Chad Basin: Paleoenvironments of the Sahara since the Late Miocene

Since the mid 1990s, the Mission paléoanthropologique francotchadienne (MPFT) conducts yearly paleontological field investigations of the Miocene-Pliocene of the Chad Basin. This article synthesizes some of the results of the MPFT, with focus on the Chad Basin development during the Neogene. We propose an overview of the depositional paleoenvironments of this part of Africa at different scales of time and space, based on a multidisciplinary approach (sedimentary geology, geomorphology, geophysic, numerical simulations and geochronology). The Miocene-Pliocene paleoenvironments are examined through the sedimentary archives of the early hominids levels and the Holocene Lake Mega-Chad episode illustrates the last major paleoenvironmental change in this area. The sedimentary record of the Chad Basin since the Late Miocene can be schematized as the result of recurrent interactions from lake to desert environments.     

The Cimmerian Orogeny in northern Iran: tectono-stratigraphic evidence from the foreland

From the Permian onwards, the Gondwana-derived Iran Plate drifted northward to collide with Eurasia in the Late Triassic, thereby closing the Palaeotethys. This Eo-Cimmerian Orogeny formed the Cimmeride fold-and-thrust belt. The Upper Triassic–Middle Jurassic Shemshak Group of northern Iran is commonly regarded as the Cimmerian foreland molasse. However, our tectono-stratigraphic analysis of the Shemshak Group resulted in a revised and precisely dated model for the Triassic–Jurassic geodynamic evolution of the Iran Plate: initial Cimmerian collision started in the Carnian with subsequent Late Triassic synorogenic peripheral foreland deposition (flysch, lower Shemshak Group). Subduction shifted south in the Norian (onset of Neotethys subduction below Iran) and slab break-off around the Triassic–Jurassic boundary caused rapid uplift of the Cimmerides followed by Liassic post-orogenic molasse (middle Shemshak Group). During the Toarcian–Aalenian (upper Shemshak Group), Neotethys back-arc rifting formed a deep-marine basin, which developed into the oceanic South Caspian Basin during the Late Bajocian–Late Jurassic.     

Watershed classification by remote sensing indices: A fuzzy c-means clustering approach

Determining the relatively similar hydrological properties of the watersheds is very crucial in order to readily classify them for management practices such as flood and soil erosion control. This study aimed to identify homogeneous hydrological watersheds using remote sensing data in western Iran. To achieve this goal, remote sensing indices including SAVI, LAI, NDMI, NDVI and snow cover, were extracted from MODIS data over the period 2000 to 2015. Then, a fuzzy method was used to clustering the watersheds based on the extracted indices. A fuzzy c-mean (FCM) algorithm enabled to classify 38 watersheds in three homogeneous groups. The optimal number of clusters was determined through evaluation of partition coefficient, partition entropy function and trial and error. The results indicated three homogeneous regions identified by the fuzzy c-mean clustering and remote sensing product which are consistent with the variations of topography and climate of the study area. Inherently, the grouped watersheds have similar hydrological properties and are likely to need similar management considerations and measures.     

Transpressive Structures in the Ghadir Shear Belt,Eastern Desert,Egypt: Evidence for Partitioning of Oblique Convergence in the Arabian‐Nubian Shield during Gondwana Agglutination

Transpressional deformation has played an important role in the late Neoproterozoic evolution of the ArabianNubian Shield including the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt. The Ghadir Shear Belt is a 35 km-long, NW-oriented brittleductile shear zone that underwent overall sinistral transpression during the Late Neoproterozoic. Within this shear belt, strain is highly partitioned into shortening, oblique, extensional and strike-slip structures at multiple scales. Moreover, strain partitioning is heterogeneous along-strike giving rise to three distinct structural domains. In the East Ghadir and Ambaut shear belts, the strain is pure-shear dominated whereas the narrow sectors parallel to the shear walls in the West Ghadir Shear Zone are simple-shear dominated. These domains are comparable to splay-dominated and thrust-dominated strike-slip shear zones. The kinematic transition along the Ghadir shear belt is consistent with separate strike-slip and thrustsense shear zones. The earlier fabric(S1), is locally recognized in low strain areas and SW-ward thrusts. S2 is associated with a shallowly plunging stretching lineation(L2), and defines ～NW-SE major upright macroscopic folds in the East Ghadir shear belt. F2 folds are superimposed by ～NNW–SSE tight-minor and major F3 folds that are kinematically compatible with sinistral transpressional deformation along the West Ghadir Shear Zone and may represent strain partitioning during deformation. F2 and F3 folds are superimposed by ENE–WSW gentle F4 folds in the Ambaut shear belt. The sub-parallelism of F3 and F4 fold axes with the shear zones may have resulted from strain partitioning associated with simple shear deformation along narrow mylonite zones and pure shear-dominant deformation in fold zones. Dextral ENEstriking shear zones were subsequently active at ca. 595 Ma, coeval with sinistral shearing along NW-to NNW-striking shear zones. The occurrence of upright folds and folds with vertical axes suggests that transpression plays a significant role in the tectonic evolution of the Ghadir shear belt. Oblique convergence may have been provoked by the buckling of the Hafafit gneiss-cored domes and relative rotations between its segments. Upright folds, fold with vertical axes and sinistral strike-slip shear zones developed in response to strain partitioning. The West Ghadir Shear Zone contains thrusts and strikeslip shear zones that resulted from lateral escape tectonics associated with lateral imbrication and transpression in response to oblique squeezing of the Arabian-Nubian Shield during agglutination of East and West Gondwana.     

Settlement of inhomogeneous consolidating soils—I: The single-drained layer under confined compression

The settlement and excess pore pressure are calculated for a column of water-saturated clay in which the permeability and/or shear modulus vary with depth. Several fairly general laws of variation are investigated. In each case, the soil is assumed to have a permeable top surface and to rest on an impervious substrate. For all the variations examined, in which the shear modulus increases with depth below the surface but the permeability of the soil remains constant, the deflection at a given instant after imposition of the load decreases and the degree of settlement increases with increasing rate at which the change with depth takes place. It is found that, when the variation over the height of the column is one order of magnitude or less, the curve of degree-of-consolidation versus time is reasonably wellapproximated by the curve for a homogeneous soil whose modulus equals the depth-averaged value. When, in addition, the permeability decreases with depth, the approximation becomes less accurate. The same approximation, for moderate increase in shear modulus with depth, predicts satisfactorily the process of dissipation of excess pore pressure at a given depth, but breaks down when the variation in modulus is large. Finally, it is shown that the effect of variable modulus on the settlement is greater than of a comparable variation in permeability.     

TOPSAR wave spectra model and coastal erosion detection

This paper presents work done utilizing TOPSAR data to detect shoreline change along the Terengganu coast (Malaysia). TOPSAR data were used to extract information on wave spectra. This wave spectra information was then used to model shoreline changes by investigating the wave refraction patterns. From these patterns, the volume transport at several locations was estimated. The shoreline change model developed was designed to cover a 20 km stretch of shoreline of Kuala Terengganu. The model utilized data from aerial photographs, TOPSAR data and ground truth data. The location of sedimentation and erosion along the shoreline of Kuala Terengganu was estimated. The wave spectra extracted from TOPSAR data showed wavelengths ranging from 20 m to 175 m. The main direction of the waves given by the spectra was from the northeast. The wave refraction patterns varied, showing both convergence and divergence, indicating erosion and sedimentation locations, respectively. A comparison between the TOPSAR shoreline change model and aerial photographs and ground truth data showed a significant relationship. Finally, the regression model showed that erosion occurred particularly at Sultan Mahmed Airport, at a rate of −1.5 m/year. The maximum rate of sedimentation along the 20 km stretch was 1 m/year.     

Electrical structure of the tectonically active Kalabsha Fault, Aswan, Egypt

In this work, we use the magnetotelluric (MT) method to detect geoelectrical conductivity anomalies in the Earth's crust and link them to local seismic activity. This application affords the unusual opportunity to study the percolation of water from a lake into a fault system and its effect on the induced seismicity. MT measurements were carried out in the period range 0.0046–420 s at nine sites along a 15 km-long North–South profile crossing the Kalabsha Fault, on the western bank of Lake Aswan. Data were analysed by 2D simultaneous inversion of both polarisations. The resulting model is compared with the local seismicity map and reveals the conductive signature of the fault, as well as geological and tectonic stresses prevailing in the Aswan area. Our MT investigations show the following features:

The measured MT strike aligns with the seismic epicentre axis corresponding to the Kalabsha Fault.

While crossing the Fault, enhanced conductivity is found down to depths of 5 km on a 1–2 km profile segment.

At mid-crustal depths (20 km), a very high conductive body is found to coincide with the main seismic cluster in the Aswan area.

These observations indicate that seismic activity and high electrical conductivity are related. The link between them is the presence of crustal fluids which are presumably the cause of the high conductivity observed. Their presence is also required to trigger the observed seismicity. In addition, we explain the lower conductivity of the local upper crust in terms of stress-modulated rock porosity. We believe that these results are of general significance, as they could explain the mid-crustal seismicity of tectonically active zones.     

An instantaneous 3-D analysis of turbulent flow in the wake of a hemisphere

Instantaneous three-dimensional velocity fields in the wake of a hemisphere located on an open channel bed are obtained by using multi-section flow visualization and a Mass-Consistent model. Instantaneous pictures of the organized structures are taken at a short time interval to investigate their behaviors at high Reynolds number. At high Reynolds number, the large vortex in the hemisphere wake is similar to the hairpin vortex observed at low Reynolds number. However, the long legs of the hairpin in the streamwise direction are not observed. A secondary hairpin vortex has been generated on the upstream side of the large hairpin vortex. Instantaneous spatial distributions of fluctuating velocity, vorticity production, etc. are presented and discussed.     

Current motion and short-term deformations in the Suez–Sinai area from GPS observations

We analyze observations from eight GPS campaigns carried out between 1997 and 2005 on a network of 13 sites in the Suez–Sinai area, where separation between the African and the Arabian plates takes place. This is the key area to understand if and in which way Sinai behaves like a sub-plate of the African plate and the role played by seismic and geodetic (long-term) deformation release.Our analysis shows that, on average, the Suez–Sinai area motion, in terms of ITRF00 velocities, matches the African plate motion defined by the NNR-NUVEL-1A model.The horizontal principal strain rate axes estimated separately in the Gulf of Suez area and in the northern Sinai vary from compression across the Gulf (−2.2 ± 1.2) × 10⁻⁸ year⁻¹ to NE extension (1.0 ± 1.5) × 10⁻⁸ year⁻¹ in the North, showing the presence of two distinct domains, so that in our opinion Sinai cannot be considered simply a unique rigid block.The analysis of GPS baseline length variations shows short-term deformations across the Gulf of Suez, reaching up a maximum value of more than 1 cm in 8 years.Since current geodynamical models do not predict significant tectonic deformation in this area, we work under the hypothesis that a contribute may be expected by post-seismic relaxation effects. Under this hypothesis, we compare the baselines length variations with the post-seismic relaxation field associated with five major local earthquakes occurred in the area, testing two different viscoelastic models. Our results show that the detected short-term deformations are better modeled for viscosity values of 10¹⁸ Pa s in the lower crust and 10²⁰ Pa s in the asthenosphere. However, since the modeled post-seismic effect results modest and a certain amount of the detected deformation is not accounted for, we think that an improved modeling should take into account the lateral heterogeneities of crust and upper mantle structures.