Neogene kinematics of the Giudicarie fault (Central-Eastern Alps, Italy): new apatite fission-track data

The Neogene kinematics of the Giudicarie fault (part of Periadriatic lineament, NE Italy) have been re-examined using apatite fission-track analysis. Twenty samples were collected along two geological sections; the first one crossing the Tertiary Corno Alto pluton (Adamello batholith) and the Variscan basement (Southalpine domain) adjacent to the South Giudicarie fault, the second one close to the North Giudicarie fault, in the Variscan basement of the Tonale nappe (Austroalpine system). Samples from the southern section show short tracks and ages between 14.7±1.2 Myr and 22.5±2.2 Myr along 1570 m of the profile; samples from the northern profile present long tracks and ages between 11.3±1.3 Myr and 14.7±3.4 Myr along 1225 m of the vertical profile. In the former, the presence of short tracks might indicate either a long permanence of the rocks in the apatite partial annealing zone, or a more complex thermal history; in the latter case we are dealing with rocks which experienced more rapid cooling.
  The two differing segments of the Giudicarie fault can be explained either as two completely independent tectonic features or, more likely, by hypothesizing a single fault active in its southern and northern parts at different times. Fission track data support a first exhumation of this single fault c. 15 Ma along the North Giudicarie, with a final exhumation towards the south, in the Adamello area, at c. 8–10 Ma (Mid Tortonian). This age fits with the so-called 'Giudicarie' phase, during which σ₁ in the stress field was orientated N280–290°.     

Deep structure and kinematics of the Northern Calcareous Alps (TRANSALP Profile)

The Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA) of southern Bavaria and northern Tyrol constitute a carbonate-dominated polyphase fold-thrust wedge; together with its Grauwacken Zone Basement, it is the northernmost part of the far-travelled Upper Austroalpine thrust complex of the Eastern Alps. The present geometry developed in several kinematic stages. Jurassic extensional faults that affected large parts of the NCA and their basement originated when the main part of the NCA was still located southeast of the Central Alpine Ötztal-Silvretta complex. These faults and related facies transitions influenced the later style of detachment of the NCA thrust sheets. Mid to Late Cretaceous detachment, thrust-sheet stacking and motion over the Central Alpine complex are registered in clastic deposits of syntectonic basins. The latest Cretaceous to Cenozoic NNE- to N-directed motion of the NCA towards Europe in front of the Central Alpine complex created another set of significant contraction structures, which at depth overprinted all previous structures. During Cretaceous to Cenozoic deformation, the NCA experienced about 80 km of shortening, i.e., about 73% along the TRANSALP Profile. The European basement and autochthonous Mesozoic cover beneath the allochthonous NCA thrust sheets and flysch complexes seem to have remained relatively undeformed.     

The curved translation path of the Parpaillon Nappe (French Alps)

The Parpaillon Nappe is one of the two Helminthoid Flysch nappes emplaced on the external Dauphinois zone of the Western Alps. A structural analysis of the nappe is presented. Two superposed deformations D1 and D2 are described, that are mainly characterized by large-scale recumbent folds whose axes are quasi-orthogonal: NE-SW for D1 and NW-SE for D2. Their vergence is northwestward for D1 and southwestward for D2. During the D2 deformation, the nappe was separated into two units, one of these being thrusted over the other. An analysis of incremental strain using quartz and calcite fibre growth indicates that D2 follows D1 without discontinuity. Therefore the superposition of D1 and D2 structures is interpreted as a progressive deformation instead of two distinct phases of deformation. The emplacement of the nappe is discussed under two aspects, the relations between displacement and strain and the role of gravity. It is concluded that the translation has been twofold, first towards the NW and then towards the SW, and that the displacement result essentially from gravity forces. Kinematic implications for the Alpine collision are suggested.     

Differential single-frequency GPS monitoring of the La Valette landslide (French Alps)

Recently, Global Positioning System (GPS) surveying techniques have been increasingly employed to monitor landslide movement. Here we present an application of GPS to monitor the La Valette landslide, located in the Ubaye Valley in the southern French Alps. This complex landslide is composed by an upper rotational part, a central part with generally translational movement and a lower part, which occasionally transforms into mud flows during intense rainfall events. Displacement rates average a few centimeters per month, with velocity peaks of some centimeters per day during periods of strong activity. GPS data presented in this study were acquired with two single-frequency GPS receivers Magellan connected to multipath-resistant antennas. The data were processed with the Magellan software MSTAR. Nine points have been set in the studied area, seven of them in the moving area, one in a stable area near the landslide and one on the facing slope, which is used as reference point. For each observation, one GPS receiver is placed on the reference point for the whole day and the second one is placed on each monitored point for 1-h sessions. The distance between the base and monitored point ranges from 480 to 1660 m. Eight survey campaigns were made between October 2000 and October 2002, to follow the evolution of the surface displacements. The maximum cumulative 3-D displacement observed in the area was about 21 m during the period in the center part of the landslide, corresponding to an average rate of movement of about 3 cm/day. The accuracy achieved during the GPS measurements has been evaluated to be about 2.4 cm in E–W direction, about 11 cm in N–S direction and about 7.4 cm in elevation in the worst case. The GPS results have been compared with traditional surveying techniques (EDM) carried out on the same site by RTM Service (Restauration des Terrains en Montagne). The velocities obtained by the two methods are similar. The advantage of the GPS technique is the collection of data for the three spatial coordinates (x, y, z) of each point, which allow to calculate the 3-D displacement vector. These measurements have been combined with SAR interferometric data in order to analyse the temporal evolution of the different landslide sectors.     

Within-Plate type Meta-Volcaniclastic Deposits of Maastrichtian-Paleogene age in the Grande Motte unit (French Alps,Vanoise) : a first record in the Western Alps and some implications

Abstract

Metamorphosed mafic rocks probably corresponding lo ancient basaltic ashes (meta-tuffs) have been discovered in Kastern Vanoise. These rocks are interbedded within the Maastrichtian-paleocene formations of the Grande Motte unit. Their geochemícal characteristics are consistent with a within-plate affinity. A remote origin of these materials, as airfall ashes, is possible. These volcanic rocks arc coeval with eruptive alkaline products known is the Southern Alps. They have formed in a local extensional and/or strike-slip environment involving the internal Alpine realms around the Cretaceous-Tertiary boudary.     

Alpine metamorphic evolution of Ligurian Alps (North-West Italy): chemography and petrological constraints inferred from metamorphic climax assemblages

The up-to-date petrological and microtextural information on the Ligurian Alps indicates that the metamorphic rocks from the oceanic lithosphere and the paleo-European continental margin underwent an alpine-type metamorphic evolution characterized by low dT/dP gradients. In particular, rocks from the Ligurian-Piedmontese oceanic lithosphere underwent an alpine metamorphism typical of alpine-type blueschist rocks. The distribution of the alpine metamorphic facies in paleo-European continental margin is closely related to the structural position of the different tectonic units. The prograde evolution frequently preserves paragenetic and textural relics of the earlier parageneses. If relics of the earlier parageneses are preserved, the rock exhibits continuous prograde reactions confirmed by strong compositional zoning of the metamorphic minerals. Therefore, these reactions lead to chemical and microtextural equilibrium relations, between the minerals, in limited domains of the rocks (microtextural sites). The main compositional aspect of coronitic textures is the mineral zoning, particularly when the minerals of the coronas are the consequence of a wide range of solid solutions. In such cases, the reacting minerals are armored and the kinetics are lowered. The prograde metamorphic evolution, which involved the rocks from the oceanic lithosphere and the paleo-European continental margin, is quite consistent with a subduction-type geodynamic process in different ages during alpine times.Mineral Abbreviations Ab albite - Acm acmite - Alm almandine - Amp amphibole - Ant antigorite - Act actinolite - Bt biotite - Ced celadonite - Chl chlorite - Chlrm chloromelanite - Chltd chloritoide - Cpx clinopyroxene - Di diopside - Ep epidote - Fo forsterite - Gl glaucophane - Gnt garnet - Gro grossular - Hed hedenbergite - Hor hornblende - Jd jadeite - Kfld K-feldspar - Lau laumontite - Lw lawsonite - Ma margarite - Mu muscovite - Omp omphacite - Pa paragonite - Ph phengite - Pl plagioclase - Py pyrope - Pyr pirophyllite - Prh prehnite - Pump pumpellyite - Qz quartz - Rieb riebeckite - Rut rutile - Tchu titanclinohumite - Tc talc - Tr tremolite - Zeo zeolites - Zo zoisite - Wm white mica     

Long-term monitoring of a large deep-seated landslide (La Clapiere,South-East French Alps): initial study

The large-scale deformation of high mountain slopes finds its origin in many phenomena (inherent parameters, external stresses) with very different time constants (instantaneous to geological scale). Gravitational effect, tectonic forces and water infiltration are generally the principal causes of slope instability. However, it can be very difficult to distinguish which cause is dominant and which are their respective effects. To gain a better understanding of the complex processes taking place during the evolution of an unstable slope and separate the causes responsible of the landslide dynamic, an observational study based on geodetic, meteorological, seismological and electrical data has been performed on the La Clapière rockslide (Southern French Alps). This deep-seated landslide (DSL) is known for many years as one of the largest and fastest rock slide in Europe (60 million m³ of highly weathered metamorphic material, moving at 1 to 3 m year^?1). The set-up of the “Observatoire Multidisciplinaire des Instabilités de Versants” (OMIV, http://omiv.osug.fr) in 2011 has allowed the production and availability of an important and original data set over several years of accurate monitoring. Thus, for the first time, the long-term study of geodetic data permitted us to highlight acceleration phases in the general movement of the landslide that affect its dynamic. These modifications are associated with variations of the velocity by a factor 3 to 6. The characterization of the origin of these variations was possible due to the comparison with meteorological, electrical and seismological data. Based on these various signals, we were able to establish correlations and contributions of meteorological water infiltration in the dynamic evolution of the La Clapière slope. We determine several response times to the meteorological stress for seismic endogenous events (mainly rockfalls), the resistivity of the ground (quasi-instantaneous) and the kinematics of the slope (from 2 weeks to 2.5 months). Moreover, our results strongly suggest the existence of rainfall threshold of 3.5?±?1 mm day^?1 from which the number of seismic endogenous events is highly increased.     

Calculating the long-term displacement rates of a normal fault from the high-resolution stratigraphic record (early Tethyan rifting, French Alps)

Displacement rates of normal faults deduced from stratigraphic data are often unreliable. Here we calculate the velocity of motion on a normal fault from the variations in accommodation potential on both sides of the fault within a high‐resolution time‐frame established by biostratigraphy and physical stratigraphy. Our example is the Ornon normal fault bounding the Early Jurassic Bourg‐d'Oisans Basin formed during Tethyan rifting. We show that motion on the fault was discontinuous when examined at high resolution and over a long time interval. During a first interval (Hettangian to Sinemurian Arietites bucklandi zone) a low rate of displacement (=202–423 m Myr^?1) coeval with diffused extensional deformation throughout the sedimentary basin is observed. A second interval of localized deformation (Early Sinemurian Caenisites turneri zone) is characterized by higher rates of displacement on the fault (1846 m Myr^?1). Our results concur with recent numerical models identifying the main stages of extensional deformation.     

Deformation mechanisms in some cover thrust sheets from the external French Alps

Rocks from two parts of the Ultradauphinois Zone of the external French Alps have been examined, and the mechanisms by which they were deformed have been assessed from petrographic data. Jurassic and Triassic limestones deformed by pressure solution, dissolving non-ferroan-calcite and precipitating ferroan-calcite. Calcite pressure shadows are usually less elliptical in shape than pyrite pressure shadows, and grain boundary sliding is therefore thought to have played a significant role. Eocene rocks deformed by a variety of mechanisms. Limestones show mylonitic textures, whereas limestone conglomerates with a quartz-sandstone matrix deformed by pressure solution of calcite and grain boundary sliding of quartz. A model for enhanced diffusion of silica along mica seams is proposed to account for planar quartz-mica boundaries. Greywackes deformed by incongruent pressure solution, involving the metamorphic reaction of feldspar to mica and quartz, coupled with the replacement of feldspar by calcite.     

Syntectonic vein development in a thrust sheet from the external French Alps

The geometry and age relations of syntectonic veins within calcareous rocks of one imbricate sheet within a thrust belt in the external French Alps, are described.The earliest veins developed during the main ductile deformation by cleavage-parallel extension. The majority of the syntectonic veins developed towards the end of the deformation, and after the formation of second folds. They include a conjugate set of normal shears, an abundant set of upright extension veins, and en echelon sets.The dominantly simple shear strain making up the main ductile phase of deformation occurred by a mechanism of grain to grain pressure solution. The stretching lineation records the overall direction of thrust sheet movement. A change in the microchemical mechanism of pressure solution is thought to have caused the change from first to second phase deformation as recorded by slaty cleavage and crenulation folds in the field. From the shear and vein geometries, directions of principal stress have been inferred. The directions rotated throughout the deformation, the maximum principal stress being inclined to bedding during simple shear strain, becoming normal to bedding during the phase of abundant vein growth, and becoming vertical at the very end of the deformation.     

Failure mechanisms and triggering factors in calcareous cliffs of the Subalpine Ranges (French Alps)

In order to enhance the detection of prospective rock falls in calcareous cliffs, 25 rock falls have been described in a more detailed way than for an inventory. They are representative of middle size rock falls (10 to 100,000 m³) occurring in the French Subalpine Ranges, at an elevation between 200 m and 2000 m. Structural conditions of the rock masses, morphology of the initial cliff surface and the scar, possible failure mechanisms and processes have been studied. Typical failure configurations have been identified, based on the attitude of the failure surface, in relation to the bedding planes and the cliff surface. Irregular cliff morphology appears to be another important susceptibility factor. In most cases, the classical comparison of the average planes of the main joint sets with the average plane of the slope could not define the potentially unstable masses. Rather, those ones are due to joint planes that deviate from their mean set plane or to irregularities of the cliff surface. The proposed investigation method to detect prospective rock falls mainly consists in observing stereoscopic aerial photographs in order to look for critical configurations. Once a critical mass has been detected, its failure probability for a period of the order of one century must be evaluated (or its life expectancy). The main factor to consider for this purpose appears to be the proportion of rock bridges in the potential failure surface.

The triggering factors of rock falls in our study area have been investigated, by analysing an inventory of 46 rock falls. Statistical tests have been carried out to study the relation between rock falls and daily rainfall, freeze–thaw cycles or earthquakes. A good correlation has been obtained with freeze–thaw cycles, a slight correlation with rainfall and no correlation with earthquakes. This suggests that ice jacking could the main physical process leading to failure by causing microcrack propagation.     

Decadal-scale autumn temperature reconstruction back to AD 1580 inferred from the varved sediments of Lake Silvaplana (southeastern Swiss Alps)

A quantitative high-resolution autumn (September-November) temperature reconstruction for the southeastern Swiss Alps back to AD 1580 is presented here. We used the annually resolved biogenic silica (diatoms) flux derived from the accurately dated and annually sampled sediments of Lake Silvaplana (46°27′N, 9°48′E, 1800 m a.s.l.). The biogenic silica flux smoothed by means of a 9-yr running mean was calibrated (r = 0.70, p < 0.01) against local instrumental temperature data (AD 1864-1949). The resulting reconstruction (± 2 standard errors = ± 0.7 °C) indicates that autumns during the late Little Ice Age were generally cooler than they were during the 20th century. During the cold anomaly around AD 1600 and during the Maunder Minimum, however, the reconstructed autumn temperatures did not experience strong negative departures from the 20th-century mean. The warmest autumns prior to 1900 occurred around AD 1770 and 1820 (0.75 °C above the 20th-century mean). Our data agree closely with two other autumn temperature reconstructions for the Alps and for Europe that are based on documentary evidence and are completely unrelated to our data, revealing a very consistent picture over the centuries.     

Use of continuous measurements of dissolved organic matter fluorescence in groundwater to characterize fast infiltration through an unstable fractured hillslope (Valabres rockfall, French Alps)

Continuous measurements of natural fluorescence of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in groundwater have been used to characterize infiltration through an unstable fractured hillslope at the event time scale. Within the gneissic Valabres rockfall area in the southern French Alps, two sites, in the unstable massif and in the collapse area, were continuously monitored for electrical conductivity and for DOM natural fluorescence using a field fluorometer, and analyzed weekly for hydrochemical data. Two main results were found. From a methodological point of view, DOM natural fluorescence was a relevant tracer of fast infiltration in fissured media, knowing that continuous measurements improved the study of infiltration processes at the event time scale. From a hydrogeological point of view, the unstable fractured massif showed delayed dilution phenomena and the collapse areas showed fast and slow infiltration by piston-type flows via more or less open fractures. Consequently, from this conceptual model one may suppose that, unlike the collapse zones, the fractured hillslope threatening the valley is not submitted to strong pore-water pressure variations.     

Geometry and kinematics of early Alpine nappes in a Briançonnais basement (Ambin Massif,Western Alps)

Petrological and structural observations from the Ambin pre-alpine basement dome and from its Briançonnais and Piedmont covers show an early D1 nappe-forming event overprinted by a major D2 (+?D3) ductile shearing deformation. The D1 event is characterised by garnet-blueschist facies metamorphic assemblages retrogressed to greenschist facies conditions during D2 then D3 stages near the top of the dome. North-verging D1 structures preserved in the core of the dome are consistent with alpine evolutionary models, in which exhumation of HP–LT metamorphic alpine rocks occurs initially in a north–south direction. To cite this article: J. Ganne et al., C. R. Geoscience 336 (2004).     

Geophysical characterization of the lithological control on the kinematic pattern in a large clayey landslide (Avignonet,French Alps)

Lithology variation is known to have a major control on landslide kinematics, but this effect may remain unnoticed due to low spatial coverage during investigation. The large clayey Avignonet landslide (French Alps) has been widely studied for more than 35 years. Displacement measurements at 38 geodetic stations over the landslide showed that the slide surface velocity dramatically increases below an elevation of about 700 m and that the more active zones are located at the bottom and the south of the landslide. Most of the geotechnical investigation was carried out in the southern part of the landslide where housing development occurred on lacustrine clay layers. In this study, new electrical prospecting all across the unstable area revealed the unexpected presence of a thick resistive layer covering the more elevated area and overlying the laminated clays, which is interpreted as the lower part of moraine deposits. The downslope lithological boundary of this layer was found at around 700 m asl. This boundary coincides with the observed changes in slide velocity and in surface roughness values computed from a LiDAR DTM acquired in 2006. This thick permeable upper layer constitutes a water reservoir, which is likely to influence the hydromechanical mechanism of the landslide. The study suggests a major control of vertical lithological variations on the landslide kinematics, which is highlighted by the relation between slide velocity and electrical resistivity.     

Structural inversion and its controls : examples from the Alpine foreland and the French Alps

Abstract

Positive structural inversion involves the uplift of rocks on the hanging-walls of faults, by dip slip or oblique slip movements. Controlling factors include the strike and dip of the earlier normal faults, the type of normal faults — whether they were listric or rotated blocks, the time lapsed since extension and the amount of contraction relative to extension. Steeply dipping faults are difficult to invert by dip slip movements; they form buttresses to displacement on both cover detachments and on deeper level but gently inclined basement faults. The decrease in displacement on the hanging-walls of such steep buttresses leads to the generation of layer parallel shortening, gentle to tight folds — depending on the amount of contractional displacement, back-folds and back-thrust systems, and short-cut thrust geometries — where the contractional fault slices across the footwall of the earlier normal fault to enclose a “floating horse”. However, early steeply dipping normal faults readily form oblique to strike slip inversion structures and often tramline the subsequent shortening into particular directions.

Examples are given from the strongly inverted structures of the western Alps and the weakly inverted structures of the Alpine foreland. Extensional faulting developed during the Triassic to Jurassic, during the initial opening of the central Atlantic, while the main phases of inversion date from the end Cretaceous when spreading began in the north Atlantic and there was a change of relative motion between Europe and Africa. During the mid-Tertiary well over 100 km of Alpine shortening took place; Alpine thrusts, often detached along, or close to, the basement-cover interface, stacking the late Jurassic to Cretaceous sediments of the post-extensional subsidence phase. These high level detachments were joined and breached by lower level faults in the basement which, in the external zones of the western Alps, generally reactivated and rotated the earlier east dipping half-graben bounding faults. The external massifs are essentially uplifted half-graben blocks. There was more reactivation and stacking of basement sheets in the eastern part of this external zone, where the faults had been rotated into more gentle dips above a shallower extensional detachment than on the steeper faults to the west.

There is no direct relationship between the weaker inversion of the Alpine foreland and the major orogenic contraction of the western Alps; the inversion structures of southern Britain and the Channel were separated from the Alps by a zone of rifting from late Eocene to Miocene which affected the Rhone, Bresse and Rhine regions. Though they relate to the same plate movements which formed the Alps, the weaker inversion structures must have been generated by within plate stresses, or from those emanating from the Atlantic rather than the Tethyan margin.     

Structure and kinematics of the Jungfrau syncline, Faflertal (Valais, Alps), and its regional significance

The formation and structural evolution of the Jungfrau syncline is described, based on excellent outcrops occurring in the Lötschental, in the Central Alps of Switzerland. The quality of the outcrops allows us to demonstrate that the External Massifs of the Swiss Alps have developed due to internal folding. The Jungfrau syncline, which separates the autochtonous Gastern dome from the Aar massif basement gneiss folds, is composed of slivers of basement rocks with their Mesozoic sedimentary cover. In the Inner Faflertal, a side valley of the Lötschental, the 200 m thick syncline comprises four units, the Gastern massif with a reduced Mesozoic sedimentary cover in a normal stratigraphic succession, two units of overturned basement rocks with their Mesozoic sedimentary cover, and the overturned lower limb of the Tschingelhorn gneiss fold of the Aar massif with lenses of its sedimentary cover. Stratigraphy shows that the lower units, related to the Gastern massif, are condensed and that the upper units, deposited farther away from a Gastern paleo-high, form a more complete sequence, linked to the Doldenhorn Meso-Cenozoic basin fill. The integration of these local observations with published regional data leads to the following model. On the northern margin of the Doldenhorn basin, at the northern fringe of the Alpine Tethys, the pre-Triassic crystalline basement and its Mesozoic sedimentary cover were folded by ductile deformation at temperatures above 300 °C and in the presence of high fluid pressures, as the Helvetic and Penninic nappes were overthrusted towards the northwest during the main Alpine deformation phase. The viscosity contrast between the basement gneisses and the sediments caused the formation of large basement anticlines and tight sedimentary synclines (mullion-type structures). The edges of basement blocks bounded by pre-cursor SE-dipping normal faults at the northwestern border of the Doldenhorn basin were deformed by simple shear, creating overturned slices of crystalline rocks with their sedimentary cover in what now forms the Jungfrau syncline. The localisation of ductile deformation in the vicinity of pre-existing SE-dipping faults is thought to have been helped by the circulation of fluids along the faults; these fluids would have been released from the Mesozoic sediments by metamorphic dehydration reactions accompanied by creep and dynamic recrystallisation of quartz at temperatures above 300 °C. Quantification of the deformation suggests a strain ellipsoid with a ratio (1+ e₁ / 1+ e₃) of approximately 1000. The Jungfrau syncline was deformed by more brittle NW-directed shear creating well-developed shear band cleavages at a late stage, after cooling by uplift and erosion. It is suggested that the external massifs of the Alps are basement gneiss folds created at temperatures of 300 °C by detachment through ductile deformation of the upper crust of the European plate as it was underthrusted below the Adriatic plate.