Tectonic geomorphology of the northern Upper Rhine Graben, Germany

This paper focuses on the northern Upper Rhine Graben (URG), which experienced low tectonic deformation and multiple climate changes during Quaternary times. Recently, human modifications have been high. The paper presents the results of a study into the effects of fault activity on the landscape evolution of the area. The study aims to detect active faults and to determine the last phase of tectonic activity. Information on the long-term tectonic activity is gained from the geological record (drainage system, sediment distributions, fluvial terraces, fault mapping). Previous studies are reviewed and supplemented with new data on tectonic activity. The compilation of all data is presented as a series of paleogeographic maps from Late Miocene to present. It is demonstrated that differential uplift of the western margin of the northern URG had significant impact on the drainage system, the formation of fluvial terraces and the landscape of the western graben shoulder. In a second part of the paper, the imprint of tectonics on the present-day landscape is investigated at the regional scale in order to determine the location of fault scarps and tectonically influenced parts of the drainage system. This study uses an integrated analysis of topography, drainage patterns and fault network. The comparison of features suggests a structural control by numerous NNE- and NNW-oriented intra-graben faults on the flow directions of streams in the Rhine Valley. Several scarps in the Rhine Valley are identified and interpreted to result from intra-graben faulting activity, which in turn controlled fluvial dissection. The third part of the paper presents quantitative measurements of the present-day landscape shape. Calculations of geomorphic indices are used to determine the balance between erosional and tectonic processes and to identify active fault segments. The mountain-front sinuosity and valley shape indices measured along the border faults and in the footwall area are used to determine the level of activity of the faults. Stream profiles of the western and eastern catchments of the River Rhine are investigated for gradient changes at the crossing of the border faults. The combined interpretation of geomorphic indices points to active border fault segments on both sides of the graben. Based on the integration of all results it is concluded that the tectonic morphology identified for the northern URG formed in response to long-term, low level tectonic processes. Due to a significant decrease in erosional and depositional activity during the last 15,000 years, the tectonic morphology has probably been preserved until present.     

Contemporary kinematics of the Upper Rhine Graben: A 3D finite element approach

The Upper Rhine Graben (URG), a Cenozoic intra-plate rift situated in the Alpine foreland, is presently characterised by relative slow tectonic deformation and low to medium seismicity. Concurrently, it is a region with a significant amount of ongoing subsidence in two recent depocentres (0.1 to 0.2 mm/a geological, 1 mm/a geodetical rate). In this paper, the recent kinematic behaviour of the URG is simulated using a 3D finite element model, containing three lithospheric layers (upper mantle, lower crust and upper crust) with different rheological properties. First order fault structures (e.g. border faults) are implemented as frictional contact surfaces within the upper crustal layer. The stresses generated by applying lateral displacements over a time period of 10 ka are insufficient to obtain a match between predicted and observed stress magnitudes. Therefore, a technique of “combined pre-stressing” has been developed to avoid unrealistic deformation and unrealistic stress magnitudes within the model. The stress magnitudes and stress directions predicted are calibrated against in-situ stress measurements and stress indicator data. For benchmarking of the modelling results, the vertical surface displacements predicted are compared to surface uplift derived from geological and geomorphological data. Furthermore, predicted fault slip rates are compared to available geological and geodetical data. Parameters derived from the calculated stress tensor, such as fracture potential and the regime stress ratio are also analysed in order to describe the possible kinematic behaviour of the URG. The modelling results suggest that the URG is currently being reactivated as a sinistral strike–slip system with the central segment of the URG forming a restraining bend and the two recent depocentres situated in releasing bend settings. The modelling results suggest that both sinistral shearing and mantle uplift are active mechanisms driving the recent kinematics of the URG and that the recent subsidence within the two depocentres is re-enforced by ongoing mantle uplift additionally.     

Pleistocene northwards fold propagation of the Jura within the southern Upper Rhine Graben: seismotectonic implications

On the basis of the geophysical (seismic profiles and electric tomography), geomorphic and geological data, we re-evaluate the post-Pliocene structural interpretation of the southern Upper Rhine graben (Basel–Mulhouse area): we demonstrate a Plio–Pleistocene northward propagation of the Jura thrust and fold belt up to Mulhouse proceeding from a succession of four 10 km apart ramps (from north to south Ferrette, Muespach, Magstatt and Rixheim) rooted within the late Triassic evaporitic marls acting as a decollement. This domain was previously considered as having undergone an on-going continuous extension (horst of Mulhouse bounded by the Quaternary Sirentz and Dannemarie grabens).The Quaternary activity of this thin-skinned tectonics induces the growth of a sedimentary wedge whose regional slope, which comprised between 1.4° and 1° to the north, also attests to a low friction basal detachment. More into details, these ramps correspond to 40–50-m high jumps within the forward topographic slope. Pleistocene activity is suggested just above the Muespach ramp by the presence of a 5–10-m north-facing scarp corresponding in depth to a 3-m vertical offset of early Pleistocene alluvial deposits. Farther to the north, a stronger incision of the Rhine Würm terrace can be interpreted as the result of the growth of the Mulhouse–Rixheim frontal ramp.This northward propagation of the Jura thrust and fold belt is strongly controlled by the Oligocene structural inheritage. The development of the frontal ramp in Mulhouse has to be related to the Oligocene significant vertical offset of the Triassic evaporite along the Mulhouse Railway Station fault preventing a propagation of the decollement farther to the north. In the same way, the fold propagation is laterally segmented by the N20°E trending Oligocene fabrics (from East to West, Rhine Valley flexure fault, Allschwil–Istein fault system and Illfurth fault) which acts above the decollement as lateral ramps. To the west, the development of a shallow anticline along the Illfurth fault suggests that the thin-skinned propagation is oblique with respect to the Oligocene fabrics. It results in spacial contrast between a left-lateral-reverse and a right-lateral–normal shallow kinematics along the western and eastern lateral ramps, respectively. In depth to the east, it also induces a vertical contrast between shallow (right-lateral–normal) and deep (left-lateral given by fault plane solutions) kinematics along the Istein–Allschwill–Rhine Valley fault system.Few arguments supporting a nucleation of the Basel-1356 earthquake, the strongest event in NW Europe in the last thousand years, onto the Rhine Valley fault system beneath the decollement have been given. However, we emphasize that the above mentioned coeval thin (aseismic)- and thick (seismic)-skinned tectonics along the Istein–Allschwill–Rhine Valley fault system would make difficult both the identification and the interpretation of the surface rupture of the Basel-1356 earthquake.     

Quantitative model of the release of sodium from meteoroids in the vicinity of the Sun: Application to Geminids

A considerable depletion of sodium was observed in Geminid meteoroids. To explain this phenomenon, we developed a quantitative model of sodium loss from meteoroids due to solar heating. We found that sodium can be lost completely from Geminid meteoroids after several thousands of years when they are composed of grains with sizes up to ∼100 μm. The observed variations of sodium abundances in Geminid meteor spectra can be explained by differences in the grain sizes among these meteoroids. Sodium depletions are also to be expected for other meteoroid streams with perihelion distances smaller than ∼0.2 AU. In our model, the meteoroids were represented by spherical dust-balls of spherical grains with an interconnected pore space system. The grains have no porosity and contain usual minerals known from meteorites and IDP's, including small amount of Na-bearing minerals. We modeled the sequence of three consecutive processes for sodium loss in Geminid meteoroids: (i) solid-state diffusion of Na atoms from Na-bearing minerals to the surface of grains, (ii) thermal desorption from grain surfaces and (iii) diffusion through the pore system to the space. The unknown material parameters were approximated by terrestrial analogs; the solid-state diffusion of Na in the grains was approximated by the diffusion rates for albite and orthoclase.