The karst system of the Fontaine de Vaucluse (Southeastern France)

The intake area of the Fontaine de Vauctuse system covers over 1,100 km²; its mean altitude is 870 m. The Lower Cretaceous limestones (1,500 m thick) give the system a very thick (800 m) unsaturated zone.Karstification is very well developed, both on the intake area (four sinkholes are more than 500 m deep) and on the lower part (sunken cave of 300 m depth under the spring). The bottoms of the sinkholes of the plateau do not reach the saturated zone of the karst, as their flows have chemical composition similar to seepage water. The maximum hydraulic gradient between the plateau and the spring is low, only 0.3%. Dye tracings allow assigning the Ventoux-Lure range (including its calcareous northern side with a southward dipping) and the Vaucluse Plateau to the intake area. The moisture balance, calculated for each altitude belt, shows that the effective rainfall strongly increases with altitude: 120 mm below 200 m, 1,300 mm over 1,800 m. The working of the system, studied by means of discharge, physical and chemical content, is one of a well-karstified milieu that reacts with a light inertia upon rainy periods. The system is made up of important reserves, peculiarly within the unsaturated zone, which maintain long decline and depletion episodes. Despite its large average discharge (21 m³·sec^–1), the spring is not harnessed and thus no general protection exists on the intake area. Only local protection is provided by protection areas around some piped little springs of the plateau. A Biosphere Preserve will protect as a whole the higher part of the intake area—Mount Ventoux.     

Phases tectoniques superposées dans les métasédiments Précambriens du domaine côtier occidental de la Cote d'Ivoire

Microstructural analysis of the coastal high-grade metasediments of the South Western Ivory Coast show at least four folding phases. The oldest phase does not seem to affect the lower Birrimian mesometamorphic series and it is concluded that this phase affected a pre-Eburnean crystalline and granitic basement. The name Liberian has been applied in the Ivory Coast to this basement. The Birrimian mesometamorphic rocks record the three youngest folding phases: two of them may correspond to two major north north east to south south west synmetamorphic phases of the Eburnean orogeny. The last phase is clearly post-Eburnean and may be synchronous with the north west south east trending chevron-folds (with crenulated schistosity) and the main north north east strike slip faults of the West African shield in the Ivory Coast.     

Rythme et Modalités des Plissements Superposés dans les Chaînes Subalpines Méridionales des Alpes Occidentales Françaises

Résumé Les chaînes subalpines des Alpes françaises offrent un bon exemple de plis de couverture décollés au niveau du Keuper à évaporites. Leur partie méridionale, au S du Vercors et au N et NE des Chaînes Provençales, montre en outre l'entrecroisement de deux systèmes plissés presque orthogonaux: un système E-W, dit pyrénéoprovençal, dont la genèse s'étale du Crétacé supérieur à l'Eocène moyen, et un système N-S à NW-SE, dit alpin, qui date de l'Oligocène et du Néogène. Il y a donc eu deux étapes majeures de plissements qui se sont succédées dans le temps; mais on doit se demander si chacune de ces étapes était faite d'une succession de phases tectoniques courtes séparées par des intervalles relativement plus longs de calme tectonique, ou bien si elles correspondent à de longues périodes de déformations continues; ces deux postulats paraissent ici également vraisemblables. La première période, celle des plis pyrénéens, semble avoir fait naître des plis droits assez simples, parfois de style éjectif, dont les anticlinaux ont souvent, dès l'Eocène, été érodés jusqu'au Jurassique supérieur. A l'Oligocène et au Miocène, des plis N-S à NW-SE sont nés, dans les domaines qui n'étaient pas déjà plissés, tandis que les plis E-W déjà existants ont été accentués et rompus, dégénérant parfois en chevauchements caractérisés par des troncatures des flancs inverses des plis. A l'échelle des Alpes Occidentales comme à celle des Chaînes Subalpines Méridionales et des « arcs » élémentaires qui les composent, les structures plissées disposées en arc ne sont pas simples, mais sont l'aboutissement d'une évolution tectonique longue et complexe.

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The Subalpine Chains of the French Western Alps give a good example of cover folds, which are detached along evaporite-bearing upper-Triassic beds. Their southern half shows also the intersection of two successive folded systems: E-W pyrenean folds (upper Cretaceous-middle Eocene), followed by N-S to NW-SE alpine folds (Oligocene—Miocene). It is therefore possible to distinguish two successive stages of tectonic deformation, but the problem remains to decide whether these stages can be divided into a certain number of short tectonic phases, or are long and continuous periods of tectonic deformation. It is shown that these two answers to the problem are two postulates, which seem to be equally probable. The first pyrenean stage of deformation gave rise to relatively simple folds, often of the ejective style type. The second, alpine, stage, occurred after and during subaerial erosion. In the areas where earlier E-W folds did not occur, new alpine N-S to NW-SE folds rose, whereas in the areas where earlier E-W folds were present, refolding of these folds only occurred, often accompanied by breaks, i. e. wrench faults and overthrusts, the latter often showing subhorizontal truncation of nearly vertical beds. In the same manner as for the entire Western Alps arc, the fold arcs in the southern subalpine chains are not simple virgations, but the result of a long and complex tectonic evolution.

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Zusammenfassung Die subalpinen Ketten der französischen Westalpen sind ein gutes Beispiel von abgescherten Falten einer sedimentären Serie. Ihr südlicher Teil zeigt die Kreuzung von zwei Faltensystemen: Pyrenäische E-W-Falten (Obere Kreide -Mittleres Eozän) und alpine N-S-oder NW-SE-Falten (Oligozän-Miozän). Es bleibt das Problem, ob diese zwei Faltungsperioden in verschiedene tektonische Phasen gegliedert werden müssen oder nicht. Beide Hypothesen scheinen gleich wahrscheinlich zu sein. Während der ersten pyrenäischen Faltungsperiode entstehen nur einfache ejektive Falten. Die zweite, alpine Periode verlief während und nach kontinentaler Erosion; die ersten E-W-Falten wurden überkippt und zerbrachen, so daß Überschiebungen entstanden. Für die Westalpen sowie für die einzelnen Ketten der subalpinen Ketten sind Faltenbögen nicht einfache Virgationen, sondern verwickelte Strukturen, deren Geschichte lang und verschieden war.

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Le probléme des relations des schistes lustrés piémontais avec la zone briançonnaise dans les alpes cottiennes

This paper deals with the tectonic and paleogeographic relations of two main internal zones of the Western Alps: The Briançonnais zone (“geanticline”, with thin sedimentation during Jurassic and Cretaceous times), and the still more internal Piemont zone (“eugeosyncline”, with Mesozoic-Post-Triassic-“Schistes lustrés” and Ophiolites). From structural, and especially stratigraphic and paleontological proofs, it can be concluded that, the Schistes-lustrés-complex (with or without his fossiliferous triassic-liassic basis) is thrusted over the Briançonnais zone; intermediate tectonic units are known; they belong to the intermediate paleogeographic Acclegio zone having undergone intensive Post-Triassic erosion; thus Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous limestones and breccias are transgressive upon the Lower Triassic and Paleozoic basement rocks. This Acceglio zone can be linked with the upper portion of a “Prepiemontese Flexure” parting the Briançonnais geanticline and the Piemont geosyncline. At the lower part of this flexure, no erosion occured, but breccias and microbreccias are interbedded in Post-Triassic “Prepiemontese” sediments (“Schistes lustrés” facies but no ophiolites) belonging to the “Gondran zone” (an external portion of the Piemont zone with triassic dolomites followed by fossiliferous rhaetic an liassic beds). The ophiolite-bearing Schistes lustrés often lie conformably upon the sediments of this Gondran zone, but the contact is not definitely a stratigraphic one: More field research is necessary to decide if these ophiolites and Schistes lustrés really are the stratigraphc continuation (upper jurassic and lower cretaceous?) of the triassic-liassic (and meso-Jurassic?) sequence of the Gondran zone, or if they belong to an independant tectonic unit, coming from some internal zone.     

On the computation of the barotropic mode of a free-surface world ocean model

The free-surface formulation of the equations of our world ocean model is briefly described. The barotropic mode equations are solved according to the split-explicit method, using different time steps for the external and internal modes. Because the numerical algorithm is implemented on the B-grid, a spurious, free-surface, two-grid interval mode may develop. This mode must be filtered out. The properties of two filters are theoretically investigated and their actual performance is tested in a series of numerical experiments. It is seen that one of these filters may severely perturb the local mass conservation, rendering it impossible to enforce the impermeability of the surface or the bottom of the ocean. The dynamics of the external mode is also examined, by studying the depth-integrated momentum equations. The depth-integral of the pressure force due to the slope of the ocean surface is approximately balanced by the depth-integral of the force ensuing from the horizontal variations of the density. The depth-integral of the Coriolis force is an order of magnitude smaller, except in the Southern Ocean. Two variational principles are resorted to for computing the fictitious ocean surface elevation corresponding to the approximate equilibrium between the dominant forces of the barotropic momentum equations.     

Ice mass change in Greenland and Antarctica between 1993 and 2013 from satellite gravity measurements

We construct long-term time series of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet mass change from satellite gravity measurements. A statistical reconstruction approach is developed based on a principal component analysis (PCA) to combine high-resolution spatial modes from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission with the gravity information from conventional satellite tracking data. Uncertainties of this reconstruction are rigorously assessed; they include temporal limitations for short GRACE measurements, spatial limitations for the low-resolution conventional tracking data measurements, and limitations of the estimated statistical relationships between low- and high-degree potential coefficients reflected in the PCA modes. Trends of mass variations in Greenland and Antarctica are assessed against a number of previous studies. The resulting time series for Greenland show a higher rate of mass loss than other methods before 2000, while the Antarctic ice sheet appears heavily influenced by interannual variations.     

Impact of the Phaeocystis globosa spring bloom on the intertidal benthic compartment in the eastern English Channel: a synthesis

From 1999 to 2005, studies carried out in the frame of regional and national French programs aimed to determine whether the Phaeocystisglobosa bloom affected the intertidal benthic communities of the French coast of the eastern English Channel in terms of composition and/or functioning. Study sites were chosen to cover most of the typical shore types encountered on this coast (a rocky shore, an exposed sandy beach and a small estuary). Both the presence of active Phaeocystis cells and their degradation product (foam) did have a significant impact on the studied shores. The primary production and growth rates of the kelp Saccharina latissima decreased during the bloom because of a shortage of light and nutrient for the macroalgae. On sandy sediments, the benthic metabolism (community respiration and community primary production), as well as the nitrification rate, were enhanced during foam deposits, in relation with the presence of bacteria and active pelagic cells within the decaying colonies. In estuarine sediments, the most impressive impact was the formation of a crust at the sediment surface due to drying foam. This led to anoxic conditions in the surface sediment and resulted in a high mortality among the benthic community. Some organisms also tended to migrate upward and were then directly accessible to the higher trophic level represented by birds. Phaeocystis then created a shortcut in the estuarine trophic network. Most of these modifications lasted shortly and all the systems considered came back to their regular properties and activities a few weeks after the end of the bloom, except for the most impacted estuarine area.     

A simulation study of multi-beam altimetry for lunar reconnaissance orbiter and other planetary missions

The combined use of altimetry, Earth-based Doppler and Earth-based range measurements in the lunar reconnaissance orbiter (LRO) mission (Chin et al. in Space Sci Rev 129:391–419, 2007) has been examined in a simulation study. It is found that in the initial phases of the mission orbit and altimeter geolocation accuracies should be better than 10 m in the radial component and 60 m overall. It is demonstrated that LRO’s precise 1-way laser range measurement from Earth-based stations (Smith et al. in Proceedings of the 15th International Laser Ranging Workshop, Canberra, Australia, October 15–20, 2006) will be useful for gravity recovery. The advantages of multiple laser beams are demonstrated for altimeter calibration, orbit determination and gravity recovery in general planetary settings as well as for LRO.     

Microstructural criteria for reliable thermometry in low-temperature eclogites

Two Alpine eclogite bodies, sampled in metaophiolitic complexes of the Piemonte Zone, have been studied for geothermometry. It is demonstrated that temperature estimates, by both exchange thermometry and sizes of antiphase domains in omphacites, give rise to erratic results when the defect structures of the minerals are not taken into account. Microstructural criteria, by means of both optical and TEM microscopy, for reliable thermometry in low-temperature eclogites are disscussed. The dynamically recrystallized grains are the more suitable sites for the application of exchange thermometry, while only low-strained omphacites can be used for thermometry based on APD's.