Voici les éléments 1 - 10 sur 31
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Le mystère de l'asphalte de Travers
    (2004-08-16)
    Huber, Nicolas
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    Leuenberger, Richard (photographe)
    Non, l’intérêt géologique du canton de Neuchâtel ne se limite pas au Creux-du-Van ! Nouvelle preuve avec le troisième volet de cinq découvertes aux côtés d’un spécialiste. Aujourd’hui à Travers avec le géologue Thierry Adatte.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Origin and Nature of Green Clay Layers, ODP Leg 184, South China Sea
    (2003)
    Tamburini, Federica
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    Föllmi, Karl B.
    Green clay layers are reported from the Pliocene-Holocene intervals in five of the six sites drilled in the South China Sea (SCS) during Leg 184. Centimeter-scale discrete, discontinuous, and bioturbated layers, constituted by stiff and porous green clays, were observed, sometimes associated with iron sulfides and pyrite. Detailed mineralogical and geochemical analyses indicate that they differentiate from the host sediments in their higher content of iron, smectite, and mixed-layered clays and lower amounts of calcite, authigenic phosphorus, quartz, and organic matter. Although no glauconite was observed, the mineralogy and geochemistry of green clay layers, along with their geometrical relation to background sediments, suggest that they most likely represent the result of the first steps of glauconitization. Correlation between green layers and volcanic ash layers was suggested for green laminae observed elsewhere in Pacific sediments but was not confirmed at SCS sites. Statistical analysis of the temporal distribution of green layers in the records of the last million years suggests that green clay layers have become more frequent since 600 ka. Only at Site 1148 does the green layer record show a statistically significant cyclicity which may be related to orbital eccentricity. A possible influence of sea level variations, related both to climatic changes and tectonism, is postulated.
  • Publication
    Métadonnées seulement
    Carbonaceous and phosphate-rich sediments of the Miocene Monterey Formation at El Capitan State Beach, California, USA
    (2002)
    John, Cédric M
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    De Kaenel, Eric
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    Steinmann, Philipp
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    Badertscher, Christophe
    The organic- and phosphate-rich interval of the Monterey Formation at El Capitan State Beach (west of Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A.; late early to early late Miocene in age) is composed of a carbonaceous marl (TOC contents between 1.2 and 23.2 wt %) with intercalated phosphate-rich laminae, lenses, and layers. Subordinate lithologies include ash layers, dolomitized horizons, and siliceous beds. We distinguished five lithological units: (1) a gray marl unit lacking major phosphate accumulations (> 16.3 Ma; average TOC content 2% by weight; average sedimentation rate 75 m/My; average TOC accumulation rate 0.19 mg/cm(2)/yr); (2) a black marl unit including light-colored phosphatic laminae, lenses, and discrete particles (16.3-14.5 Ma; average TOC content 7.5% by weight; average sedimentation rate 20 m/My; average TOC accumulation rate 0.19 mg/cm(2)/yr); (3) a red marl unit including light-colored phosphatic laminae, lenses, and commonly reworked particles (14.5-12.7 Ma; average TOC content 15% by weight; average sedimentation rate 20 m/My (14.5-13.3 Ma) and 2 m/My (13.3-12.7 Ma), respectively; average TOC accumulation rate 0.39 mg/cm(2)/yr (14.5-13.3 Ma) and 0.04 mg/cm(2)/yr (13.3-12.7 Ma), respectively); (4) a unit of complex and condensed phosphatic beds, interbedded with red marl (12.7-10.8 Ma; average sedimentation rate 3 m/My); and (5) a black marl unit with intercalated phosphatic laminae and lenses (< 10.8 Ma; average sedimentation rate 9 m/My; average TOC accumulation rate 0.09 mg/cm(2)/yr). Phosphogenesis and accumulation of phosphate were dynamic processes, which started with local phosphogenesis leading to the formation of phosphatized particles, as well as stratigraphically bound phosphogenesis leading to the formation of phosphate laminae and lenses. Phases of subsequent sediment reworking resulted in the concentration of phosphate particles in phosphate-rich layers, and repeated phases of sediment reworking and phosphogenesis ultimately resulted in the formation of the complex phosphate condensed horizons. Preservation of organic matter was favored by high productivity rates and by the development of dysaerobic bottom-water conditions. The dynamic sedimentary environment likely led to the formation of early diagenetic phosphatic lids (which may have sealed off subjacent organic-rich layers) as well as to the rapid deposition of entire layers in the form of mud flows, thereby eventually enhancing the potential of organic-matter preservation. Our new age data suggest that at the El Capitan State Beach section the intervals characterized by high TOC values and maximum TOC accumulation rates (red marl), as well as significant quantities of in situ phosphates appeared in the late middle Miocene, i.e., during and after the major cooling phase at around 14.5 Ma. This implies that deposition of phosphate and organic carbon continued well after this cooling phase, thereby underlining the observation that preservation of organic carbon in the Monterey Formation is not only dependent on climate change during the mid Miocene but also on regional conditions.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Regional trends in clay mineral fluxes to the Queensland margin and ties to middle Miocene global cooling
    (2006)
    John, Cédric M.
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    Mutti, Maria
    Three ODP sites located on the Marion Plateau, Northeast Australian margin, were investigated for clay mineral and bulk mineralogy changes through the early to middle Miocene. Kaolinite to smectite (K/S) ratios, as well as mass accumulation rates of clays, point to a marked decrease in accumulation of smectite associated with an increase in accumulation of kaolinite starting at ~ 15.6 Ma, followed by a second increase in accumulation of kaolinite at ~ 13.2 Ma. Both of these increases are correlative to an increase in the calcite to detritus ratio. Comparison of our record with published precipitation proxies from continental Queensland indicates that increases in kaolinite did not correspond to more intense tropical-humid conditions, but instead to periods of greater aridity. Three mechanisms are explored to explain the temporal trends in clay on the Marion Plateau: sea-level changes, changes in oceanic currents, and denudation of the Australian continent followed by reworking and eolian transport of clays. Though low mass accumulation rates of kaolinite are compatible with a possible contribution of eolian material after 14 Ma, when Australia became more arid, the lateral distribution of kaolinite along slope indicates mainly fluvial input for all clays and thus rules out this mechanism as well as oceanic current transport as the main controls behind clay accumulation on the plateau. We propose a model explaining the good correlation between long-term sea-level fall, decrease in smectite accumulation, increase in kaolinite accumulation and increase in carbonate input to the distal slope locations. We hypothesize that during low sea level and thus periods of drier continental climate in Queensland, early Miocene kaolinite-rich lacustrine deposits were being reworked, and that the progradation of the heterozoan carbonate platforms towards the basin center favored input of carbonate to the distal slope sites. The major find of our study is that increase kaolinite fluxes on the Queensland margin during the early and middle Miocene did not reflect the establishment of a tropical climate, and this stresses that care must be taken when reconstructing Australian climate based on deep-sea clay records alone.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    High stress late Maastrichtian – early Danian palaeoenvironment in the Neuquén Basin, Argentina
    (2007)
    Keller, Gerta
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    Tantawy, Abdel A.
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    Berner, Zsolt
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    Stinnesbeck, W.
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    Stueben, Doris
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    Leanza, H. A.
    During the late Maastrichtian to early Danian the Neuquén Basin of Argentina was adjacent to an active volcanic arc to the west and an extensive land area to the northeast. Mineralogical and geochemical studies of the Bajada del Jagüel in the Neuquén Basin indicate a generally warm climate with seasonal changes in humidity and an open seaway to the South Atlantic that maintained marine conditions. Biostratigraphic and quantitative foraminiferal and nannofossil analyses indicate that sediment deposition during the late Maastrichtian (zones CF4-CF2, N. frequens) occurred in relatively shallow middle neritic (~100 m) depths with largely dysaerobic bottom waters (abundant low O2 tolerant benthics) and fluctuating sea level. Calcareous nannofossils indicate a high stress marine environment dominated by Micula decussata. Planktic foraminifera mimic the post-K/T high stress environment with alternating blooms of the disaster opportunists Guembelitria and low oxygen tolerant Heterohelix groups, indicating nutrient-rich surface waters and an oxygen depleted water column. The high stress conditions were probably driven by high nutrient influx due to upwelling and terrestrial and volcanic influx. The K/T boundary is marked by an erosional surface that marks a hiatus at the base of a 15-25 cm thick volcaniclastic sandstone, which contains diverse planktic foraminiferal zone P1c assemblages and nannofossils of zone NP1b immediately above it. This indicates deposition of the sandstone occurred ~500 ky after the K/T hiatus. No evidence of the Chicxulub impact or related tsunami deposition was detected.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Chicxulub impact predates K–T boundary : New evidence from Brazos, Texas
    (2007-03-30)
    Keller, Gerta
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    Berner, Zsolt
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    Harting, Markus
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    Baum, Gerald
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    Prauss, Michael
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    Tantawy, Abdel
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    Stueben, Doris
    Multidisciplinary studies, including stratigraphy, sedimentology, mineralogy and geochemistry, of the new core Mullinax-1 and outcrops along the Brazos River and Cottonmouth Creek, Falls County, Texas, reveal the complex history of the Chicxulub impact, the event deposit and the K–T boundary event. The K–T boundary, as identified by the negative δ13C> shift, first occurrence of Danian planktic foraminifera and palynomorphs occurs 80 cm above the event deposit in core Mullinax-1. The underlying 80 cm interval was deposited in a shallow low oxygen environment during the latest Maastrichtian, as indicated by high stress microfossil assemblages, small shells and burrows infilled with framboidal pyrite. The underlying event deposit, commonly interpreted as K–T impact tsunami, consists of a basal conglomerate with clasts containing Chicxulub impact spherules, repeated upward fining units of spherule-rich sands, followed by hummocky cross-bedded and laminated sands, which are burrowed by Thalassinoides, Planolites and Ophiomorpha and truncated by erosion. This suggests a series of temporally separated storm events with re-colonization of the ocean floor by invertebrates between storms, rather than a series of waning tsunami-generated waves. The lithified clasts with impact spherules at the base of the event deposit provide strong evidence that the Chicxulub impact ejecta layer predates the event deposit, but was eroded and re-deposited during the latest Maastrichtian sea level lowstand. The original Chicxulub ejecta layer was discovered in a 3 cm thick yellow clay layer interbedded in undisturbed late Maastrichtian clay- and mudstones 40 cm below the base of the event deposit and near the base of planktic foraminiferal zone CF1, which spans the last 300 kyr of the Maastrichtian. The yellow clay consists of cheto smectite derived from alteration of impact glass, as indicated by rare altered glass spherules with similar chemical compositions as reworked spherules from the event deposit and Chicxulub impact spherules from NE Mexico and Haiti. The Brazos sections thus provide strong evidence that the Chicxulub impact predates the K–T boundary by about 300 kyr, consistent with earlier observations in NE Mexico and the Chicxulub crater core Yaxcopoil-1.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Late Cretaceous to early Paleocene climate and sea-level fluctuations : the Tunisian record
    (2002-02-28) ;
    Keller, Gerta
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    Stinnesbeck, Wolfgang
    Climate and sea-level fluctuations across the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) transition in Tunisia were examined based on bulk rock and clay mineralogies, biostratigraphy and lithology in five sections (El Melah, El Kef, Elles, Ain Settara and Seldja) spanning from open marine to shallow inner neritic environments. Late Campanian to early Danian trends examined at El Kef and Elles indicate an increasingly more humid climate associated with sea-level fluctuations and increased detrital influx that culminates at the K–T transition. This long-term trend in increasing humidity and runoff in the Tethys region is associated with middle and high latitude cooling. Results of short-term changes across the K–T transition indicate a sea-level lowstand in the latest Maastrichtian about 25–100 ka below the K–T boundary with the regression marked by increased detrital influx at El Kef and Elles and a short hiatus at Ain Settara. A rising sea-level at the end of the Maastrichtian is expressed at Elles and El Kef by deposition of a foraminiferal packstone. A flooding surface and condensed sedimentation mark the K–T boundary clay which is rich in terrestrial organic matter. The P0–P1a transition is marked by a sea-level lowstand corresponding to a short hiatus at Ain Settara where most of P0 is missing and a period of non-deposition and erosion in the lower part of P1a (64.95 Ma). At Seldja, P0 and possibly the topmost part of CF1 are missing. These sea-level fluctuations are associated with maximum humidity. These data suggest that in Tunisia, long-term environmental stresses during the last 500 ka before the K–T boundary and continuing into the early Danian are primarily related to climate and sea-level fluctuations. Within this long-term climatic trend the pronounced warm and humid event within the latest Maastrichtian Zone CF1 may be linked to greenhouse conditions induced by Deccan volcanism. The absence of any significant clay mineral variations at or near the K–T boundary and Ir anomaly suggests that the bolide impact had a relatively incidental short-term effect on climate in the Tethys region.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Sedimentary phosphorus record from the Oman margin : New evidence of high productivity during glacial periods
    (2003-03-25)
    Tamburini, Federica
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    Föllmi, Karl B.
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    Bernasconi, Stefano M.
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    Steinmann, Philipp
    The northern region of the Arabian Sea is one of the biologically most fertile regions of the world oceans, with present productivity rates varying between 150 and 2500 mgC/m2 × day [ Madhupratap et al., 1996 ]. This is related to the influence of the southwesterly summer monsoon which causes vigorous upwelling along the Oman margin. Upwelling ceases during northeasterly winter monsoon activity; productivity rates, however, remain relatively high (about 800 mgC/m2 × day), related to deep water mixing [ Madhupratap et al., 1996 ]. The goal of this study is to verify if during the last glacial period, a period in which winter monsoon conditions prevailed, productivity rates were similarly high. With an analysis of phosphorus phases, stable nitrogen isotopes, organic matter content, and bulk mineralogy of the upper 10 m of the cores of ODP Hole 724C (corresponding to the last 140,000 years, sample resolution is ∼5 kyr), we provide new evidence of high productivity during this last glacial period (marine isotopic stages 2, 3, and 4). This was probably related to the combined effect of (1) increased eolian input of iron-containing dust due to dryness on the adjacent continent and stronger winter monsoon, and (2) regeneration and diffusion of dissolved phosphorus from the sediments to the water column due to variations in the position and intensity of the Oxygen Minimum Zone. These findings suggest that there is no one-to-one relationship between summer monsoon activity and productivity, which emerges to be a quasi-persistent phenomenon across glacial and interglacial stages.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Main Deccan volcanism phase ends near the K–T boundary: Evidence from the Krishna–Godavari Basin, SE India
    (2008)
    Keller, Gerta
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    Gardinc, S.
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    Bartolinic, A.
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    Bajpai, S.
    Recent studies indicate that the bulk (80%) of the Deccan trap eruptions occurred over less than 0.8 m.y. in magnetic polarity C29r spanning the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) boundary. Determining where within this major eruptive phase the K–T mass extinction occurred has remained problematic. For this reason, models estimating the biotic and environmental consequences have generally underestimated the rate and quantity of Deccan gas emissions by orders of magnitude leading to conclusions that volcanism could not have been one of the major causes for the K–T mass extinction. In this study we report that the most massive Deccan trap eruption occurred near the K–T mass extinction.

    These results are based on sedimentologic, microfacies and biostratigraphic data of 4–9 m thick intertrappean sediments in four quarry outcrops in the Rajahmundry area of the Krishna–Godavari Basin of southeastern India. In this area two Deccan basalt flows, known as the Rajahmundry traps, mark the longest lava flows extending 1500 km across the Indian continent and into the Bay of Bengal. The sediments directly overlying the lower Rajahmundry trap contain early Danian planktic foraminiferal assemblages of zone P1a, which mark the evolution in the aftermath of the K–T mass extinction. The upper Rajahmundry trap was deposited in magnetic polarity C29n, preceding full biotic recovery. These results suggest that volcanism may have played critical roles in both the K–T mass extinction and the delayed biotic recovery.