Cyclostratigraphy of the Middle to Upper Ordovician successions of the Armorican Massif (western France) using portable X-ray fluorescence

To expand traditional cyclostratigraphic numerical methods beyond their common technical limitations and apply them to truly deep-time archives we need to reflect on the development of new approaches to sedimentary archives that traditionally are not targeted for cyclostratigraphic analysis, but that frequently occur in the impoverished deep-time record. Siliciclastic storm-dominated shelf environments are a good example of such records. Our case study focusses on the Middle to Upper Ordovician siliciclastic successions of the Armorican Massif (western France), which are well-studied in terms of sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy. In addition, these sections are protected geological heritage due to the extraordinary quality of the outcrops. We therefore tested the performance of non-destructive high-resolution (cm-scale) portable X-ray fluorescence and natural gamma-ray analyses on outcrop to obtain major and trace element compositions. Despite the challenging outcrop conditions in the tidal beach zone, our geochemical analyses provide useful information regarding general lithology and several specific sedimentary features such as the detection of paleoplacers, or the discrimination between different types of diagenetic concretions such as nodules. Secondly, these new high-resolution data are used to experiment the application of commonly used numerical cyclostratigraphic techniques on this siliciclastic storm-dominated shelf environment, a non-traditional sedimentological setting for cyclostratigraphic analysis. In the lithological relatively homogenous parts of the section spectral power analyses and bandpass filtering hint towards a potential astronomical imprint of some sedimentary cycles, but this needs further confirmation in the absence of more robust independent age constraints.

An Upper Ediacaran Glacial Period in Cadomia: the Granville tillite (Armorican Massif) – sedimentology, geochronology and provenance

In the Cadomian orogenic belt a package of glacigenic sedimentary deposits have been recently described in the Armorican Massif (Normandy, France). The Granville Tillite Member, the middle part of the upper Granville Formation, is late Ediacaran in age. Maximum depositional ages of the pre- and syn-glacial sedimentary deposits obtained by LA-ICP-MS U–Pb detrital zircon dating indicate a maximum age of 561 ± 3 Ma. Combined with geochronological data on the previously described glacial deposits in Cadomia, West Africa, Arabia and Iran, the Granville Tillite Member appears to represent an Upper Ediacaran Glacial Period in northern peri-Gondwana, clearly younger than the c. 580 Ma old Gaskiers glaciation. Detailed mapping and analysis of the depositional regime of two sections near the city of Granville are indicative of two independent glaciomarine lower and upper tillite deposits separated by a distinct conglomeratic marker horizon, evidently a massive gravel beach horizon deposited during an interglacial stage. Age spectra of detrital zircon U–Pb ages constrain the palaeogeographical position of the upper Granville Formation to the periphery of the West African Craton. Post-Gaskiers aged glaciations in Cadomia and in West Africa should be grouped into an Upper Ediacaran Glacial Period dated at c. 565 Ma. This glacial period seems not to be related to the negative δ13C Shuram–Wonoka anomaly. Sedimentary deposits formed during the Upper Ediacaran Glacial Period show a scattered distribution along the marginal orogens of the Gondwana supercontinent independent of palaeolatitude and are coupled most likely to contemporaneous orogenic processes and uplift.

Origin and significance of the antimony mineralisation associated to mafic intrusions in the Iberian Zone and the Central Armorican Domain

<p>In the Central Iberian Zone (CIZ) and its French counterpart, the Central Armorican Domain (CAD), widespread swarms of mafic dykes with various ages and compositions are known. Indeed, numerous mafic events are recognized in the late Neoproterozoic, in the Cambrian to the Ordovician, in the Ordovician to the Devonian, at the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary, in the Permian and in the Jurassic. Such a succession of mantle partial melting events, localised or generalized, may have strong consequences (i) on the composition and the homogeneity of the mantle below both the CIZ and CAD, and (ii) on the transfert of metals in the overlying crust. Moreover, the mantle below these domains must have been modified also by the subduction of large to small oceanic crusts from the Iapetus, the Rheic, the Galicia-Moldanubian and the Paleo-tethys. Although the occurrences of paleo-subductions below the CIZ and CAD remain discussed, the southern border of the CIZ, the Ossa-Morena Zone (OMZ), is considered as a suture zone resulting from a subduction followed by a collision between 390 and 360 Ma (D1), according to the 2 opposite structural vergences at the CIZ/OMZ boundary, as well as the location of a NE-dipping slab imaged by seismic profiles. In the Armorican massif, the end of subduction is also dated at 360 Ma and associated to a north-directed subduction. The trace of this subduction below the CAD is visible in the tomographic dataset. Interestingly, these two domains (CIZ and CAD) contain the largest number of Palaeozoic antimony deposits, antimony being a volatile element. In these domains, the large clustering of antimony deposits and occurrences is observed within a ca 100km wide bands along their southern parts. In the two domains, the antimony deposits are frequently spatially associated with diabase dykes. Diabase dykes and associated antimony mineralisation have been dated at 360 Ma in the CAD but remain temporally unconstrained in the CIZ. Nevertheless, since these dykes are strongly affected by the Variscan deformation a minimum age of 350 Ma is inferred. Both, the peculiar composition of these diabase dykes, relatively enriched in Cs, Li, Pb and relatively depleted in K and Rb, the spatial association with antimony at the end of a 360Ma subduction, suggest a link between antimony and a ca 360Ma mafic magmatism which could result from the partial melting of a subduction-related metasomatized mantle.</p><p>This work was funded by the ANR (ANR-19-MIN2-0002), the AEI (MICIU/AEI/REF.: PCI2019-103779), the FCT (ERA-MIN/0005/2018) and author’s institutions in the framework of the ERA-MIN2 AUREOLE project (https://aureole.brgm.fr).</p>

The genesis of gold in Sb-As and Sb-Au ore veins, new constraints from the study of the La Bellière and La Lucette districts (Armorican Massif, France)

<p>Shear zones hosted antimony (Sb) quartz vein-type deposits are the most important sources of Sb worldwide. They have been recognized and mined since the Antiquity in the European Variscan belt, and particularly in the French Variscan Massifs, as the Armorican Massif. Among this type of deposit two subtypes are identified, i) the Sb and gold (Au) quartz vein-type (Sb-Au) as the La Lucette deposit located in the North Armorican Domain, and ii) the Sb-As quartz vein-type as those from the la Bellière district in the Ligerian domain.</p><p>The recent advances in the understanding of the Sb mineralizations in the European Variscan Belt are typically focused on the Sb ore-genesis and its regional implications, ignoring its potential valuable co-products as gold. In this study, detailed textural-mineralogical investigations coupled with geochemical analyses in rock-samples with in-situ EPMA and LA-ICPMS ore-minerals trace element analyses, were carried out for the first time in the Late-Variscan mineralizations from the La Bellière Sb-As occurrences, and the La Lucette Sb-Au deposit, to ascertain the distribution and amount of Au in the ore-minerals and provide new data on ore deposition conditions.</p><p>In the La Bellière Sb-As occurrences, no visible gold has been observed, but low-grade gold, ranging between 0.2 to 1 g/t Au, are correlated with high-grade As in rock sample. In the La Lucette Sb-Au deposit, historical assays have shown high-grade gold with an average at 40 g/t Au. EPMA and LA-ICP-MS analyses have demonstrated that gold is already present during the early time of the mineralization as invisible gold, trapped in the lattice of the Sb-rich arsenopyrites, with an average grade of 70 ppm Au in La Bellière, and at higher average grade of 223 ppm Au for La Lucette. For both type of mineralization, the early invisible gold is concentrated preferentially in the borders of the arsenopyrite crystals, and is correlated with an increase of the As content, and a decrease of the Sb and Fe. We argue that gold could be added in the arsenopyrite by substitution with the Fe and Sb at high temperature > 300 °C.</p><p>Visible gold corresponds to the economic gold ore of the Sb-Au mineralizations. In the La Lucette ore, it is emplaced in the late stages, as discrete electrum grains spatially associated with the arsenopyrites, as native gold inclusions within the stibnite, and associated with rare aurostibite. Remobilization processes of the gold-bearing arsenopyrite at lower temperature, coupled with a minor initial enrichment of the Sb-bearing ore-fluid might be responsible of the late high-grade gold ore, and the visible expression of this element. In the absence of such remobilization process with late ore-fluid-enrichment, only low-grade gold is present, under the form of invisible gold in auriferous-arsenopyrites.</p><p>The presence of a valuable gold co-product, also present in the Sb-As mineralizations, unknown until now in the French Variscan Massifs, will improve its economic attractivity. Gold potential in the huge French Sb-districts as the Vendée or the Brioude-Massiac districts must be reassessed.</p>

3-D crustal VS model of western France and the surrounding regions using Monte-Carlo inversion of seismic noise cross-correlation dispersion diagrams

Summary Due to a too sparse permanent seismic coverage during the last decades, the crustal structure of western France and the surrounding regions is poorly known. In this study, we present a 3-D seismic tomographic model of this area obtained from the analysis of 2-year continuous data recorded from 55 broad-band seismometers. An unconventional approach is used to convert Rayleigh wave dispersion diagrams obtained from ambient noise cross-correlations into posterior distributions of 1-D VS models integrated along each station pair. It allows to avoid the group velocity map construction step (which means dispersion curve extraction) while providing meaningful VS posterior uncertainties. VS models are described by a self-adapting and parsimonious parameterization using cubic Bézier splines. 1268 separately inverted 1-D VS profiles are combined together using a regionalization scheme, to build the 3-D VS model with a lateral resolution of 75 km over western France. The shallower part of the model (horizontal cross-section at 4 km depth) correlates well with the known main geological features. The crystalline Variscan basement is clearly associated with positive VS perturbations while negative heterogeneities match the Mesocenozoic sedimentary basins. At greater depths, the Bay of Biscay exhibits positive VS perturbations,which eastern and southern boundaries can be interpreted as the ocean-continent transition. The overall crustal structure below the Armorican Massif appears to be heterogenous at the subregional scale, and tends to support that both the South-Armorican Shear Zone and the Paris Basin Magnetic Anomaly are major crustal discontinuities that separate distinct domains.

Contribution à la connaissance des abeilles de la Loire-Atlantique, du Maine-et-Loire et de la Vendée

We present an overview of a study on bees carried out by the Centre Vétérinaire de la Faune Sauvage et des Écosystèmes (CVFSE, Nantes, France) between 2014 and 2018. Bees were collected through net sampling in 84 sites located in 43 cities of the French region Pays de la Loire (32 cities in Loire-Atlantique, 4 in Maine-et-Loire, and 7 in Vendée). Sampling occurred in different types of habitats: urban areas, agricultural areas, and semi-natural habitats like grasslands, woodlands, and coastal zones. This study provided information on the distribution of 278 bee species, among which several were previously unknown to the Armorican Massif (Andrena florivaga, Chelostoma distinctum, Coelioxys obtusa, Eucera clypeata, E. pannonica, Hylaeus clypearis, H. leptocephalus, H. punctatus, Lasioglossum tarsatum, Nomada errans, N. furva, N. lisenmaieri, N. rubiginosa, N. villosa, and Sphecodes pseudofasciatus). It highlighted the great bee species richness in semi-natural habitats, notably in the coastal dunes, but also in some urban or suburban sites, as long as the management is favourable to bees.

Interpreting transfers of rocks during the Mesolithic in the West of France

The crystalline geological substratum of the Armorican Massif, in the West of France, is devoid of flint nodules in primary position. As a result, during Prehistory, humans developed different strategies for making their toolkits, either by adapting production methods to local rocks from diverse sources, or by importing materials from the sedimentary margins. This article proposes to analyse the distribution of lithic materials during the Mesolithic as the consequence of a succession of collective choices. Many sedimentary, metamorphic or plutonic rocks of local origin were used, and considerably increased in quantity from the Early Mesolithic to the Late Mesolithic. After the identification of the geological origin of the rocks, a series of mechanical analyses were carried out to define their properties. Then, the social integration process of these rocks was addressed. The lithic assemblages of Beg-er-Vil (Quiberon) and la Presqu’île (Brennilis) were then described to tangibly explain the intentions of productions in coastal and continental economies respectively during the Late Mesolithic (end of the seventh and sixth millennia BCE). The toolkits in both economies are strictly identical, but two different lithic management systems were clearly in place. The first, on the coast, consisted exclusively of production on pebbles, whereas, the other, inland, used a wide range of materials of mediocre quality. During the Mesolithic (and unlike Neolithic practices), and in this context of geological paucity, sacrificing technical standards always seemed preferable to long-distance acquisitions by means of imports or exchanges.