Dihedral angle measurements and infiltration property of SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript>-rich melts in mantle peridotite assemblages

Petrological and experimental studies demonstrated that nepheline-normative, SiO₂-rich melts can be present in the upper mantle at pressures 1.5 GPa. To evaluate the role of such melts in mantle processes and magma genesis, we carried out two types of experiments: (1) melt distribution experiments to characterize the grain-scale distribution of a small fraction of typical SiO₂-rich mantle melt (SRMM) in polycrystalline olivine (Ol) at 1,180°C, 1.2 GPa; and (2) an infiltration experiment to test the ability of SRMM to impregnate and metasomatise neighbouring non-molten mantle rocks. The median dihedral angles at Ol-Ol-SRMM contacts are equal to 50°, implying that melt should be interconnected at all melt fractions. Complications arise, however, in the investigated system because Ol–liquid interfacial energy is anisotropic, and we estimate that the connectivity threshold in the SRMM–Ol system is 0.3 vol%. Regarding the very low volume fraction of SRMM in peridotites, we conclude that these melts either occur as isolated pockets or form a network of grain edge channels with a low degree of connectivity due to a large number of dry grain edges. Even in the case where an interconnected network exists, their large viscosities should prohibit the extraction of SRMM from peridotite sources. The infiltration experiment also points to a very reduced mobility of SRMM in the upper mantle. In this experiment, a slice of synthetic dunite was immersed into a magma reservoir made of 60 wt% SRMM+40 wt% Ol, and subjected to 1,180°C-1.2 GPa for 113 h: despite this long duration, the SiO₂-rich liquid was unable to infiltrate measurably the dunite. Our experiments do not support the hypothesis that SRMM represent agents of mantle metasomatism.     

The recent fault scarps of the Western Alps (France): Tectonic surface ruptures or gravitational sackung scarps? A combined mapping, geomorphic, levelling, and Be dating approach

In the Western Alps, some recent scarps were previously interpreted as surface ruptures of tectonic reverse and normal faults that agree with microseismicity and GPS measurements. Our analysis shows that in fact there are hundreds of recent scarps, up to 30 m high and 2.1 km long, with only pure normal motions. They share the same characteristics as typical sackung scarps. The scarps are mainly uphill facing, parallel to the ridge crests and the contour lines. They are relatively short (less than 2.1 km) with respect to tectonic fault ruptures, and organized in swarms. They cut screes and relict rock glaciers with a slow (commonly 1 mm/year) average slip rate. In the Aiguilles Grives massif these sackung scarps clearly express the gravitational toppling of sub-vertical bedding planes in hard rocks. In contrast, the Belledonne Outer Crystalline Massif exhibits scarps that stem from the gravitational reactivation of conjugate tectonic faults. The recent faults extend to about 1600 m beneath the Rognier ridge crest, but are always above the valley floor. The main scarp swarm is 9.2 km long and constitutes the largest sackung ever described in the Western Alps. ¹⁰Be dating of a scarp and offset surfaces shows that > 4 m slip may have occurred rapidly (in less than 3800 years) sometimes between the end of the glaciation and 8800 ± 1900 years ago. This dating, together with the location of some faults far from the deep glacial valleys, suggests that sagging might have been triggered by strong earthquakes during a post-glacial period of probably enhanced seismicity. The Belledonne and Synclinal Median faults (just beneath the Rognier sackung) could have been the sources of this seismicity.     

Contribution of enclave studies to the understanding of origin and evolution of granitic magmas

Enclaves give important information on the origin and evolution of granitic magmas.The presence in a granite of surmicaceous enclaves (restites) is good evidence of continental crust contribution to magma genesis. The presence of dark microgranular enclaves is an indication of mantle contribution. The joint presence in the same granite of the two types of enclaves indicates that its magma has probably more than one source.Dark microgranular enclaves, and their host granites as well, are hybridized rocks resulting from incomplete mixing (or mingling) of more acidic and basic components. Enclave studies allow one to specify mixing conditions.When mixing occurs relatively early with respect to granite crystallization, only earlier-formed granitic minerals (zircon, apatite ...) may be incorporated in the basic magma. When mixing occurs later all granitic minerals may be involved.When all the dark microgranular enclaves of a granite are similar, the intervention of a single mixing event can be assumed. On the contrary, when several chemically and mineralogically contrasted varieties occur, several mixing events can be assumed. The order of these events may be deduced from the nature of the granitic minerals present in the enclaves (early of late minerals) or sometimes by observation of double enclaves.Enclave shapes bring information on the distance between the place of mixing and the place of observation. Enclaves with irregular or crenulated margins, or with chilled margins as well, always occur near mixing places. The enclave transport in the magma makes these characteristics disappear.In spite of hybridization processes, the primitive composition of the basic component of the mixture may sometimes be recognized. A systematic identification of this component in the different granites from the same orogen should allow to understand the space and time evolution of basic magmatism in an orogen.Magma mixing is a cause of heterogeneity in granites, but it is also an important factor of homogenization as the thermal contribution of the basic magma produces new mingling of the components and sometimes new intrusive processes.

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Zusammenfassung Einschlüsse in Graniten geben wichtige Auskünfte über die Herkunft und Entwicklung der granitischen Magmen.Das Vorkommen restitischer glimmerreicher Einschlüsse (»enclaves surmicacées«) beweist die Teilnahme kontinentaler Kruste an der Magmenbildung. Die kleinkörnigen dunklen Einschlüsse dagegen sind Hinweise auf die Beteiligung von Mantelmaterial. Das Auftreten beider Arten von Einschlüssen ist ein starkes Argument für das Zusammenwirken beider Prozesse.Die kleinkörnigen dunklen Einschlüsse und der sie einschlie\ende Granit sind hybride Gesteine, sie entstehen durch unvollständige Mischung eines basischen und eines sauren Magmas. Durch genauere Untersuchung der Einschlüsse lassen sich die Vorgänge der Vermischung noch weiter erschlie\en.Wenn die Vermischung in einem Zustand eintritt, in welchem die Magmen noch wenig kristallisiert sind, dann werden nur die frühesten Mineralbildungen des Granits (Zirkon, Apatit) in die Einschlüsse aufgenommen. In späteren Stadien können alle jeweils schon kristallisierten Mineralphasen ausgetauscht werden. Tritt nur ein Typ basischer Einschlüsse in einem Granit auf, so ist dies ein Argument für nur einen Akt der Magmenmischung. Kommen dagegen mehrere Arten basischer Einschlüsse in einem Granit vor, die chemisch und mineralogisch deutlich verschieden sind, dann kann mit mehreren Vermischungsphasen gerechnet werden. Ihre Abfolge kann aus der Natur der ausgetauschten Minerale (Frühbis Spätausscheidungen) oder gegebenenfalls aus »doppelten« Einschlüssen abgeleitet werden.Die Gestalt der basischen Einschlüsse hängt von dem Abstand zwischen dem Ort der ersten Magmenvermischung und dem jetzt erreichten Ort im Granitkörper ab. Einschlüsse mit unregelmä\igen oder gekräuselten (crenulated) Rändern befinden sich stets noch in der Nähe des Ortes der Vermischung. Einschlüsse mit glatten Umrissen und ovoidaler Gestalt haben einen mehr oder weniger weiten Transport hinter sich.Gelegentlich kann noch die ursprüngliche Zusammensetzung des basischen Magmas ermittelt werden. Die Kenntnis dieser Magmenanteile in allen Graniten eines Orogens könnte die Entwicklung der basischen Magmen während der Orogenese erkennen lassen.Die Vermischung mit basischem Magma ist zwar eine Ursache der Heterogenität von Granitkörpern, auf der anderen Seite bewirkt aber die Wärmezufuhr durch den basischen Anteil und der damit verbundene »Rühreffekt« eine Homogenisierung und Belebung des Intrusionsvorganges.

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Résumé Les enclaves donnent d'importantes informations sur l'origine et l'évolution des magmas granitiques.La présence dans un granite d'enclaves surmicacées (restites) est une preuve de participation de la croûte continentale à la genèse de son magma. Celle d'enclaves microgrenues sombres est une preuve de contribution mantellique. La présence des deux types d'enclaves dans le mÊme granite est un fort argument pour une origine double.Les enclaves microgrenues sombres et le granite qui les entoure sont des roches hybrides résultant du mélange incomplet de magmas plus acides et plus basiques. L'étude des enclaves permet de préciser les conditions de mélange.Quand le mélange intervient à un stade où les magmas sont encore peu cristallisés, seuls les minéraux précoces (zircon, apatite) du granite sont incorporés dans les enclaves. Quand il se produit plus tardivement, toutes les phases minérales peuvent Être échangées.La présence d'un seul type d'enclaves basiques dans un granite est un argument pour l'intervention d'un seul stade de mélange. Au contraire, l'existence de plusieurs familles d'enclaves basiques, chimiquement et minéralogiquement bien différentes, témoigne de l'existence de plusieurs stades. L'ordre de ces événements peut Être déduit de la nature des minéraux échangés (précoces ou tardifs) ou parfois grâce à l'existence d'enclaves doubles.La forme des enclaves basiques renseigne sur la distance entre lieu de mélange et lieu d'observation. Les enclaves à bords irréguliers ou crénelés, ou avec bordures figées sont toujours proches du lieu de mélange. Les enclaves ovoÏdes, aux formes régulières, ont subi un transport plus ou moins long.La composition originale des magmas basiques mélangés peut parfois Être identifiée. Cette identification dans tous les granites d'un mÊme orogène permettrait de connaÎtre la distribution et l'évolution du magmatisme basique au cours de l'orogenèse.Les mélanges de magmas sont assurément une cause d'hétérogénéité des granites, mais ils sont aussi un important facteur d'homogénéisation car l'apport thermique des magmas basiques favorise le brassage magmatique et la reprise du mécanisme intrusif.

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Local erosion rates versus active tectonics: cosmic ray exposure modelling in Provence (south-east France)

Over the past decade, in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclides have revolutionised the study of landscape evolution. In particular, numerous studies have demonstrated that, in active tectonic settings, cosmic ray exposure dating of deformed or displaced geomorphic features makes it possible to quantify long-term deformation rates. In western European countries, erosion due to climatically driven processes and human activities is probably the factor that most limits the accuracy of exposure ages and landscape modification rates. In this study, we present the results of a depth-profiling technique applied to alluvial terraces located along the Rhône and the Moyenne Durance rivers. The expected decrease with depth of the measured ¹⁰Be concentrations has been modelled using a χ² inversion method in order to constrain the exposure history of the alluvial sediments. The results suggest that: (1) over the Quaternary, the local surface erosion rates including both regional uplift and climatically driven processes acting on landforms are on the order of 30 m/Myr in southeastern France, and (2) providing a fairly good bracketing of the exposure age, the modelled abandonment age of alluvial terraces affected by the Moyenne Durance Fault allows estimating incision rates, comparing the alluvial terrace elevations with topographic river profiles, and a minimum vertical slip rate value of roughly 0.02 mm/yr for the southern segment of the Moyenne Durance Fault.     

Volcans de la chaîne des Puys (Massif central,France) : point sur la chronologie Vasset–Kilian–Pariou–Chopine

On the basis of radiocarbon ages obtained on wood burned by base surges and tephrochronological observations, it has been possible to assess that the Puy Chopine, aged ca 9700 yr is older by a few centuries than both the Vasset and Kilian volcanoes. The last two have nearly the same age, ca 9300–9400 yr. Layers of trachytic tephra, most probably originated from Kilian or Vasset, can be observed overlapping those from the Pariou. This last volcano had been previously thought to be the younger of the area on the basis of the observation of trachytic tephra beneath its own tephra. However, new observations allow us to assume that those trachytes originated from the acid phase of the Pariou itself. Therefore, it can be assessed that the four volcanoes erupted according to the following sequence: Chopine/Pariou/?Vasset?/Kilian; the chronological situation of Vasset lies on poor arguments and it should be confirmed. To cite this article: D. Miallier et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).     

TOWARDS A BETTER FORECAST FOR RESERVOIR SLOPE SLIDING

The siltation of reservoir causes many problems of management and environmental disturbances that are important to minimize. Solving these problems requires in particular a good knowledge of mud bank instabilities. In partnership with the Laboratoire National d'Hydraulique (LNH), a subsidiary of Electricite de France (E.D.F.), authors realize a study of soft soils sliding entailed by reservoir emptying. Using a geotechnical flat sliding mechanism, the theoretical formulation of the safety factor can be established when the sediment mass is submerged and emergent. The measurement campaign carried out makes it possible to obtain bathymetric and topographic surveys and a geotechnical characterization of the soil for the whole reservoir of Grangent dam, located on the Loire (France). The proposed model appears to agree satisfactorily with the instability of the zones emerged because of the emptying and with the stability of the profile after emptying. The use of this model within the framework of forecasts     

Tertiary remagnetization of normal polarity in Mesozoic marly limestones from SE France

The results of our new paleomagnetic investigations on 21 sites in the Cévennes and Lure regions as well as previous studies demonstrate that all Mesozoic marly limestones of SE France exhibit similar paleomagnetic behavior with remagnetization disputed in age. The studied areas have the particularity to have been folded before (Late Eocene), the Alpine folding (Oligo–Miocene). Samples (201 marly limestones) dated from Lower Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous have been demagnetized by thermal treatment. They all present a well-defined component with a normal polarity which was mostly obtained between 200 and 350 °C. Numerous arguments lead from pretectonic to syntectonic widespread remagnetization related to orogenic fluid circulation affecting the whole basin. An Eocene age (between 35 and 40 Ma) is obtained for this remagnetization thanks both to the comparison of the average inclination of all regional paleomagnetic studies (+54.9°/−1.5°) with the expected paleomagnetic inclination and the syntectonic character of remagnetization.     

Late Permian–Middle Jurassic lithospheric thinning in Peru and Bolivia, and its bearing on Andean-age tectonics

Integrated studies and revisions of sedimentary basins and associated magmatism in Peru and Bolivia (8–22°S) show that this part of western Gondwana underwent rifting during the Late Permian–Middle Jurassic interval. Rifting started in central Peru in the Late Permian and propagated southwards into Bolivia until the Liassic/Dogger, along an axis that coincides with the present Eastern Cordillera. Southwest of this region, lithospheric thinning developed in the Early Jurassic and culminated in the Middle Jurassic, producing considerable subsidence in the Arequipa basin of southern Peru. This 110-Ma-long interval of lithospheric thinning ended 160 Ma with the onset of Malm–earliest Cretaceous partial rift inversion in the Eastern Cordillera area.The lithospheric heterogeneities inherited from these processes are likely to have largely influenced the distribution and features of younger compressional and/or transpressional deformations. In particular, the Altiplano plateau corresponds to a paleotectonic domain of “normal” lithospheric thickness that was bounded by two elongated areas underlain by thinned lithosphere. The high Eastern Cordillera of Peru and Bolivia results from Late Oligocene–Neogene intense inversion of the easternmost thinned area.     

Structure-from-motion,multi-view stereo photogrammetry applied to line-scan sediment core images

Journal of Paleolimnology - Images of sediment cores are often acquired to preserve primary color information, before such profiles are altered by subsequent sampling and destructive analyses. In...     

Cementation of kerogen-rich marls by alkaline fluids released during weathering of thermally metamorphosed marly sediments. Part I: Isotopic (C,O) study of the Khushaym Matruk natural analogue (central Jordan)

The Khushaym Matruk site in central Jordan may represent a natural analogue depicting the interaction of alkaline solutions with a clayey sedimentary formation or with clay-rich confining barriers at the interface with concrete structures in waste disposal sites. In this locality, past spontaneous combustion of organic matter in a clayey biomicritic formation produced a ca. 60 m-thick layer of cement-marble containing some of the high-temperature phases usually found in industrial cements (e.g., spurrite, brucite, and Ca-aluminate). A vertical cross-section of the underlying sediments was used in order to study the interaction between cement-marbles and neighbouring clayey limestones under weathering conditions. A thermodynamic approach of the alteration parageneses (calcite–jennite–afwillite–brucite and CSH phases) in the cement-marbles constrains the interacting solutions to have had pH-values between 10.5 and 12. Over 3 m, the sediments located beneath the metamorphic unit were compacted and underwent carbonation. They display large C and O isotopic variations with respect to “pristine” sediments from the bottom of the section. Low δ¹³C-values down to −31.4‰/PDB show the contribution of CO₂ derived from the oxidization of organic matter and from the atmosphere to the intense carbonation process affecting that particular sedimentary level. The size of the C isotopic anomalies, their geometrical extent and their coincidence with the variations of other markers like the Zn content, the structure of organic matter, the mineralogical composition, all argue that the carbonation process was induced by the percolation of high pH solutions which derived from the alteration of cement-marbles. The temperature of the carbonation process remains conjectural and some post-formation O isotopic reequilibration likely affected the newly-formed carbonate. Carbonation induced a considerable porosity reduction, both in fractures and matrixes. The Khushaym Matruk site may have some bearing to the early life of a repository site, when water saturation of the geological formations hosting the concrete structures is incomplete, enabling simultaneous diffusion of alkaline waters and gaseous CO₂ in the near field.