Datation isotopique des cristallisations successives d' un socle cristallin et cristallophyllien (Haute Moulouya,Moyen Maroc)

Résumé L'étude pétrographique et microtectonique a permis d'établir la chronologie relative des épisodes tectono-métamorphiques et intrusifs qui affectent le socle cristallin et cristallophyllien de la Haute Moulouya dans le Moyen Maroc. Ces différents épisodes ont pu être datés par la méthode rubidium-strontium.Ainsi, deux phases tectono-métamorphiques ont pu être distinguées dans le socle cristallophyllien et attribuées au Dévonien supérieur, la première se terminant vers 366±7 M. a. (avec ⁸⁷Rb=1,42 × 10^–11 an^–1). Les épisodes intrusifs se situent dans le Viséen et le Namurien; ils débutent par la mise en place de granodiorites vers 347±17 M. a. et se poursuivent par celle de granites alcalins vers 329±6 M. a. et de granites calco-alcalins vers 319±6 M. a. L'ensemble de ces formations est ensuite affecté par des cisaillements contemporains de cristallisations pneumatolytiques; les néocristallisations liées à cette dernière phase de déformation ont pu être datées de 315 M. a. dans certains granites. Des venues filoniennes de pegmatite vers 310 M. a., de granite à structure graphique et d'aplite à 302±3 M. a. sont liées a ce phénomène tardif.La confrontation des analyses isotopiques et microtectoniques permet d'apprécier l'importance de certains épisodes tectono-métamorphiques sur l'homogénéisation isotopique du strontium contenu dans les roches totales, les minéraux ou les fractions fines < 2 .

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A petrographic and microstructural study of the crystalline and metamorphic basement rocks of the Haute Moulouya region in the central part of Morocco revealed a chronology of tectono-metamorphic and intrusive events. These events have been dated by the Rb-Sr method.The crystalline basement is affected by two tectono-metamorphic episodes; the first occurred during the Upper Devonian at 366±7 m. y. (with ⁸⁷Rb=1.42 × 10^–11 y^–1). These events are followed by intrusions which are Visean and Namurian in age, granodiorites crystallized at 347±17 m. y. and are followed by alkaline granites at 329±6 m. y. and by calco-alkaline granites at 319±6 m. y. A pneumatolysis then accompanied shearing of the rocks. The degradation of preexisting minerals and the formation of new minerals, especially muscovites, in some granites occurred around 315 m. y. This event is also related to intrusions of pegmatites at 310 m. y. and granites with graphic structures and aplites at 302±3 m. y.The comparison of the isotopic and microstructural results also allowed estimation of the influence of the different tectono-metamorphic episodes on the strontium isotopic homogeneity of whole rocks, minerals and fine fractions <2 .

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Zusammenfassung Eine petrographische Gefügeanalyse der kristallinen und metamorphen Basisgesteine der Haute Moulouya Region in Zentralmarokko ergab eine Chronologie der tektono-metamorphen und intrusiven Vorgänge. Diese Ereignisse wurden mit Hilfe der Rb-Sr-Methode datiert.Die kristalline Basis ist von zwei tektono-metamorphen Phasen beeinflußt. Die erste dieser Phasen entstand während des Oberdevons vor 366±7 mJ (mit ⁸⁷Rb = 1.42 × 10^–11 mJ). Beiden Phasen folgten Intrusionen mit Altern von Visé und Namur. Dabei entstanden Granodiorite in einem Alter von 347±17 mJ. Diesen folgten Alkaligranite mit 329 ±6 mJ und schließlich Kalkalkaligranite mit 319±6 mJ; darauf setzte ein Scherbeanspruchung ein, die von einer Pneumatolyse begleitet wurde. Der Zerfall der älteren Mineralphasen sowie die Bildung von neuen Mineralen (besonders Muscovit) in manchen Graniten entstand vor etwa 315 Millionen Jahren. Dieser Vorgang ist auch mit der Intrusion von Pegmatiten vor etwa 310 mJ in Beziehung zu setzen. Spätere Intrusionen von Graniten mit schriftgranatischem Gefüge und Apliten erfolgte etwa vor 302±3 mJ.Der Vergleich von Isotopenverteilung und mikrostrukturellem Gefüge lieferte eine Basis für die Einschätzung der Beeinflussung durch die verschiedenen tektono-metamorphen Phasen auf die Homogenität der Strontiumisotope im gesamten Gestein, in den Mineralien und in den feinen Fraktionen <2 .

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Haute ulu, kk, - . - . - . (3667 ⁸⁷Rb= 1,42 &#x0445; 10^–11–1). . 34717 ; 3296 , 3106 . — — 350 . , 310 . 3023 . - , , 2.

     

Paleomagnetism and the orocline hypothesis

Oroclines were originally defined by Carey as curved mountain belts which initially were straight, or at least straighter than they are today. In the last few years, the definition has been broadened to include any curved mountain belt, regardless of its original shape.Since the occurrence of oroclinal bending is best recorded in the change of declination as a function of tectonic setting, paleomagnetic and structural data from six potential oroclines have been compiled and analyzed to determine the amount of rotation displayed by the change of paleomagnetic declination relative to the change in strike of the fold belt.The arcuate belts investigated are: the Sicilian-Calabrian Arc and the Umbrian Arc of Italy, the Swiss portion of the Jura Mountains, the central portion of the Appalachian Mountains (from Pennsylvania to Virginia, U.S.A.), the Wyoming-Idaho overthrust belt of western North America and the Hercynides of Western and Central Europe.The Jura Mountains and the Pennsylvania-Virginia portion of the Appalachians fail to show significant oroclinal bending. The Wyoming-Idaho belt shows a combination of rotated (possibly oroclinal) and unrotated thrust sheets.In the Sicilian-Calabrian Arc significant oroclinal bending caused by the impingement of the Calabria-Peloritani nappes in the Late Tertiary can be demonstrated, while the Umbrian Arc of similar age, in the Northern Apennines, also shows oroclinal bending on a smaller scale.Hercynian Europe (the only belt included in which deformation of basement rocks can be demonstrated) shows oroclinal bending (at least 80°) as well as a marked original curvature (70°) in its western part.Common to all the oroclines studied in this paper is the probable impingement of a rigid block or continental margin during the orogeny, causing subsequent deformation and bending of the fold belt.     

Paleomagnetism of the western Cape Fold belt, South Africa, and its bearing on the Paleozoic apparent polar wander path for Gondwana

In order to test two different proposals for the poorly defined African Paleozoic apparent polar wander path (APWP), a paleomagnetic study was carried out on Ordovician through Carboniferous clastic sediments from the Cape Fold belt, west of the 22nd meridian. One proposal involves a relatively simple APWP connecting the Ordovician Gondwana poles in North Africa with the Late Paleozoic poles to the east of South Africa in a more or less straight line crossing the present equator in the Devonian. The other proposal adds a loop to this path, connecting Ordovician poles in North Africa with poles to the southwest of South Africa and then returning to central Africa. This loop would occur mainly in Silurian time. New results reported herein yield paleopoles in northern and central Africa for Ordovician to lowermost Silurian and Lower to Middle Devonian formations. The best determined paleopole of our study is for the Early Ordovician Graafwater Formation and falls at 28°N, 14°E (k = 25, α₉₅ = 8.8°, N = 28 samples). The other paleopoles are not based on sufficient numbers of samples, but can help to constrain the apparent polar wander path for Gondwana. Our results give only paleopoles well to the north of South Africa and we observe no directions within the proposed loop. Hence, if the loop is real, it must have been of relatively short duration (60–70 Ma) and be essentially of Silurian/Early Devonian age, implying very high drift velocities for Gondwana (with respect to the pole) during that interval.     

Utilisation de la méthode rubidium-strontium pour la datation de niveaux sédimentaires du Précambrien supérieur de l'Adrar mauritanien (Sahara occidental) et la mise en évidence de transformations précoces des minéraux argileux

Amineralogical-geochronological study has been made of sedimentary levels I₂ and I₅ in the upper Precambrian of the Adrar, Mauritania, showing that clay minerals can be used for geochronology. This is, however, only possible where early diagenesis has homogenised the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of clay minerals and interstitial waters. Rocks whose clay minerals consist of unaltered mica or illite are not suitable for this approach, as is the case for sediments rich in detrital feldspars: carbonates may however be used.Ages of 964 ± 32 M.Y. (I₂) and860± 35 M.Y. (I₅) were obtained using a⁸⁷Rb decay constant of 1.47 × 10?11 yr^?1, confirming that the beginning of the late Precambrian sedimentation in the Adrar may be placed at 1000 M .Y.     

High-resolution magnetostratigraphy of four sediment cores from the Greenland Sea–I. Identification of the Mono Lake excursion, Laschamp and Biwa I/Jamaica geomagnetic polarity events

High-resolution magnetostratigraphic analysis of three sediment cores from the base of the volcanic seamount Vesteris Banken in the Greenland Basin and one core from the Jan Mayen Fracture Zone revealed records of three pronounced geomagnetic events within the last 200 ka. Dating by stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis, AMS¹⁴C measurements and biostratigraphic data (foraminifera abundances) yielded ages of 28–27 ka for the Mono Lake excursion, 37–33 ka for the Laschamp event, and 189–179 ka for the Biwa I event. In at least one of the cores the Laschamp event exhibits a full reversal of the local geomagnetic field vector. The same is true of the Biwa I event, documented in one of the cores.     

Wave climatology and extreme value analysis for the Baltic Sea area off the Warnemünde harbour entrance

Ocean Dynamics - A numerical wave model was used to determine the wave climate in the southern Baltic Sea. The basic data derived from wave hindcasts were evaluated statistically. Climate graphs...     

The role of the Kazakhstan orocline in the late Paleozoic amalgamation of Eurasia

After the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, we mapped surface ground fractures in Tangdhar, Uri, Rajouri and Punch sectors and liquefaction features in Jammu area lying close to the eastern side of the Line of Control (LOC) in Kashmir, India. The NW trending ground fractures occurred largely in the hanging wall zone of the southeastern extension of the causative fault in Tangdhar and Uri sectors. The principal compressive stress deduced from the earthquake induced ground fractures is oriented at N10°, whereas the causative Balakot–Bagh fault strikes 330°. The fault-plane solution indicates primarily SW thrusting of the causative fault with a component of strike–slip motion. The ground fractures reflect pronounced strike–slip together with some tensile component. The Tangdhar area showing left-lateral strike–slip motion lies on the hanging wall, and the Uri region showing right-lateral strike–slip movement is located towards the southeastern extension of the causative fault zone. The shear fractures are related to static stress that was responsible for the failure of causative fault. The tensile fractures with offsets are attributed to combination of both static and dynamic stresses, and the fractures and openings without offsets owe their origin due to dynamic stress. In Punch–Rajouri and Jammu area, which lies on the footwall, the fractures and liquefactions were generated by dynamic stress. The occurrence of liquefaction features in the out board part of the Himalayan range front near Jammu is suggestive of stress transfer  230 km southeast of the epicenter. The Balakot–Bagh Fault (BBF), the Muzaffarabad anticline, the rupture zone of causative fault and the zone of aftershocks — all are aligned in a  25 km wide belt along the NW–SE trending regional Himalayan strike of Kashmir region and lying between the MBT and the Riasi Thrust (Murree Thrust), suggesting a seismogenic zone that may propagate towards the southeast to trigger an earthquake in the eastern part of the Kashmir region.     

Apparent polar wandering for the Atlantic-bordering continents: Late Carboniferous to Eocene

We present a compilation of reliable paleomagnetic pole positions from five continental plates (North America, Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, Africa, and South America) for ten time intervals ranging from Late Carboniferous to Eocene. Only well-dated results obtained by demagnetization techniques have been used. Paleomagnetic poles are plotted with respect to the paleo-positions of the continents, as reconstructed from correlations of marine magnetic anomalies in the Atlantic Ocean by Pitman and Talwani and from the fit by Bullard et al. The poles from North America, Europe and the younger poles from Africa show a very good grouping for most of the ten intervals considered, and a continuous apparent polar wandering path is obtained. These data have been used to construct paleolatitude maps for most intervals; thus the relative positions of the continents were established from sea-floor spreading data and their absolute positions on the globe were determined from paleomagnetic data. The older data from South America and the other Gondwana continents show a systematic deviation from those of the northern continents for Late Paleozoic and Early Triassic time periods. An explanation is offered in a different continental reconstruction between Laurasia and Gondwanaland before Middle Triassic times.     

Time dependent deformations during tunnelling and stability of tunnel faces in fine-grained soils under groundwater

The measures required for driving a tunnel below the groundwater table depend on the permeability of the soil. In coarse-grained, highly permeable soils additional measures, for example compressed-air support combined with a reduction of the permeability of the soil, e.g. induced by grouting, are necessary. Compared to this, it is possible to do without such measures in fine-grained, cohesive soils because of the increased short-term stability of the tunnel face under undrained conditions. In this publication the results of 3-dimensional finite-element calculations are presented to show the influence of the permeability of the soil and also the rate of the tunnel driving on the deformations around the tunnel as well as on the ground surface. The calculated deformations can furthermore be considered as an indicator for the time dependent stability of the tunnel face due to a higher redistribution of stresses and by that an enlargement of the plasticized zone. Usually the stability of the tunnel face is reduced by the presence of water because of the flow of water towards the tunnel. In low permeable soils undrained conditions prevail immediately after an excavation step. In this case relatively high stability-ratios may occur. The stability of the tunnel face will be reduced with increasing time until reaching the lower boundary of possible values, possibly leading to failure. If calculations are done under the assumption of drained conditions, the real stability of the tunnel face during construction may substantially exceed that of the calculated one. On the other hand, if calculations are done for undrained conditions, the effective stability may lie on the unsafe side [10]. There is therefore a big demand to optimize the method of investigating deformations around the tunnel, so as to ensure a safe tunnel excavation on the one hand and to guarantee a cost-effective process on the other. In this paper the tunnelling process is modelled by a step-by-step excavation under atmospheric conditions. The soil is described by a material model which distinguishes between primary and unload-reload stress paths and also accounts for stress-dependent stiffness parameters. The failure criterion is described by the Mohr-Coulomb criterion that considers cohesion, friction angle and angle of dilatancy.     

Influence of the initial water content and dry density on the soil–water retention curve and the shrinkage behavior of a compacted clay

The paper presents the results of an experimental study on the effects of the initial water content and dry density on the soil–water retention curve and the shrinkage behavior of a compacted Lias-clay. The initial conditions after compaction (initial water content and initial dry density) have been chosen on the basis of three Proctor tests of different compaction efforts. According to the eight chosen initial conditions clay samples have been compacted statically. The relation between total suction and water content was determined for the drying path starting from the initial conditions without previous saturation of the specimens. A chilled-mirror dew-point hygrometer was used for the suction measurements. For the investigation of the shrinkage behavior cylindrical specimens were dried to desired water contents step-by-step without previous saturation. The volume of the specimens was measured by means of a caliper. Based on the test results the influence of different initial conditions on the soil suction and the shrinkage behavior is analyzed. The soil–water retention curves obtained in terms of the gravimetric water content are independent of the initial dry density. At water contents above approximately 11–12.5% a strong influence of the compaction water content is observed. At smaller water contents, the soil–water retention curve is independent of the compaction water content. The results of the shrinkage tests show that the influence of the compaction dry density on the shrinkage behavior is negligible. Similar to the drying behavior of saturated samples a primary and a residual drying process could be distinguished. The primary drying process is strongly influenced by the initial water content. In contrast, the rate of the volume change of the residual drying process is unaffected by the initial water content.