Late Quaternary evolution of the Madeira Abyssal Plain,Canary Basin,NE Atlantic

The deepest part of the Canary Basin, the Madeira Abyssal Plain, receives allochthonous sediments derived from a large drainage basin which, if its subaerial continuation is included, covers an area of 3.36 times 10⁶ km². An international research effort over the last 10 years has recovered over 160 sediment cores from the plain, and the development of a high-resolution stratigraphy has enabled individual turbidites to be correlated layer by layer. Sedimentation on the Madeira Abyssal Plain during the late Quaternary is dominated by thick turbidite muds separated by thin pelagic intervals. The core density has allowed the mapping of each sedimentary unit throughout the abyssal plain, thus building up a layer by layer picture of sediment accumulation. Over the last 300 kyr, 600 km³ of turbidites compared to 60 km³ of pelagic sediments have been deposited on the plain. Sedimentary structures developed in the coarse basal facies of the larger turbidites are more complex than simple models predict due to surging flows, fluctuating flow velocities and reflection from adjacent high ground. Over the last 300 kyr, there has been a switching of entry points for turbidity currents entering the abyssal plain. From 300 ka to 200 ka, organic-rich turbidites were emplaced predominantly from the south but around 200 ka this source switched off and subsequent organic- and volcanic-rich turbidites, which included units deposited by giant, possibly hyperconcentrated flows, were emplaced from northern or eastern sources. Although restricted to the late Quaternary, the data presented provides a detailed case study of the evolution of an oceanic basin fill.     

Late Ordovician,deep‐water gravity‐flow deposits,palaeogeography and tectonic setting,Tarim Basin,Northwest China

The Upper Ordovician in the Tarim Basin contains 5000–7000 m of siliciclastic and calciclastic deep‐water, gravity‐flow deposits. Their depositional architecture and palaeogeographical setting are documented in this investigation based on an integrated analysis of seismic, borehole and outcrop data. Six gravity‐flow depositional–palaeogeomorphological elements have been identified as follows: submarine canyon or deeply incised channels, broad and shallow erosional channels, erosional–depositional channel and levee–overbank complexes, frontal splays‐lobes and nonchannelized sheets, calciclastic lower slope fans and channel lobes or sheets, and debris‐flow complexes. Gravity‐flow deposits of the Sangtamu and Tierekeawati formations comprise a regional transgressive‐regressive megacycle, which can be further classified into six sequences bounded by unconformities and their correlative conformities. A series of incised valleys or canyons and erosional–depositional channels are identifiable along the major sequence boundaries which might have been formed as the result of global sea‐level falls. The depositional architecture of sequences varies from the upper slope to abyssal basin plain. Palaeogeographical patterns and distribution of the gravity‐flow deposits in the basin can be related to the change in tectonic setting from a passive continental margin in the Cambrian and Early to Middle Ordovician to a retroarc foreland setting in the Late Ordovician. More than 3000 m of siliciclastic submarine‐fan deposits accumulated in south‐eastern Tangguzibasi and north‐eastern Manjiaer depressions. Sedimentary units thin onto intrabasinal palaeotopographical highs of forebulge origin and thicken into backbulge depocentres. Sediments were sourced predominantly from arc terranes in the south‐east and the north‐east. Slide and mass‐transport complexes and a series of debris‐flow and turbidite deposits developed along the toes of unstable slopes on the margins of the deep‐water basins. Turbidite sandstones of channel‐fill and frontal‐splay origin and turbidite lobes comprise potential stratigraphic hydrocarbon reservoirs in the basin.     

The nature and evolution of deep-sea channel systems

Abstract A distinction is drawn between sea-floor canyons, which are incised into bedrock, and fan valleys and deep-sea channels, which are cut in unconsolidated sediment. The formation of continental margin canyons/fans and deep-sea channels is an inevitable consequence of continental margin rifting and sea-floor subsidence. Such submarine sediment transport systems are amongst the longest-lived physiographic features on earth, with the Bounty Channel system being more than 50 Myr old. Many deep-sea channels form the distal part of ocean-margin sediment transport systems, being incised 100–350 m into ocean-floor sediments, traversing great distances over the ocean-basin floor, and generally terminating on an abyssal plain. The course of each deep-sea channel is, however, unique. Channel locations are controlled primarily by inherited basement relief, and, during their evolution, by rates and patterns of lithospheric subsidence and sedimentation. In the early stages of ocean-basin formation, deep-sea channels may issue from the axial parts of marginal rifts, or directly from slope canyon-fan systems. As an ocean basin widens, margin-connected channels may become trapped within the strip of oldest (and therefore deepest) oceanic crust at the continent/ocean interface, and will therefore be margin-parallel features. In some cases, as for the Cascadia Channel, channels may escape from the ocean-margin deep, bypassing the spreading ridge via a fracture zone. Deep-sea channels and their associated sediments are influenced also by global sea-level change, by rate of turbidity current generation from the headward continental margin, by rates of pelagic sediment supply, by differential levee development consequent upon the Coriolis effect, and by the operation of deep-sea current systems with their associated sediment drifts. The survival of deep-sea channels as long-lived features necessitates that rates of long-term subsidence at the channel terminus exceed sediment accumulation.     

A meltwater origin for Antarctic shelf bedforms with special attention to megalineations

The geomorphology of troughs crossing the Antarctic shelf is described and interpreted in terms of ice-stream hydrology. The scale of tunnel channels on the inner shelf and the absence of sediment at their mouths are taken to infer catastrophic drainage. Drumlins on the inner and outer shelves with pronounced crescentic and hairpin scours are also interpreted as products of catastrophic flow. Gullies and channels on the continental slope and turbidites on the rise and abyssal plain point to abundant meltwater discharge across the shelf. Attempts to explain this morphology and sedimentology in terms of release or discharge of meltwater by pressure melting, strain heating, Darcian flow, or advection in deforming till are shown to be unrealistic. We suggest that meltwater flow across the middle and outer shelves might have been in broad, turbulent floods, which raises the possibility that megascale glacial lineations (MSGL) on the shelf might originate by erosion in turbulent flow. This possibility is explored by use of analogs for MSGL from flood and eolian landscapes and marine environments. An extended discussion reflects on objections that stand in the way of the flood hypothesis.     

Facies and architectural variability of sub-seismic slope-channel fills in prograding clinoforms,Mid-Jurassic Neuquén Basin,Argentina

Most slope-channel outcrop studies have been conducted at continental margin-scale on seismic data. However, in foreland and back-arc deepwater settings, sub-seismic scale slope channels hold equally important information on deepwater sediment delivery, often in hydrocarbon-bearing provinces. One such slope-channel system is examined in Lower Jurassic prograding shelf-margin clinoforms in Bey Malec Estancia, La Jardinera area, southern Neuquén Basin, Argentina. In a 4 km wide, 300 m tall, slightly oblique- to depositional-dip section of Jurassic Los Molles Formation deepwater slope deposits, seven clinoform timelines were identified by isolated slope-channel fills with thicknesses less than 50 m. Sedimentary logs, satellite images, a digital elevation model and drone photogrammetry were used to map variations in downslope channel geometry and infill facies. The slope channels are filled with sediment density flow deposits: poorly sorted conglomeratic debrites, structureless sandy high-density turbidites and well-sorted, fine-grained, graded low-density turbidites. The debrite portion decreases downslope, whereas high- and low-density turbidites increase. A grain-size analysis reveals a broad downslope fining trend of turbidite and debrite beds within slope channels with increasing water depth, and some notable bypass of conglomeratic facies to the lowermost slope channels and basin floor fans. The architecture of the slope channels changes from lateral to aggradational infill downstream. The Bey Malec clinoforms and its slope channels add new knowledge on downslope changes for sediment delivery in relatively shallow (<500 m water depth), prograding-dominant deepwater basins. They also highlight one of very few outcropping examples of oblique-type clinoforms.     

Ordovician tectonic transition from passive margin into peripheral foreland in the southern Ordos: A diagnostic insight into the closure of Erlangping Ocean between the North Qinling Arc and North China Block

Achieving a reliable closure time of a back-arc ocean is an essential aspect in studies on detailed tectonic processes of an active continental margin and arc–continent collision. This is particularly the case for the northern Qinling Orogen, which records the accretion of the North Qinling Arc (NQA) onto the North China Block (NCB) after the Erlangping back-arc ocean closure. Sedimentological, petrological and geochronological signatures from the Ordovician successions in the southern Ordos reveal a tectonic transition from passive continental margin to peripheral foreland in the southern NCB at the beginning of Katian. Sedimentological and geochronological investigations reveal an abrupt shift of accelerating basin subsidence and deepening at the earliest Katian, separating ca. 300-m-thick shallow-marine carbonate shelf assemblages from overlying ca. 2000-m-thick deep-water carbonate slope and turbidite associations. Zircon age spectra of the Katian turbidites are characterized by early-Palaeozoic and Neoproterozoic age clusters, which are different from those of the Middle Ordovician quartz arenites sourced merely from the NCB basement. Instead, these age patterns match well with those of the coeval successions in the northern NQA, indicating a spatially linked abyssal deposystem. Stratigraphic architecture deciphers a typical foreland basin geometry, involving, from south to north, northward-propagating turbiditic wedge, northward-backstepping carbonate slope and progressively shoaling carbonate platform, embodying foredeep, forebulge and backbulge, respectively. These characteristics of basin-fill evolution reflect the northward migration of the flexural wave as a dynamic response to the northward expansion of the thickened NQA thrust wedge. Together with the other geological and geochronological data, our new insights indicate a southward subduction polarity of the Erlangping back-arc oceanic crust followed by its termination at ca. 450 Ma, which was earlier than that of the main Proto-Tethyan Shangdan Ocean between the NCB and South China Block. Our new data provide an updated view of the complex history of the Proto-Tethys closure during the Gondwana assembly.     

横穿印度洋重力剖面的基本特征及其地质意义

本文根据在印度洋实测的重力资料,用ｓｉｎｘ／ｘ反演了一些典型构造的莫氏面深度,对印度洋两种不同类型的大陆边缘、大洋中脊、无震海岭、深海盆地的重力异常特征及地质意义进行了较深入的研究,结果表明,东南非岸外以张性下沉为主,构造活动比较单一,其上的重力异常为单调的正负不对称异常,说明这儿的被动陆缘基本上处于均衡状态;而印度洋东北边缘的太平洋型活动陆缘,为一复杂的火山岛弧系,这里的重力异常面貌复杂,反映了该地区处于非均衡状态;查戈斯－拉克代夫海岭为印度洋中典型的无震海岭,它不应属于印度洋中脊的一部分;印度洋中的大部分深海盆,其上具有典型的大洋重力组合,说明印度洋存在着广大的大洋型原生地壳。     

Ordovician tectonic shift in the western North China Craton constrained by stratigraphic and geochronological analyses

The western North China Craton (W-NCC) comprises the Alxa Terrane in the west and the Ordos Block in the east; they are separated by the Helanshan Tectonic Belt (HTB). There is an extensive debate regarding the significant Ordovician tectonic setting of the W-NCC. Most paleogeographic reconstructions emphasized the formation and rapid subsidence of an aulacogen along the HTB during the Middle–Late Ordovician, whereas paleomagnetic and geochronologic results suggested that the Alxa Terrane and the Ordos Block were independent blocks separated by the HTB. In this study, stratigraphic and geochronologic methods were used to constrain the Ordovician tectonic processes of the W-NCC. Stratigraphic correlations show that the Early Ordovician strata comprise ~500-m-thick tidal flat and lagoon carbonate successions with a progressive eastward onlap, featuring a west-deepening shallow-water carbonate shelf. In contrast, the Late Ordovician strata are composed of ~3,000-m-thick abyssal turbidites in the west and ~400-m-thick shallow-water carbonates in the east, defining an eastward-tapering basin architecture. Early Ordovician detrital zircons with ages of ~2,800–1,700 Ma were derived from the Ordos Block; the Late Ordovician turbidites were sourced from the western Alxa Terrane, based on zircon ages clustered at ~1,000–900 Ma. The petrographic modal composition and zircon age distribution imply a provenance shift from a stable craton to a recycled orogen in the Middle Ordovician. These shifts define a tectonic conversion from a passive continental margin to a foreland basin at ~467 Ma, resulting in the eastward progradation of the turbidite wedge around the HTB, the eastward backstepping of the carbonate platform in the east and the eastward expansion of orogenic thrusting in the western Alxa Terrane. This tectono-sedimentary shift coincided with the advancing subduction of the southern Paleo-Asian Ocean beneath the Alxa Terrane, generating the western Alxa continental arc and the paired retro-arc foredeep in the east under a compressional tectonic regime.     

南沙群岛区域地质地貌与古海洋

本文论述了南沙群岛海底地形、海底沉积物、区域地质、珊瑚礁地质地貌和区域古海洋。     

Event sedimentation in low‐latitude deep‐water carbonate basins,Anegada passage,northeast Caribbean

The Virgin Islands and Whiting basins in the Northeast Caribbean are deep, structurally controlled depocentres partially bound by shallow‐water carbonate platforms. Closed basins such as these are thought to document earthquake and hurricane events through the accumulation of event layers such as debris flow and turbidity current deposits and the internal deformation of deposited material. Event layers in the Virgin Islands and Whiting basins are predominantly thin and discontinuous, containing varying amounts of reef‐ and slope‐derived material. Three turbidites/sandy intervals in the upper 2 m of sediment in the eastern Virgin Islands Basin were deposited between ca. 2000 and 13 600 years ago, but do not extend across the basin. In the central and western Virgin Islands Basin, a structureless clay‐rich interval is interpreted to be a unifite. Within the Whiting Basin, several discontinuous turbidites and other sand‐rich intervals are primarily deposited in base of slope fans. The youngest of these turbidites is ca. 2600 years old. Sediment accumulation in these basins is low (<0.1 mm year^?1) for basin adjacent to carbonate platform, possibly due to limited sediment input during highstand sea‐level conditions, sediment trapping and/or cohesive basin walls. We find no evidence of recent sediment transport (turbidites or debris flows) or sediment deformation that can be attributed to the ca. M7.2 1867 Virgin Islands earthquake whose epicentre was located on the north wall of the Virgin Islands Basin or to recent hurricanes that have impacted the region. The lack of significant appreciable pebble or greater size carbonate material in any of the available cores suggests that submarine landslide and basin‐wide blocky debris flows have not been a significant mechanism of basin margin modification in the last several thousand years. Thus, basins such as those described here may be poor recorders of past natural hazards, but may provide a long‐term record of past oceanographic conditions in ocean passages.     

THE STORM OF NOVEMBER 1826 IN THE CANARY ISLANDS: POSSIBLY A TROPICAL CYCLONE?

This work analyses a storm that occurred in the Canary Islands early in November 1826. Through a study based on historical climate data, some of the adverse effects of the storm are described and some of the possible causes are discussed. The main goal of this work is to establish an approximate reconstruction of this historical event which will allow us to compare it to a recent meteorological event that had a great impact on the archipelago: “Tropical Storm Delta”, in November 2005. Studying and reviewing the origin of the 1826 storm verifies the hypothesis that extremely violent perturbations have not only occurred in the Canaries on other occasions, but that these past events were also more intense and had more serious consequences than Delta. Therefore, the idea that other tropical perturbations have occurred in the region of the Canary Islands before Delta is presented.     

Late Cretaceous to Cenozoic geodynamic evolution of the Atlantic margin offshore Essaouira (Morocco)

After Mesozoic rifting, the Atlantic margin of Morocco has recorded the consequences of the continental collision between Africa and Europe and the relative northward motion of the African plate over the Canary Island hotspot during Cenozoic times. Interpretation of recently acquired 2D seismic reflection data (MIRROR 2011 experiment) presents new insights into the Late Cretaceous to recent geodynamic evolution of this margin. Crustal uplift presumably started during the Late Cretaceous and triggered regional tilting in the deep‐water margin west of Essaouira and the formation of the Base Tertiary Unconformity (BTU). An associated hiatus in sedimentation is interpreted to have started earlier in the north (presumably in the Cenomanian at well location DSDP 416) and propagated to the south (presumably in the Coniacian at well location DSDP 415). The difference in the total duration of this hiatus is postulated to have controlled the extrusion of Late Triassic to Early Jurassic salt during the Late Cretaceous to Early Palaeocene non‐depositional period, resulting in regional differences in the preservation of salt structures: the Agadir Basin in the south of the study area is dominated by salt diapirs, whereas massive canopies characterised the Ras Tafelnay Plateau farther north and salt‐poor canopies and weld structures the northernmost offshore Essaouira and Safi Basins. Accompanied by volcanic intrusions, a presumably Early Palaeogene reactivation of previously existing basement faults is interpreted to have formed a series of deep‐water anticlines with associated gravity deformation of shallow‐seated sediments. The orientation of the fold axes is roughly perpendicular to the present day coast and the extensional fault direction; therefore, not a coast‐line parallel pattern of extensional faults, related to the rifting and break‐up of the margin, but rather a coast‐line perpendicular oceanic fracture zone might have caused the basement faults associated with the deep‐water folds. Both the volcanic intrusions and the formation of the deep‐water anticlines show a comparable age trend which gets progressively younger towards the south. A potential tempo‐spatial relationship of the BTU and the reactivation of basement faults can be explained by the relative northward motion of the African plate over the Canary Island hotspot. Regional uplift producing the BTU could have been the precursor of the approaching hotspot during the Late Cretaceous, followed during the Early Palaeogene by a locally more pronounced uplift above the hotspot centre.     

黄河北流河道变迁与史前的灾害事件

水利史的研究已经证实,历史上黄河北流的河道以禹贡河为北界,以现行河道为南界,在这一区域内摆动迁徙。黄河北流从未进入河北平原的中-西部的白洋淀流域区。造成河道这种演化特点的主要原因是河北平原基底活动构造等因素的影响。除此之外,另一个尚未探索的原因是远古时代河北平原曾发生过一次规模宏大的陨石雨撞击灾害。撞击的结果壅塞了当时黄河下游河道,形成了白洋淀流域区,最终促成了北流河道演化的基本格局。文章最后推测这一史前的天文-地质灾害可能是"女娲补天,大禹治水"等神话的事实基础。     

The structural and sedimentological setting of the Quaternary deposits in Al-Ain area, UAE

Quaternary sediments represent the main constituent which covers an ENE–WSW elongated depression some 25 km long and 10 km wide (Al-Ain area). This depression is encountered between two north and south low fault scarps and is located perpendicular to the Al Jaww plain and Jabel Hafit axes.Four main types of Quaternary surface deposits were identified belonging to: flood plain and braided channels; desert plain; aeolian sand; and sabkha. The first type shows many pedogenic and non-pedogenic features of which are dolocrete, calcrete and gypcrete.An ENE–WSW closely-spaced dip-slip, stepping pattern fault set could be traced in dolocretized-calcretized braided channel deposits, on the south margin of this depression, where the relationship between fault geometry, displacement and geomorphology suggest a model of either graben or half-graben. The role of this system in developing the landscape of Al-Ain is well documented near the surface but a comprehensive study to assess its role in the sub-surface is needed.     

The Canary Islands swell: a coherence analysis of bathymetry and gravity

The Canary Archipelago is an intraplate volcanic chain, located near the West African continental margin, emplaced on old oceanic lithosphere of Jurassic age, with an extended volcanic activity since Middle Miocene. The adjacent seafloor does not show the broad oceanic swell usually observed in hotspot-generated oceanic islands. However, the observation of a noticeable depth anomaly in the basement west of the Canaries might indicate that the swell is masked by a thick sedimentary cover and the influence of the Canarian volcanism. We use a spectral approach, based on coherence analysis, to determine the swell and its compensation mechanism. The coherence between gravity and topography indicates that the swell is caused by a subsurface load correlated with the surface volcanic load. The residual gravity/geoid anomaly indicates that the subsurface load extends 600 km SSW and 800 km N and NNE of the islands. We used computed depth anomalies from available deep seismic profiles to constrain the extent and amplitude of the basement uplift caused by a relatively low-density anomaly within the lithospheric mantle, and coherence analysis to constrain the elastic thickness of the lithosphere ( T_e ) and the compensation depth of the swell. Depth anomalies and coherence are well simulated with T_e =28–36 km, compensation depth of 40–65 km, and a negative density contrast within the lithosphere of ∼33 kg m⁻³. The density contrast corresponds to a temperature increment of ∼325°C, which we interpret to be partially maintained by a low-viscosity convective layer in the lowermost lithosphere, and which probably involves the shallower parts of the asthenosphere. This interpretation does not require a significant rejuvenation of the mechanical properties of the lithosphere.     

Breeding parameters of the trumpeter finch at the periphery of its range: A case study with mainland expanding and island populations

Studies on breeding parameters in peripheral populations have been centred on species with stable or regressive ranges. However, the studies on peripheral expanding populations are few, probably due to the scarcity of suitable models. On the other hand, islands are a sort of peripheral populations with their own rules. By using an arid-land passerine, the Trumpeter Finch, we compare the clutch size between two peripheral populations, one in expansion located in south-eastern Iberian Peninsula, another located in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, with the clutch size of their presumably source population, Northwest Africa. We did not find differences in clutch size between continental peripheral population nor island one compared with North African one. We also present other breeding parameters including incubation period, hatching rate, nestling period, fledgling rate and productivity in both peripheral populations.     

白令海深海异常沉积特征及成因分析

利用中国历次北极科学考察航次在白令海北部陆坡及海盆等深水区所采集的沉积物样品,对其开展沉积学等研究,系统归纳该海域常见的异常沉积类型及特征,并初步探讨其可能成因。BR02孔出现至少3段浊积层,浊积层主要分布于末次冰消期至中全新世。B5-4孔存在至少2段火山碎屑沉积层,其沉积年代分别约为1.3 ka BP和13.2 ka BP。B5-7站表层沉积物中的硅藻组合以新近系硅藻化石Kisseleviella carina Sheshukova-Poretzkaya和Kisseleviella ezoensis Akib为主,且与附近海域其他表层沉积物的硅藻组合面貌差异明显,可能是沉积物再沉积结果,其初始沉积年代大约为早中新世。白令海北部陆缘/陆坡区附近遍布的海底大峡谷对该区沉积物沉积过程具有重要影响,可能是导致该区浊流沉积与再沉积物的主要原因。此外,白令海位于欧亚板块、太平洋板块及北美板块交汇区边缘,其独特的地理位置决定该区地震与火山等构造活动相对活跃,进而进一步促使该区海底异常沉积现象频发。     

Sedimentology,provenance and geochronology of the upper Cretaceous–lower Eocene western Xigaze forearc basin,southern Tibet

Located on the southern margin of the Lhasa terrane in southern Tibet, the Xigaze forearc basin records Cretaceous to lower Eocene sedimentation along the southern margin of Asia, prior to and during the initial stages of continental collision with the Tethyan Himalaya in the Early Eocene. We present new measured stratigraphic sections, totalling 4.5 km stratigraphic thickness, from a 60 km E–W segment of the western portion of the Xigaze forearc basin, northeast of the Lopu Kangri Range (29.8007° N, 84.91827° E). In addition, we apply U–Pb detrital zircon geochronology to constrain the provenance and maximum depositional ages of investigated strata. Stratigraphic ages range between ca. 88 and ca. 54 Ma and sedimentary facies indicate a shoaling‐upward trend from deep‐marine turbidites to fluvial deposits. Depositional environments of coeval Cretaceous strata along strike include deep‐marine distal turbidites, slope‐apron debris‐flow deposits and marginal marine carbonates. This along‐strike variability in facies suggests an irregular paleogeography of the Asian margin prior to collision. Paleocene–Eocene strata are composed of shallow marine carbonates with abundant foraminifera such as Nummulites‐Discocyclina and Miscellanea‐Daviesina and transition into fluvial deposits dated at ca. 54 Ma. Sandstone modal analyses, conglomerate clast compositions and detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology indicate that forearc detritus in this region was derived solely from the Gangdese magmatic arc to the north. In addition, U–Pb detrital zircon age spectra within the upper Xigaze forearc stratigraphy are similar to those from Eocene foreland basin strata south of the Indus‐Yarlung suture near Sangdanlin, suggesting that the Xigaze forearc was a possible source of Sangdanlin detritus by ca. 55 Ma. We propose a model in which the Xigaze forearc prograded south over the accretionary prism and onto the advancing Tethyan Himalayan passive margin between 58 and 54 Ma, during late stage evolution of the forearc basin and the beginning of collision with the Tethyan Himalaya. The lack of documented forearc strata younger than ca. 51 Ma suggests that sedimentation in the forearc basin ceased at this time owing to uplift resulting from continued continental collision.     

Tracking sand‐fairways through a deformed turbidite system: the Numidian (Miocene) of Central Sicily,Italy

Understanding ancient deep‐water sedimentary systems that accumulated at complex plate boundaries requires confronting the stratigraphic record of deformed sedimentary successions by tracking sand‐fairways and identifying original relationships in later deformed sequences. Here, we investigate the Numidian turbidite system (early to mid‐Miocene) of Central‐East Sicily to explore a deep‐water sedimentary system deposited at an active thrust belt on the Central Mediterranean. Turbidites include multi‐metre thick‐bedded, ultra‐mature quartz sandstones that were sourced from North Africa and are now deformed and dismembered within the Apennine‐Maghrebian orogen. To date, much research has focused on the little‐deformed sections that sample discrete parts of the original turbidite pathways. Yet the bulk of these systems are represented by deformed successions and these have attracted little modern sedimentological and stratigraphic investigation. We present new data based on field mapping, sedimentological/structural fieldwork, and biostratigraphy (planktonic foraminifera and nannofossils) that focus on the Numidian turbidites of Central‐East Sicily. Thickness and facies variations, together with evidence of large‐scale sediment bypass and local substrate reworking, characterize the Numidian turbidites of the study area, consistent with a partially confined turbidite system. Our work demonstrates that the Numidian turbidite system accumulated across active structures and these provided tortuous, evolving corridors through which turbidity currents were routed, transporting coarse sand over many hundreds of km. These results provide insight on structurally confined turbidites in analogous tectonic settings and demonstrate the need to seek sedimentological and stratigraphic data from deformed and dismembered parts of deep‐water systems.     

The inception and early evolution of the North Alpine Foreland Basin, Switzerland

The stratigraphy of the Eocene-Miocene peripheral foreland basin in Switzerland consists of basal deposits of Nummulitic Limestones and Globigerina Marls representing a phase of deepening, followed by two shallowing-up megacycles culminating in fully continental sedimentation. The onset of sedimentation was diachronous and took place on an unconformity surface with increasing stratigraphic gap to the north and west. In the Ultrahelvetic units, which were derived from the south and have a provenance between the Helvetic shelf and the Penninic ocean, the stratigraphic gap is minimal. This restricts the initiation of erosion of the southern European margin due to emersion to post-Maastrichtian and pre-late Palaeocene. This coincides with the final closing of the Valais trough and may therefore be interpreted as the point at which continental flexure s. s. started. In the autochthon, the subcrop map of the unconformity surface shows that the regional pattern of subcropping units is oblique to both neo-Alpine tectonic structures and Helvetic (Mesozoic) passive margin structures. There are local zones of disruption to the broad regional pattern suggesting that the basal unconformity was corrugated. Both the paliaspastic restoration of the autochthon relative to the thrust front during the Palaeocene, and the regional pattern of erosion indicate that the basal unconformity may be due to erosion of a flexural forebulge. Following deposition of the shallow water Nummulitic Limestones and the deeper water Globigerina Marls, clastic sediments were shed from the orogenic wedge in the south. These turbidites, the Taveyannaz Sandstones, filled both ponded basins at the contemporaneous thrust front and the frontal trench or foredeep. Evidently, early thrusts drove at a shallow level into the embryonic basin as ‘front-runners’, whereas most shortening and uplift continued to take place within the main part of the orogenic wedge further to the south. Eventually, the frontal palaeohighs, together with the turbidite basins, were buried by the northward emplacement of surface mud-slides, and sediment depocentres were translated northwards onto the foreland. The most likely cause of the underfilled ‘Flysch’ stage is the rapid advance of a submarine thrust wedge over the flexed European plate which resulted in (i) low sediment fluxes and (ii) high subsidence rates associated with the rapid migration of the load and depocentre. Later, as the rate of advance slowed and the wedge became subaerially exposed, the basin rapidly filled with coarse-grained detritus representing the ‘Molasse’ stage.