Intraplate deformations, topographic evolution and sediment production of Western Europe from 40 to 5 Myrs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francois Guillocheau ◽  
Cécile Robin
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Rift System ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Critical Periods ◽  
Rhenish Massif ◽  
Massif Central ◽  
Southern England ◽  
Sediment Production ◽  
Western Germany ◽  
Aquitaine Basin

<p>Western Europe experienced a major rift system initiated during Bartonian times (41 Ma). This evolution is coeval with long wavelength deformations (several hundreds of kilometers) that control the topography and the sediment production beyond the rift. The climate during this time interval was first increasingly arid and then wetter.</p><p>This study is based on both landform and sediment analysis of southern England, France, Belgium and western Germany. The landforms are mainly large pediments, dated by the intersection with sediments deposited in low to high subsiding areas and volcanism. A set of paleogeographic maps with paleotopographic reconstructions, is used to constrain the uplifting and subsiding areas, their wavelength and the critical periods of intraplate deformations.</p><p>The main periods of deformations and sedimentary systems changes area as follow.</p><p><strong>41</strong>Myrs (base Bartonian) was the beginning of a major tilting of Western Europe with subsidence of France and uplift of the Brabant/Ardennes/Rhenish Massif. Even a dense network of basement faults was reactivated, biochemical sedimentation prevailed.</p><p><strong>35-31</strong>Myrs (Late Priabonian-Early Rupelian) initiated a period of general subsidence even along the Ardennes/Rhenish Massif and the French Massif Central. Two major marine floodings are recorded, with a differential preservation according to the balance between deformation and eustasy.</p><p><strong>27-25</strong>Myrs (Chattian) was a period of uplift of Western Europe except the Aquitaine Basin, followed by a relaxation favoring eustatic floodings in (very) low subsiding domains. Chattian siliciclastic deposits are preserved as lowstand wedges in the surrounded basins (North Sea, Atlantic Margin).</p><p><strong>14-11</strong>Myrs (Serravallian-Early Tortonian) initiated the overall uplift of Western Europe, still operating today. This is the beginning of a period of major denudation in southern England, Western Germany (SW Germany flat - “Stufenland”) and along the southern limb of the Franch Massif Central.</p><p>The causes and the consequences in term of sediment production are discussed.</p>

Palaeogene warping in the Isle of Wight

1971 ◽  
Vol 108 (5) ◽  
pp. 399-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Daley ◽  
N. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Isle Of Wight ◽  
Southern England ◽  
Lower Oligocene ◽  
North Western

SummaryGentle folding or warping, of Lower Oligocene age, pre-dating the main post-Hamstead Beds folding, is indicated where the Bembridge Marls rest unconformably on eroded Bembridge Limestone. The folding appears to have been along generally NW–SE trending axes. This trend is compatible with penecontemporaneous and even earlier folding in Southern England and adjacent parts of north-western Europe. In Southern England, the main folding may have been earlier than the Miocene age generally accepted.

Geoconservation

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Gonggrijp
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Massif Central ◽  
Landscape Preservation ◽  
Visual Landscape ◽  
The Rich ◽  
North Western

The detailed descriptions of the physical geography in the previous chapters show the rich geodiversity of north-western Europe, reflected in its many geological landscapes (landscapes without the biological and cultural ‘furnishing’). The various geological forces, acting in time and space have created the foundation for this richness. The landscape’s framework has mainly been designed by such endogenic processes as tectonics, orogenesis, and volcanism, while its details have been sculptured by such exogenic processes as weathering, gravity, and glacial-, fluvial-, aeolian-, and marine activities. These modelling processes resulted in a very diverse geology, geomorphology, and pedology. The long scientific tradition and the rich geodiversity made north-western Europe one of the classical areas for geological research. It therefore includes many of the international case studies in earth sciences and became the cradle of numerous international reference localities such as Emsian (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany), Dinantian (Ardennes, Belgium), Aptian (Provence, France), Danian—Dane is Latin for Denmark (Stevens Klint), Tiglian (Middle Limburg, The Netherlands), Eemian (river in western Netherlands), etc. The chronological division of glacial and fluvioglacial features is primarily based on type localities (villages, rivers, etc.) in Denmark, northern and southern Germany, and The Netherlands. Moreover, a multitude of Tertiary and Pre-Tertiary stages of the standard geological timetable have been named after type localities of geological and prehistoric sites in France. Geological landscapes such as the Maare system of the Eifel, the volcanoes on the Massif Central (France), the Saalian and Weichselian ice-pushed ridges of Germany, The Netherlands, and Denmark as well as the impressive dunes along the coast from France to the northernmost tip of Denmark have been subjects of detailed research. These geological landscapes form a unique geological patchwork. The activities of humans, especially in the last century, have damaged or destroyed many of these landscapes and sites of geological interest. However, selected sites and areas representing the geogenesis of the earth should be preserved for the benefit of science, education, and human welfare. In all European countries attention is given to landscape preservation; however, policy and practice have mainly been based on specific biological, historical-cultural, and visual landscape qualities.

scholarly journals Early Holocene Thermal Maximum recorded by branched tetraethers and pollen in Western Europe (Massif Central, France)

2020 ◽  
Vol 228 ◽  
pp. 106109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline Martin ◽  
Guillemette Ménot ◽  
Nicolas Thouveny ◽  
Odile Peyron ◽  
Valérie Andrieu-Ponel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Massif Central ◽  
Holocene Thermal Maximum ◽  
Thermal Maximum

scholarly journals Distinct influences of large-scale circulation and regional feedbacks in two exceptional 2019 European heatwaves

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro M. Sousa ◽  
David Barriopedro ◽  
Ricardo García-Herrera ◽  
Carlos Ordóñez ◽  
Pedro M. M. Soares ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Radiative Fluxes ◽  
Moisture Deficit ◽  
Synoptic Conditions ◽  
Summer Temperatures ◽  
Western Germany ◽  
Proxy Reconstructions ◽  
Set Up

Abstract Two separate heatwaves affected western Europe in June and July 2019, in particular France, Belgium, the Netherlands, western Germany and northeastern Spain. Here we compare the European 2019 summer temperatures to multi-proxy reconstructions of temperatures since 1500, and analyze the relative influence of synoptic conditions and soil-atmosphere feedbacks on both heatwave events. We find that a subtropical ridge was a common synoptic set-up to both heatwaves. However, whereas the June heatwave was mostly associated with warm advection of a Saharan air mass intrusion, land surface processes were relevant for the magnitude of the July heatwave. Enhanced radiative fluxes and precipitation reduction during early July added to the soil moisture deficit that had been initiated by the June heatwave. We show this deficit was larger than it would have been in the past decades, pointing to climate change imprint. We conclude that land-atmosphere feedbacks as well as remote influences through northward propagation of dryness contributed to the exceptional intensity of the July heatwave.

Les phenomenes metamorphiques en Limousin septentrional et leur interpretation dans le cadre du Massif Central

1958 ◽  
Vol S6-VIII (4) ◽  
pp. 339-348
Author(s):  
Maurice Chenevoy
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Nature ◽  
General Characteristic ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Massif Central ◽  
Metamorphic Terrain ◽  
Advancing Front ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Two Phases

Abstract The crystalline schists of northern Limousin, France, are polymetamorphic in origin. Two phases of migmatization have been distinguished, of different chemical nature and separated by a long time interval. This double metamorphism is not limited to northern Limousin, but is a general characteristic of other parts of the Central Massif and of the metamorphic terrain of Brittany. The classic scheme of metamorphic zoning of migmatites does not hold; rather than an advancing front of migmatization two distinct processes took place at different times--granitization, consisting essentially of partial or total remobilization of preexisting materials, and regional feldspathization, involving K-metasomatism, both represented by independent facies.

The Mesozoic-Tertiary evolution of the Aquitaine Basin

1982 ◽  
Vol 305 (1489) ◽  
pp. 63-84 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Oil Fields ◽  
Upper Eocene ◽  
The South ◽  
Gas Field ◽  
Massif Central ◽  
Tectonic Plates ◽  
The North ◽  
Basic Magmatism ◽  
Aquitaine Basin

The Aquitaine Basin, situated in southwest France, with an area of about 60 000 km 2 , has the form of a triangle which opens towards the Atlantic (Bay of Biscay) and is limited to the north by the Hercynian basement of Brittany and the Massif Central, and to the south by the Pyrenean Tertiary orogenic belt. Beneath the Tertiary sequence (2 km thick, and which outcrops over much of the basin) a Mesozoic series, up to 10 km thick, rests generally on a tectonized Hercynian basement but locally it covers narrow (NW-SE-trending) post-orogenic trenches of Stephano-Permian age. The Mesozoic history can be subdivided into four major structural-sedimentary episodes: (1) during a Triassic taphrogenic phase a continental-evaporitic complex developed with associated basic magmatism; (2) throughout the Jurassic, a vast lagoonal platform developed, initially (Lower Lias) as a thick evaporitic sequence followed by a uniform shale-carbonate unit, indicating a relative structural stability; (3) the end of the Jurassic and the Lower Cretaceous saw a fragmentation of this platform, due to an interplay between the Iberian and European tectonic plates, resulting in an ensemble of strongly subsident sub-basins; (4) during the Upper Cretaceous and until the end of the Neogene, the evolution of the Aquitaine Basin was influenced by the Pyrenean orogenic phase, with the development, towards the south, of a trench infilled by flysch which, from the Upper Eocene, is succeeded by a thick post-orogenic molasse complex. The main hydrocarbon objectives in the basin are situated in the Jurassic platform (e.g. the Lacq giant gas field) and the Cretaceous sub-basins (e.g. the Cazaux and Parentis oil fields). To date, production has been about 4 x 10 7 m 3 of oil, and about 15 x 10 10 m 3 of gas since the first gas discovery (St Marcet) in 1939.

Stratigraphie sequentielle du Dinantien type (Belgique) et correlation avec le Nord de la France (Boulonnais, Avesnois)

2001 ◽  
Vol 172 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luc Hance ◽  
Eddy Poty ◽  
Francois-Xavier Devuyst
Keyword(s):  
Early Phase ◽  
Outer Shelf ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Third Order ◽  
Inner Shelf ◽  
Southern England ◽  
The North ◽  
Western Germany ◽  
Local Tectonics ◽  
Homoclinal Ramp

Abstract The relative influences of local tectonics and global eustasy in the architecture of the sedimentary units of the Namur-Dinant Basin (southern Belgium) are determined. Nine third-order sequences are recognised. During the Lower Tournaisian (Hastarian and lower Ivorian) a homoclinal ramp extended from southern Belgium through southern England (Mendips) and into southern Ireland. From the upper Ivorian to the lower Visean rapid facies changes occurred due to progradation and increasing prominence of Waulsortian mudmounds. Progradation gradually produced a situation in which inner shelf facies covered the Namur (NSA), Condroz (CSA) and southern Avesnes (ASA) sedimentation areas, whereas outer shelf facies were restricted to the Dinant sedimentation area (DSA). During the middle and late Visean a broad shelf was established from western Germany to southern Ireland. Because the shelf built up mainly by aggradation, parasequences can be followed over a large area. An early phase of Variscan shortening is perceptible during the Livian. The stratigraphic gap between the first Namurian sediments (E2 Goniatite Zone) and the underlying Visean varies from place to place, but is more important in the north.

Allied High Commission for Germany

1951 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 226-227
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The North ◽  
Emergency Power ◽  
Western Germany ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Industrial Economic

During October and November, 1950, press reports indicated that the Allied High Commission for Germany was primarily concerned with the implementation of the three-power agreement on Germany reached in New York on September 19, 1950. Although all of the proposals relating to the creation of mobile police formations and the integration of German forces into those of western Europe were stalled pending agreement between the members of the North Atlantic Council as to the nature and size of such German forces, reports indicated that consideration of various proposals to amend the occupation statute were going forward. While no details were revealed, the Chancellor of western Germany (Adenauer) indicated that one suggestion had been that the easing of allied industrial, economic and political controls would be conditioned upon the acceptance by the Bonn government of prewar German debts and a willingness to share strategic war materials. Other reports indicated that the amended occupation statute would terminate controls over German use of funds, food and other supplies, permit the lapsing of powers enforcing decartelization once existing orders had been carried through and adequate legislation enacted, and would abandon the review of all laws or directives while reserving emergency power to annul any believed inconsistent with previous policy.

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