Intra-interstadial environmental changes in Last Glacial loess revealed by molluscan assemblages from the Upper Palaeolithic site of Amiens-Renancourt 1 (Somme,France)

The Amiens-Renancourt 1 site recently yielded one of the most important Upper Palaeolithic human occupations of northern France by the number of flint artefacts and especially by the presence of Venus figurines. All the material comes from a single archaeological layer located in a tundra gley bracketed by loess units. A multi-proxy study combining a detailed stratigraphy, luminescence and radiocarbon datings and high-resolution (5 cm per sample) grain size and molluscan analyses was therefore carried out to reconstruct and date the associated environmental changes and to determine the exact context of the human occupation. The chronological frame thus established supports the correlations of the archaeology-bearing tundra gley and of an underlying arctic brown soil with Greenland interstadials GI-4 and GI-3. Composition changes in the molluscan population enabled the identification of transitional and optimum phases and sub-phases within these two pedogenetic horizons. A conceptual correlation model linking molluscan phases with millennial-scale variations of Greenland ice-core and Sieben Hengste speleothem climate records is proposed. The Human occupation appears contemporaneous to the end of the stadial–interstadial transition of GI-3. Synchronous in Amiens-Renancourt 1 and Nussloch, subsequent micro-gleys may also result from a regional/global forcing. Such a level of detail is unprecedented in a loess sequence.     

Statistical forecast of the marine surge

Natural Hazards - This paper studies different machine learning methods for solving the regression problem of estimating the marine surge value given meteorological data. The marine surge is...     

Drained triaxial testing of shales: insight from the Opalinus Clay

Acta Geotechnica - The investigation of the mechanical behaviour of swelling claystones and shales is challenging because of their very low permeability and of their high sensitivity to changes in...     

Geological and archaeological chronology of a late Holocene coastal enclosure: The Sanguinet lake (SW France)

Sanguinet lake is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a wide Holocene coastal dunes system in SW France. The present day lake level is 21 m above mean sea level (msl). It formed when aeolian sand closed the mouth of the small La Gourgue river which gradually became a lagoon and then a lake. Dated sub‐lacustrine archaeological remains (human settlements, canoes, and wooden architectural structures), as well as paleoenvironmental evidence (drowned tree stumps and lagoonal deposits exposed on the beach) are used to interpret the formation and chronology of lake level rise during the past 4000 years. Around 2000–1650 B.C., the river flowed into a lagoon or an estuary which connected with the ocean west of the present Sanguinet Lake. Its level was affected by the tide, which ranged between 2 m below and 3 m above msl. The accumulation of aeolian sand before 1500–1000 B.C. began to close the connection with the sea. At this time, the elevation of the surface of the lake water was approximately 5 m above msl, but it still remained connected to the ocean. Around 1000 B.C., the lake level rose quickly by 1 to 2 m during a period of renewed mobility of the coastal aeolian sand, and continued to rise slowly until about 100 A.D. when there was a gradual closure of the lake outlet. This rise forced people who were living on the lake shore and along the rivers to move to higher land along the valley. The nearby Gallo‐Roman site of Losa was settled at the end of the 1st century B.C.; then the final blocking of the outlet occurred because of spit growth as a result of north‐south littoral drift accompanied by the deposit of aeolian sand. This led to the lake level rising rapidly. Consequently, Losa was abandoned in the 3rd century A.D. and ruins of its temple (at 17 m above msl) were submerged in the 6th century. Further oscillations of the lake level probably correspond to water table fluctuations before it became stable at around 1000 A.D. The highest lake level (23.35 m) was reached during the 18th century as a consequence of modern dune formation, and thus was artificially reduced to 21 m in 1840 by construction of an overflow channel. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Internal erosion of chemically reinforced granular materials: a mathematical modeling approach

Internal erosion (IE) affects the stability of natural and reinforced materials by causing instability within their granular structure. The dislodgement and transport of eroded particles affect both the particulate concentration of eroding fluid and the pore network of eroded material. In this study, we examined these modifications using a transport model with a finite element code. First, IE tests on chemically reinforced sand columns were performed to obtain information about eroded material loss of mass, particulate concentration of effluent, porosity and permeability modifications, and existing IE stages. Second, based on experimental results, a mathematical one‐dimensional model has been formulated to monitor the evolution and spatial distribution of erodible solids, fluidized particles, porosity, permeability, and seepage stresses. The model consists of a set of coupled nonlinear differential equations solved in sequence. It provides valuable information about the extent and the dynamics of structural changes, which can be used to estimate an IE time for the hydraulic work to reach failure. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

郯庐断裂带(安徽段)及邻区的动力学分析与区域构造演化

依据区域构造层次划分,采用构造筛分法,层层深入,层层筛分,确定发生于各个不同时代地层/岩层内的断裂活动的同期及叠加的应力场特征。综合所有的同期应力场特征及辅以叠加的应力场特征来验证,从而确定了一个连续的、完整的断裂活动的应力场演化序列;结合区域构造变形特征分析,阐明郯庐断裂带(安徽段)的构造演化。应力场分析显示:晚三叠-早侏罗世应力场为北北西—南南东或近南北向挤压,属古特提斯构造域,断裂发生同造山走滑;早白垩世早期,应力场为北西—南东向挤压,断裂发生左行走滑运动,中国东部处于西环太平洋构造域;早白垩世晚期—古新世(始新世),区域发生北西—南东向伸展作用,断裂处于伸展断陷作用阶段;新生代,受区域上近东西向的挤压作用影响,断裂发生挤压逆冲兼右行走滑作用。     

Enhanced Oxygen Isotope Determination in Uranium Oxides Using BrF5 Fluorination

A new method for accurate determination of oxygen isotopes in uranium oxides encountered in the nuclear fuel cycle was developed using the conventional BrF₅ fluorination technique. Laser‐assisted fluorination was tested for comparison. We focused on fine powders of triuranium octoxide (U₃O₈), uranium dioxide (UO_2±x with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.25), uranium trioxide (UO₃.nH₂O, with 0.8 ≤ n ≤ 2) and diuranates (M₂U₂O₇.nH₂O, with M = NH₄, Na or Mg_0.5 and 0 ≤ n ≤ 6). Fluorination at room temperature and heating under vacuum at 150 °C are shown to eliminate both adsorbed and structural water from the powder samples. Precision fit for purpose of δ¹⁸O values (± 0.3‰, 1s) and oxygen yields (close to 100%) were obtained for U₃O₈ and UO₂ where oxygen is only bound to uranium. A lower precision was observed for UO₃.nH₂O and M₂U₂O₇.nH₂O where oxygen is both present in the structural H₂O and bonded to uranium and where the extracted O_2(g) can be contaminated by NF₃ and NO_x compounds. Laser‐assisted fluorination gave shifted δ¹⁸O values between +0.8 and +1.4‰ for U₃O₈, around ?0.8‰ for UO₃.nH₂O and between ?3.9 and ?4.5‰ for M₂U₂O₇.nH₂O (± 0.3‰, 1s) compared with the conventional method.     

First detailed description of Hispanomys decedens (Rodentia) from the Middle Miocene of La Grive-Saint Alban (France)

The material of Hispanomys decedens (Rodentia, Cricetodontinae) from La Grive-Saint Alban (France) is described in detail for the first time. H. decedens, which is one of the oldest species of the genus, shows the primitive character states that are typical of the Aragonian congeneric species, such as the mesolophs and labial cingula surrounding the upper molar valleys. The detailed examination of the teeth of H. decedens shows that this taxon is a good candidate ancestor for H. aragonensis.     

Les laves du mont Bangou : une première manifestation volcanique éocène, à affinité transitionnelle,de la Ligne du Cameroun

Mount Bangou, an Eocene volcano (⁴⁰K–⁴⁰Ar ages between 44.7 and 43.1 ± 1 Ma) is the oldest dated volcano of the Cameroon Line. In this region, two magmatic series, evolving by fractional crystallization, show transitional affinities that are exceptionally known in this sector. Mineral compositions of basaltic rocks (scarce modal olivine and occurrence of normative hypersthene) as well as geochemical characteristics (low Ba, La, Ta contents and high Y/Nb ratios) are in agreement with this trend. The succession of magmas evolving in time from transitional to more typical alkaline compositions is evidenced in a continental setting. To cite this article: J. Fosso et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).     

Mineralogy and geochemical behaviour during weathering of greenstone belt under tropical dry conditions in the extreme North Cameroon (Central Africa)

Mineralogy, major, trace and rare earth elements of a weathering profile developed on tertiary greenstone belt in the extreme North Cameroon are reported. The aim of which was to investigate mineralogical evolution and element mobilization and redistribution during weathering under dry tropical climate. The weathering profile consists of four main horizons: (1) a spheroidal weathering zone constituted by a corestone–shell complex, (2) a C horizon, (3) a Bw horizon and an Ah horizon. The results indicate that nontronite, a Fe-rich smectite, is the exclusive clay mineral formed in the exfoliated shells and the C horizon. It is associated with kaolinite in the upper horizons. The coexistence of these two clay minerals induced a decrease of CEC and pH which becomes neutral. The weathering index (WI) values reveal that weathering becomes more and more intensive from the corestone up to Bw horizon, which is the most weathered horizon in the weathering profile. Mass balance calculations, using Th as immobile element, indicate that Ti is quite mobile and that Al and Fe are relatively enriched at the bottom and strongly leached at the top of the profile. Alkalis and alkaline earth elements are strong leached through out the profile, except Ca which displays similar trend as Al and Fe. The same goes for LILE (Cs, Sr), TTE (Cr, Co, Ni) and HSFE (Y, Nb, Hf). In opposite, REE are depleted at the bottom and enriched in the upper horizons, with more enrichment for LREE than for HREE. It appears that weathering of greenstone belt causes a fractionation of HREE and induces a concentration of LREEs. Ce and Eu anomalies display opposite behaviour.