La mesure de l'anisotropie de susceptibilité magnétique dans les flyschs: Application à la recherche des directions des paléocourants

Studies made on the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility of artificial sediments have shown that there are correlations between the orientation of anisotropy axes and of transport directions. Thus, the analysis of parameters of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility can constitute a means to investigate transport directions in flysch. To test this method in a natural model, the authors have made some measurements on flysch beds belonging to the “grés d'Annot complex”. The sediments have been sampled in the Contes and Peira-Cava synclines where the directions of paleocurrents have been determinated by classical methods. Results obtained both in Contes and in Peira-Cava on fine-grained detrital beds show a good agreement between directions of paleo-transport deduced from orientation of anisotropy axes and those established by classical methods on the levels showing “sole-marks”. However, in some beds of the Peira-Cava syncline, which are characterized by coarser grain size and “sole-marks” of good quality, the scattering of the directions of the anisotropy axes is very great and in some cases the measurements are not reproducible in the same sample.It appears, therefore, that the measurement of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility can constitute a good approach to analysing emplacement modes of fine-grained flysch deposits in which the use of classical methods is often difficult. This method of paleocurrent analysis complements the other techniques used in this field of research.     

Composition isotopique du plomb et du soufre des galènes liées aux formations sédimentaires interprétations géologiques et géophysiques

Stratiform deposits found in mesozoic sedimentary layers, in Marocco and in France, have been analysed to determine lead and sulphur isotopic compositions.For the sulphur, the results indicate a low temperature formation, and are in good agreement with synsedimentary theories. The lead isotopic compositions are anomalous: J type for french galenas, B type for these of Marocco. The authors propose that the lead of these galenas have had a continental origin; the two different histories of the continental areas explain the galena anomalous compositions; two factors are particulary important: the age of the crust formation, and after that, the time of separation of lead from uranium and thorium in the continental crust.     

Earth resources,time, and man — A geoscience perspective

The earth with all its inhabitants, including man, has had a long history as a slowly evolving complex system which normally exists in a state of stable dynamic equilibrium. Explosive growth in the human population, in the per capita use of nonrenewable resources, and in the degree of human disruption of established ecosystems — the hallmark of man's recent and rapid emergence as the dominant species on the face of the earth — represents a major departure from this state of equilibrium and an ecological crisis of global dimensions. This growth, and the rapid changes that arise from it, have had such a pervasive influence on the collective experience of man that they have come to be regarded as the normal course of events on a stable earth. This has fostered the notion that growth will always be essential for further improvements in the quality of human life. The emergence of a global technological civilization results from man's ingenuity in devising ways of using an ever increasing proportion of energy available at the earth's surface. Rapid growth began only two hundred years ago when the developing technology of the industrial revolution made possible the large-scale exploitation of the earth's fossil-fuel resources and the creation of positive feedback between growth in technology and growth in fossil-fuel production. Annual growth rates in world production of fossil fuels and ores of representative industrial metals, when compared with the nature and finite magnitude of the earth's resources, lead to the inescapable conclusion that the present episode of exponential growth can only be a transitory epoch of a few centuries duration within the totality of human history. Solar radiation offers the prospect of large supplies of energy with minimal environmental impact. However, constraints on growth due to the finite nature of food and mineral resources and the effects of environmental degradation can only be loosened in this way, not removed. Mankind faces an inevitable transition from a brief interlude of exponential growth to a stable condition characterized by rates of growth so slow as to be regarded essentially as a state of no growth. Failure to respond rationally and promptly to this situation could be disastrous.     

238U/206Pb-235U/207Pb-232Th/208Pb zircon geochronology in alpine and non-alpine environment

Based on regular arrays in a U-Pb diagram of data points of zircons from polymetamorphic rocks of the Alps quantitative models are developed that include several episodic lead losses, continuous lead losses during discrete periods and combinations of both.The data from the Alps can be explained by assuming an initial age of the zircons of 2000 and/or 2500–2600 m.y. and three episodic lead losses 520–580 m.y., 300 m.y. and 30 m.y. ago with regionally varying intensities of the events as can be seen from the efficiency parameters which define the shape of the discordia. On the other hand, zircon data from North American basement rocks satisfy a model assuming a discrete interval of continuous lead loss that starts with the time of uplift of the rocks.The Th-U-Pb diagrams are valuable for recognising whether the history of the zircons and their host rock is a complex one or not which is not always noticeable in a U-Pb diagram.     

Fractionnement des éléments en trace Li,Rb, Ba,Sr dans les séries andésitiques et shoshonitiques du Pérou. Comparaison avec d'autres zones orogéniques

In the calc-alkaline rocks of Peru, the rubidium content and the K/Ba, Rb/Sr ratios increase, while the strontium content and the K/Rb, Ba/Rb ratios decrease according to the distance of the trench. It is suggested that theses variations are related to a fractionation of plagioclase and contamination with differential migration of mobile elements. A comparative study between andesites of various localities shows in Peru an enrichment in Rb, Sr and Ba and a disparition of the Rb-Ba correlation; this last observation looks characteristic of continental margin andesites. The shoshonitic rocks differ from the andesites by a high content of Sr and Ba. The genetic relationships between these two kinds of rocks are discussed. It appears that the shoshonites are originated from a different magmatic source.     

Late Quaternary vegetational changes on the east side of Yellowstone park,Wyoming

A bog pond 4 km east of Yellowstone Lake has a pollen record starting with an Artemisia spruce assemblage, implying alpine vegetation. A layer of volcanic ash, dated as 14,360 ± 400 BP (probably Glacier Peak or Mt. St. Helens J), occurs within the zone, which terminates at 11,630 ± 180 BP. The rest of the pollen sequence is dominated by lodgepole pine, with reappearance of spruce pollen in modest quantities about 4500 BP, according to dating provided by a layer of Mt. Mazama ash (6600 BP). The present vegetation of the area is marked by forests of lodgepole pine with some stands of spruce and fir. The pollen sequence suggests that the upper treeline before 11,600 y. a. was perhaps 500 m lower than today. The climate then became warmer and/or drier than today (Altithermal interval). About 4500 y. a., a slight climatic reversal took place, roughly contemporaneous with the regrowth of glaciers in the western mountains (neoglaciation).     

Vesicles,water, and sulfur in Reykjanes Ridge basalts

Dredge hauls of fresh submarine basalt collected from the axis of the Reykjanes Ridge (Mid-Atlantic Ridge) south of Iceland were taken aboard R/ V TRIDENT in 1967 and 1971. The samples show systematic changes as the water depth of collection (and eruption) decreases: radially elongate vesicles and concentric zones of vesicles appear at about 700 m depth and are conspicuous to shallow water; the smoothed volume percent of vesicles increases from 5% at 1000 m, 10% at 700 m, to 16% at 500 m, and the scatter in degree of vesicularity increases in shallower water; specific gravity decreases from 2.7±0.1 at 1000 m to 2.3±0.3 at 100 m. Bulk sulfur content for the outer 2 cm averages 843 ppm up to a depth of 200 m, then drops off rapidly in shallower water owing to degassing. Sulfur content below 200 m is independent of depth (or geographic position), and the melt is apparently saturated with sulfur, but the excess cannot escape the lava unless another vehicle carries it out. Only shallower than 200 m, where intense vesiculation of other gases occurs can excess sulfur be lost from the lava erupting on the sea floor. H₂O^+110° averages about 0.35 percent and H₂O^+150° about 0.25 percent, and both apparently decrease in water shallower than 200 m as a result of degassing. H₂O⁺ (below 200 m) decreases with distance from Iceland or increasing depth, presumably as a result of either adsorption of water on the surface of shallower, more vesicular rocks; or more likely due to the presence of the Iceland hot mantle plume supplying undifferentiated primordial material, relative to lavas of the Reykjanes Ridge supplied from the low velocity layer already depleted in volatiles and large lithophile elements. The H₂O^+110°/S ratio of lava erupting below 200 m water depth ranges from 3 to 5 which is comparable to reliable gas analyses from oceanic basaltic volcanoes. Publication authorized by the Director, U.S. Geological Survey.     

Datation 87Rb-87Sr du massif granitique du Mendic et des porphyroïdes a l'est de la Montagne Noire —un exemple de relation entre pluton et volcans

In the East of Montagne Noire (South Massif Central), the granitic Mendic massif and the porphyroïds have been dated as 510±20 m.y. with a corresponding initial ratio of 0.706±0.001. Within the limits of the analytical errors, we cannot distinguish between two separate isochrons. The Mendic-porphyroïds represents a volcano-plutonic association. The age of 510 m.y. is somewhat younger than the one determined on the orthogneisses of the Central zone (530 m.y.). It can be connected to a post-orogenic magmatism of the cadomian orogenesis. At last the Sr of the minerals of the Mendic massif has been partially remobilised during the hercynian orogeny (285 m. y.).     

Fractionnement dans les suites ignimbritiques de Toscane. Un example de rejuvenation crustale

By means of flame spectrometry, K and Rb were measured in minerals and rocks belonging to several ignimbrite suite in Toscane, (Italy).