 and 13.5 μm. We applied two inverse thermal modeling approaches using either each sample independently (high degree of freedomin the thermal history, better data fit) or all samples together interpreting them as a vertical profile (simpler thermal history, worse data fit). Irrespective of the modeling approach, we conclude that the bulk thermal history of the Vertiskos Unit crosses the high-temperature limit of the apatite partial annealing zone by the uppermost Cretaceous and reaches near-surface conditions as early as lower/middle Eocene. These results contrast with the thermal history of the other domains of the Rhodope Metamorphic Province further east (namely the Southern Rhodope Core Complex and the Northern Rhodope Complex) and establish the Vertiskos basement complex as the oldest exhumed coherent basement fragment of the Rhodope Metamorphic Province and Greece.
ISSN: 0278-7407

insu-01053579
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01053579
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01053579/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01053579/file/Kydonakis-brun-tectonics-2014.pdf
DOI : 10.1002/2014TC003572

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
Mélange rocks outcrop widely in the central and western frontal sectors of the Betic Cordillera, as in many other collisional orogens where they form part of the accretionary wedges. Extrusion of Triassic plastic clays and evaporites was favored by the progressive accretion of the Betic External Zones, mixing rocks of different provenance and forming a synorogenic frontal mélange unit. MT data coupled with gravity data are a valid combined methodology to characterize the geometry of these mélange units, since the characterization of plastic rocks geometry is usually uncertain using seismic techniques. The results correlate well with known geological features (sedimentary basins, calcareous ranges, evaporitic rocks) and reveal the deep geometry. A resistive body, slightly dipping toward the SE, points to the continuity of the Iberian Massif below the Guadalquivir basin (2°) and the External Zones (6-8°). To the south, gravity models show the Iberian continental crust subducting below the Internal Zones with a roughly 20-35° slope. The main conductive bodies are related to the location of evaporitic rocks involved in the frontal mélange. They overlie the Iberian Massif and, southwards, the frontal Jurassic and Cretaceous limestone sequences of the External and Median Subbetics. In this setting, thick plastic rock units placed above the foreland could act as a lubricant facilitating continental subduction, and being progressively accreted toward a frontal mélange.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-00750364
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00750364
DOI : 10.1029/2012GC004153

Éditeur(s) : AGU
Résumé : New, high-quality multichannel seismic reflection data from the western New Caledonia offshore domain allow for the first time the direct, continuous connection of seismic reflectors between the Deep Sea Drilling Project 208 drill hole on the Lord Howe Rise and the New Caledonia Basin. A novel seismic interpretation is hence proposed for the northern New Caledonia Basin stratigraphy, which places the Eocene/Oligocene unconformity deeper than previously thought and revisits the actual thickness of the pre-Oligocene sequences. A causal link is proposed between the obduction of the South Loyalty Basin over New Caledonia (NC) and the tectonic history of the northern New Caledonia Basin. Here it is suggested that as the South Loyalty Basin was being obducted during early Oligocene times, the NC Basin subsided under the effect of the overloading and underthrusted to accommodate the compressional deformation, which resulted in (1) the uplift of the northern Fairway Ridge and (2) the sinking of the western flank of New Caledonia. This event also had repercussions farther west with the incipient subsidence of the Lord Howe Rise.
Tectonics (0278-7407) (AGU), 2008-12 , Vol. 27 , N. TC6006 , P. 1-20

Droits : 2008 American Geophysical Union
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2008/publication-4782.pdf
DOI:10.1029/2008TC002263
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/4782/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
We make this reply to Philippe Oliver's comments on the deformation of the Mesozoic cover of the northern Agly massif.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00903419
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00903419
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00903419/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00903419/file/Vauchez_et_al-2013-Tectonics.pdf
DOI : 10.1002/tect.20061

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : Structural, metamorphic, and geochronologic work shows that the Ampelos/Dilek nappe of the Cycladic blueschist unit in the eastern Aegean constitutes a wedge of high-pressure rocks extruded during early stages of orogeny. The extrusion wedge formed during the incipient collision of the Anatolian microcontinent with Eurasia when subduction and deep underthrusting ceased and the Ampelos/Dilek nappe was thrust southward over the greenschist-facies Menderes nappes along its lower tectonic contact, the Cycladic-Menderes thrust, effectively cutting out a ∼30- to 40-km-thick section of crust. The upper contact of the Ampelos/Dilek extrusion wedge is the top-to-the-NE Selçuk normal shear zone, along which the Ampelos/Dilek nappe was exhumed by ∼30–40 km. Detailed Rb-Sr and 40Ar/39Ar dating of mylonites demonstrates that both shear zones operated between 42 and 32 Ma. There is no evidence for episodic motion during the ∼10 Myr life span of the shear zones, suggesting that both shear zones operated in a steady, nonepisodic fashion. Our data provide supporting evidence that simultaneous thrust-type and normal sense shearing can accomplish the early exhumation of deep-seated rocks
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00405013
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00405013
DOI : 10.1029/2005TC001872

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
The South Pacific region is characterized by a broadly elevated seafloor known as the South Pacific superswell. This region has a concentration of midplate volcanoes that experienced massive eruptions in the mid-Cretaceous period (90-120 Ma). These characteristics suggest the presence of a large-scale mantle plume beneath the South Pacific, called the South Pacific superplume. The geometry, origin depth, temperature, and composition of the superplume remain controversial, however, mainly due to the lack of seismological data that documents the mantle structure beneath the South Pacific. Seismic stations are sparse in the area due to its remote ocean environment. To obtain a better seismic image of the superplume, we deployed temporary broadband seismographs on oceanic islands and the seafloor in the South Pacific, which made possible the highest spatial resolution that has ever been achieved for the mantle structure beneath the region. The seismic image obtained from this new seismic data indicates that large-scale low-velocity anomalies (on the order of 1000 km in diameter), indicative of the superplume, are located from the bottom of the mantle to a depth of 1000 km, and small-scale low-velocity anomalies (on the order of 100 km in diameter) are present above it. A comparison of the seismic image with recent mantle convection studies based upon laboratory and numerical experiments suggests that the superplume may be a hot and chemically distinct mantle dome, and that the small-scale anomalies may be narrow plumes generated from the top of the dome. This model may explain various characteristics of hot spots in the South Pacific, such as the seafloor swell, short-lived hot spot chains, and the periodicity of massive eruptions.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-00443845
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00443845
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00443845/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00443845/file/Suetsugu_PLUME_tomo_G32009_hal.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2009GC002533

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
In the Oman ophiolite crustal section, a contact zone between the gabbro unit and the volcanics and diabase sheeted dikes, called the root zone of the sheeted dike complex, has been recently mapped at a fine scale in a selected area. The Oman ophiolite is derived from a fast spreading ridge which had a melt lens located between the main gabbro unit and the root zone of the sheeted dike complex. With a few exceptions accounted for, this horizon has a fairly constant thickness, similar to 100 m, and a crude internal pseudo-stratigraphy. At the base of the root zone are isotropic ophitic gabbros interpreted as a thermal boundary layer. This layer is transitional between the magmatic system of the melt lens, convecting at 1200 degrees C, and a high-temperature (< 1100 degrees C) hydrothermal system, convecting within the root zone. Above this level, the isotropic gabbros have been, locally, largely molten due to an influx of seawater, at similar to 1100 degrees C, thus generating varitextured ophitic and pegmatitic gabbros. These latter gabbros constitute the upper part of the root zone and are associated with trondjhemitic intrusions as screens in the lower sheeted dikes. Diorites and trondjhemites were also generated by hydrous melting, at temperatures below 1000 degrees C. The whole root zone is a domain of very sharp average thermal gradient (similar to 7 degrees C/m). At the top of the root zone, a new thermal boundary layer, with diabase dikes hydrated in amphibolite facies conditions, separates the preceding high- temperature convective system from the well-known greenschist facies (< 450 degrees C) hydrothermal system operating throughout the sheeted dike complex, up to the seafloor. The isotropic gabbros near the base of the root zone are intruded by protodikes with distinctive microgranular margins and an ophitic center. Protodike swarms are exceptional because, intruding a medium at similar to 1100 degrees C, they are largely destroyed by dike-in-dike intrusions and by hydrous melting. However, they demonstrate that this zone was generated by melt conduits issued from the underlying melt lens. Each dike of the sheeted dike complex is thus fed by one protodike. As this zone has been recently drilled by IODP in the eastern Pacific Ocean, a brief comparison is proposed.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-00411331
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00411331
DOI : 10.1029/2007GC001918

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
[1] This article presents (U-Th)/He thermochronological data from the Longmen Shan belt, eastern Tibet. Located between the Songpan-Garze terrane and the Yangtze craton, this mountain range is one of the steepest margins of the Tibetan Plateau and an important area for the comprehension of the mechanisms that control the dynamics of such plateau borders in terms of spatial distribution of deformation or timing of topographic building. We describe several age-elevation transects and perform forward modeling of our data to derive quantitative information on the exhumation of the range. A major phase of exhumation started at 8–11 Ma, with an average rate of $0.65 mm a À1. Comparison of zircon and apatite ages indicates that the eastern part of the range may have experienced a significant decrease in exhumation since 2–3 Ma. We use the distribution of finite exhumation across the major faults of the area to quantify their dip-slip throw rate over the last 10 Ma. The Beichuan Fault, which was activated during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, is the major active structure of the Longmen Shan since the late Miocene, with an average thrusting slip rate between 0.4 and 1 mm a À1. Conversely, over the same time period, only minor dip-slip activity occurred on the Wenchuan Fault Zone. This distribution in space and time of exhumation and deformation is discussed and compared to the different proposed models for the geodynamical evolution of the eastern Tibetan margin. It also provides an important long-term perspective to put in context the destructive 2008 Sichuan earthquake that struck the central Longmen Shan.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-01577059
https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01577059
https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01577059/document
https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01577059/file/godard2009late.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2008TC002407

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
We image the lithospheric and upper asthenospheric structure of western continental Yemen with 24 broadband stations to evaluate the role of the Afar plume on the evolution of the continental margin and its extent eastwards along the Gulf of Aden. We use teleseismic tomography to compute relative P-wave velocity variations in southwestern Yemen down to 300 km depth. Published receiver function analysis suggest a dramatic and localized thinning of the crust in the vicinity of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, consistent with the velocity structure that we retrieve in our model. The mantle part of the model is dominated by the presence of a low velocity anomaly in which we infer partial melting just below thick Oligocene flood basalts and recent off-axis volcanic events (from 15 Ma to present). This low velocity anomaly could correspond to an abnormally hot mantle and could be responsible for dynamic topography and recent magmatism in western Yemen. Our new P-wave velocity model beneath western Yemen suggests the young rift flank volcanoes beneath margins and on the flanks of the Red Sea rift are caused by focused small-scale diapiric upwelling from a broad region of hot mantle beneath the area. Our work shows that relatively hot mantle, along with partial melting of the mantle, can persist beneath rifted margins after breakup has occurred.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-01015496
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01015496
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01015496/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01015496/file/Korostelev_etal_GGG_2014.pdf
DOI : 10.1002/2014GC005316

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
Detailed seafloor mapping in the area east of Taiwan revealed trench-parallel stretching and folding of the Ryukyu forearc and lateral motion of the accretionary wedge under oblique convergence. East of 122ø40'E, a steep accretionary wedge is elongated in an E-W direction. A major transcurrent right-lateral strike-slip fault accommodates the strain partitioning caused by an oblique convergence of 40 ø. A spectacular out-of-sequence thrust may be related to the subduction of a structural high lying in the axis of the N-S trending Gagua Ridge. This asperity is likely responsible for the uplift of the accretionary wedge and forearc basement and may have augmented strain partitioning by increasing the coupling between the two plates. West of 122ø40'E, the low-taper accretionary wedge is sheared in a direction subparallel to the convergence vector with respect to the Ryukyu Arc. The bayonet shape of the southern Ryukyu Arc slope partly results from the recent (re)opening of the southern Okinawa Trough at a rate of about 2 to 4 cm/yr. Right-lateral shearing of the sedimentary forearc with respect to the nonlinear Ryukyu backstop generates trench-parallel extension in the forearc sediment sequence at dilational jogs and trench-parallel folding at compressive jogs. The Hoping Basin lies above a diffuse trench/trench/fault (TTF) or TFF unstable triple junction moving toward the south along a N-S transform zone which accommodates the southward drift of the Ryukyu Arc with respect to Eurasia.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-01261555
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261555
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261555/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01261555/file/Lallemand_et_al-1999-Tectonics.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/1998TC900011

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
The nucleation, propagation, and associated folding of ramp-flat-ramp normal faults were analyzed from field examples developed in a brittle/ductile multilayer sequence of the Huércal-Overa Basin (SE Spain). Gently dipping sandy silt layers, which display a low cohesive strength (C0 = 7 kPa, μ = 34°), favor the development of extensional detachments. A tectonic origin instead of a possible gravitational origin is supported by the perpendicularity between the paleoslope direction of the fluvial-deltaic environment inferred from imbricated pebbles, and the senses of movement deduced from fault slicken-lines. The link between high-angle normal faults (HANFs) --formed at different levels in the layered sequence-- with horizontal fault segments comes to develop ramp-flat-ramp normal faults with associated roll-over in the hanging wall. Observed extensional duplexes are formed by parallel detachments connected through synthetic Riedel faults. These Riedel faults would produce the back-rotation of the individual blocks (horses), i.e., extensional folding of the originally subhorizontal layers. There is no correlation between the analyzed ramp-flat-ramp normal faults, accommodating south-southeastward extension during Serravallian-lower Tortonian, and either the regional Alpujarride/Nevado-Filabride west-directed extensional shear zone or the top-to-the-north detachments within Alpujarride units, which are clearly sealed by Serravallian-lower Tortonian sediments. Therefore, the studied normal faults are restricted to the brittle/ductile multilayer fluvio/deltaic sequence and accommodate moderate late extension instead of belonging to a large crustal extensional system connected with a regional detachment at depth. Therefore, the basin formed in a moderate crustal thickness context where small and medium-scale extensional systems were subordinate structures. These natural examples support the development of low-angle normal faults at very shallow crustal levels in multilayer sequences with suitable rheological conditions.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00750352
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00750352
DOI : 10.1029/2012TC003130

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
Peridotite xenoliths brought up to the surface by the volcanism of the Kerguelen Islands represent a mantle that has been affected by a high degree of partial melting followed by intense melt percolation above the Kerguelen plume. These xenoliths are therefore particularly suitable to investigate effects of melt-rock interaction on crystallographic fabrics (lattice-preferred orientation (LPO)) of peridotite minerals and on the LPO-induced seismic properties of peridotites above a mantle plume. We have studied a suite of 16 ultramafic samples representative of different degrees of partial melting and magma-rock interaction among which the protogranular harzburgites are the least metasomatised xenoliths and dunites are the ultimate stage of metasomatism. Olivine LPO is characterized by high concentration of [010] axes perpendicular to the foliation and [100] axes close to the lineation or distributed in the foliation plane in harzburgites, whereas the high concentration of [100] axes is parallel to the lineation and [010] axes is perpendicular to the assumed foliation in dunites. Olivine LPO in harzburgites is interpreted as being due to a deformation regime in axial compression or transpression. The fabric strength of olivine decreases progressively from protogranular to poikilitic harzburgites and finally to dunites, for which it remains nevertheless significant (J index 3.8). Seismic properties calculated from LPO of minerals indicate that metasomatism at higher melt/rock ratio lowers the P wave velocities. The most significant difference between harzburgites and dunites corresponds to the distribution of S wave anisotropy. Harzburgites display the maximum of anisotropy within the foliation plane and the minimum of anisotropy perpendicular to the foliation plane, whereas the lowest anisotropy is parallel to the lineation for dunites. These modifications of seismic properties as a result of metasomatic processes may induce seismic heterogeneities in the mantle above the Kerguelen plume. In addition, assuming a lithospheric mantle primarily harzburgitic and structured with a horizontal foliation, the seismic properties calculated for the Kerguelen xenoliths reconcile the rather high anisotropy evidenced by the horizontally propagating surface waves with the apparent isotropy revealed by the absence of splitting of vertically propagating teleseismic SKS waves recorded by the GEOSCOPE Kerguelen station.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-00366222
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00366222
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00366222/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00366222/file/bascou_Kerguelen_2007GC001879_hal.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2007GC001879

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : Mantle xenoliths in Pliocene alkali basalts of the eastern Betics (SE Iberia, Spain) are spinel ± plagioclase lherzolite, with minor harzburgite and wehrlite, displaying porphyroclastic or equigranular textures. Equigranular peridotites have olivine crystal preferred orientation (CPO) patterns similar to those of porphyroclastic xenoliths but slightly more dispersed. Olivine CPO shows [100]-fiber patterns characterized by strong alignment of [100]-axes subparallel to the stretching lineation and a girdle distribution of [010]-axes normal to it. This pattern is consistent with simple shear or transtensional deformation accommodated by dislocation creep. One xenolith provides evidence for synkinematic reactive percolation of subduction-related Si-rich melts/fluids that resulted in oriented crystallization of orthopyroxene. Despite a seemingly undeformed microstructure, the CPO in orthopyroxenite veins in composite xenoliths is identical to those of pyroxenes in the host peridotite, suggesting late-kinematic crystallization. Based on these observations, we propose that the annealing producing the equigranular microstructures was triggered by melt percolation in the shallow subcontinental lithospheric mantle coeval to the late Neogene formation of veins in composite xenoliths. Calculated seismic properties are characterized by fast propagation of P waves and polarization of fast S waves parallel to olivine [100]-axis (stretching lineation). These data are compatible with present-day seismic anisotropy observations in SE Iberia if the foliations in the lithospheric mantle are steeply dipping and lineations are subhorizontal with ENE strike, implying dominantly horizontal mantle flow in the ENE-WSW direction within vertical planes, that is, subparallel to the paleo-Iberian margin. The measured anisotropy could thus reflect a lithospheric fabric due to strike-slip deformation in the late Miocene in the context of WSW tearing of the subducted south Iberian margin lithosphere.
ISSN: 0278-7407

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
hal-01685809
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01685809
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01685809/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01685809/file/Hidas_et_al-2016-Tectonics.pdf
DOI : 10.1002/2016TC004165

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
The objective of this study was to realize a three-dimensional (3-D) geological model of the deep basin structure of the Middle Durance region (of folds and faults) by integration of geological and geophysical data, and to evaluate its fault geometry and tectonic history. All of the available geophysical and geological data were compiled in three dimensions using the gOcad geomodeler. The geological and geophysical data were used to build a 3-D geological model of the Middle Durance region. The data on the 3-D geometry of fault surfaces and stratigraphic horizons and the thickness maps of the main stratigraphic units are supported by the 3-D geological model. We show that the Middle Durance Fault cannot be interpreted as a single fault plane that affected the entire Meso-Cenozoic sedimentary layers and the Paleozoic basement but as a listric segmented faulting system in sedimentary layers, rooted in Triassic evaporites and a normal block faulting system in the basement. This decoupling level in the Triassic layers reveals thin-skin deformation, formed by strong mechanical decoupling between the Mesozoic sedimentary cover and the Paleozoic basement. This study also confirms that the Provence geological structure has resulted mainly from Pyrenean deformation, which was partly reactivated by Alpine deformation. We demonstrate that the Middle Durance Fault Zone is a transfer fault that accommodates deformation of the sedimentary filling of the South-East Basin through modified fold geometry over a zone of 7 km to 8 km around the main segment of the fault zone.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-01172221
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01172221
DOI : 10.1002/2014TC003749

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD AGU and the Geochemical Society
Résumé : International audience
The transition between the small melt lens observed on top of fast spreading ridge magma chambers and the overlying sheeted dike complex marks the interface between magma and the hydrothermal convective system. It is therefore critical to our understanding of fast spreading ridge accretion processes. We present maps of two areas of the Oman ophiolite where this transition zone is observed as continuous outcrops. Our observations, which include the base of the sheeted dike being crosscut by gabbros, are consistent with episodic dike injections in a steady state model but also suggest that the root of these dikes is commonly erased by vertical movements of the top of the melt lens. Dike assimilation is a possible mechanism for incorporating hydrated phases, which result from hydrothermal alteration, to the melt lens during upward migrations of its upper boundary. Upward migrations are also responsible for a granoblastic overprint of the root of the dikes that is also observed in the stoped diabase xenoliths. This granoblastic overprint attests to reheating of previously hydrothermally altered lithologies which can even trigger hydrous partial melting due to the lowering of the solidus of mafic lithologies by the presence of a water activity. Clinopyroxenes present in these granoblastic lithologies are typically low in Ti and Al content, thus strongly contrasting with corresponding magmatic clinopyroxene. This may attest to the recrystallization of clinopyroxenes after amphiboles under the peculiar conditions present at the root zone of the sheeted dike complex. Downward migrations of the top of the melt lens result in the crystallization of the isotropic gabbros at its roof, which represent the partly fossilized melt lens. Melt lens fossilization eventually occurs when magma supply is stopped or at the melt lens margins where the thermal conditions become cooler. Melt lens migration, recrystallization of hydrothermally altered sheeted dikes during reheating stages, and assimilation processes observed in the Oman ophiolite are consistent with the observations made in IODP Hole 1256D. We propose a general dynamic model in which the melt lens at fast spreading ridges undergoes upward and downward movements as a result of either eruption/replenishment stages or variations in the hydrothermal/magmatic fluxes.
ISSN: 1525-2027

hal-00445249
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00445249
DOI : 10.1029/2009GC002652