Comptes Rendus Géoscience

Page de Sommaire

Philippe Charvis

Flore Gubert

Frédéric Ménard

Vulnerability of inter-tropical littoral areas. Preface

Stéphanie Duvail

Olivier Hamerlynck

Paolo Paron

Dominique Hervé

Wanja D. Nyingi

Michele Leone

Rutger De Wit Handled by Isabelle Manighetti

The changing hydro-ecological dynamics of rivers and deltas of the Western Indian Ocean: Anthropogenic and environmental drivers, local adaptation and policy response

Michel Faure

Wei Lin

Yang Chu

Claude Lepvrier

Handled by Isabelle Manighetti

Triassic tectonics of the southern margin of the South China Block

Claude Rangin

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C. R. Geoscience 348 (2016) 1–2
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om past to current tectonics: Thematic issue dedicated to
an-François Stéphan (1949–2013)
This thematic issue of Comptes rendus Geoscience has
n assembled to honor the memory of our late colleague
 friend Jean-François Stéphan. Jean-François was a
at scientist, specialized in tectonics, and a great
eague who devoted his time for his community. His
rk and actions deeply imprinted both the French and the
rnational Earth Science communities. This volume
gs together contributions of colleagues of Jean-
nçois, who were also close friends or colleagues who
w and deeply appreciated him. Naturally, tectonics is
 common theme of these contributions. Some of the
ers presented here focus on tectonic questions and/or
ions Jean-François worked on during his career; other
ers present studies Jean-François motivated or encour-
d in one way or another; other papers are simply
tonic studies he would have liked. Taken together, the
e papers of this thematic issue take the reader on a
utiful trip, from past to current tectonics.
The first three papers revisit the subduction factories
t were operating in Eurasia in Triassic to Cretaceous
es. Faure et al. (2016) analyze the Triassic tectonic
tures that form the southern margin of the South China
ck, and show from lithostratigraphic, structural and
onological evidence that the South China Block sub-
ted southward below the Qiangtang–Indochina block,
in opposite direction to the common vision. The
thward subduction was coeval with the intraconti-
tal subduction well documented in South-East China.
se results therefore provide a new vision of the Triassic
ductions in China. The papers by Chorowicz (2016) and
son et al. (2016) then take the readers further west, in
ope and adjacent regions. Based on lithostratigraphic
 tectonic analyses, Chorowicz (2016) shows that the
sent Pieniny Klippen Belt in the Carpathians formed
inally along a large north–south transform fault that
 the Neotethys domain from Permian to Early Paleo-
e. The transform fault was likely separating the
ninic and Insubric Oceans in the west from the
Carpathian Embayment and the Vardar oceans in the east.
Its transcurrent motion allowed subductions and obduc-
tions to operate with reverse vergence north and south of
the Neotethys. Sosson et al. (2016) provide additional
information on the Neotethys, in its prolongation further
east, in the Eastern Black Sea-Caucasus region. From new
stratigraphic, tectonic, and petrologic data acquired on
ophiolitic units in the zone, they show that an intra-
oceanic northward subduction was operating within the
Neotethys during the Cretaceous. When the spreading
center of the back-arc basin created by this intra-oceanic
subduction was carried into general subduction below
Eurasia, it opened a window into the slab that weakened
the overlying Eurasia plate. The plate weakening in turn
favored the opening of the Black Sea. The paper thus shows
how the Neotethys subduction factory resulted in produc-
ing some of the major tectonic elements of the Southern
Eurasia plate.
The next paper, by Rangin (2016), examines the
subduction process at a more focused scale, that of the
active margins where two convergent plates are in contact.
Rangin (2016) takes the reader to Asia again and, based on
tectonic data, analyzes the zones of micro-plates that have
formed the active margins in the Philippines, Andaman
Sea, and Burma regions during the Cenozoic. The
Philippines and Andaman Sea margins are shown to have
deformed in a fairly rigid manner, whereas the Burma
margin attests to a non-rigid behavior. The work thus
opens questions on which large-scale mechanisms might
control the mechanical behavior of subduction margins.
The following paper by Calais et al. (2016) keeps the
focus on subduction zones, but now examines how a
typical frontal subduction – that in Lesser Antilles,
transitions to strike-slip fault zones on its lateral edges.
Combining current GPS and long-term geological data, the
authors show that the Caribbean–North American plate
boundary is segmented laterally from frontal subduction in
the east, to oblique subduction with no strain partitioning
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Comptes Rendus Geoscience
ww w.s c ien c edi r ec t . c om
://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crte.2015.11.0031-0713/ 2015 Académie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Foreword / C. R. Geoscience 348 (2016) 1–22in the center (Puerto Rico), to oblique subduction/collision
with strain partitioning further west (Hispaniola). The
segmentation of the plate boundary is shown to arise from
its Neogene tectonic history, which highlights the control
of the long-term plate boundary properties onto current
deformation, including earthquakes and inter-seismic
loading.
The next two papers consider faults in general and
examine some of their fundamental properties. Perrin et al.
(2016) analyze the surface traces of about 50 continental
faults spanning a broad range of lengths, ages, and slip
modes, and whose direction of long-term lengthening is
known. They show that, independently of the parent fault
size and slip mode, networks of splay faults are systemati-
cally observed off the propagating fault tips, where they
have a length and a map-view width systematically scaled
to the parent fault’s length. The genetic and generic tip
splay networks are discussed in terms of permanent
damage resulting from fault growth. Chemenda et al.
(2016) provide a numerical model describing the 3-D
formation and evolution of a strike-slip fault in an
elastoplastic medium. The model reveals the development
of a wide and deep damage zone adjacent to the parent
fault, with a flower-type geometry in the vertical plane.
The details of the fault and damage evolution are revealed,
which provides important insights into the understanding
of natural faulting. In particular, the fault evolves as a
complex 3-D fault zone including different segments, and
damage widens rapidly as the fault grows, both away from
its trace and from surface to depth.
The next paper by Aguilar et al. (2016) keeps the reader
on strike-slip faults, and more specifically focuses on the El
Pilar dextral fault in Venezuela. The question is to examine
whether large prehistorical earthquakes on this fault have
significantly disturbed sedimentation in the Gulf of
Cariaco. Based on various sedimentary analyses of twelve
short cores extracted in the Gulf, the authors find evidence
of a widespread fine-grained siliciclastic deposit within
the Gulf, whose age suggests that it likely formed during
the large 1853 AD earthquake on the fault. It is proposed
that the earthquake induced large submarine landslides
that modified the topography of the Gulf entrance, which
in turn promoted upwelling and open marine water flows
from the Cariaco Basin, presently attested to by the
observed siliciclastic deposit.
Finally, Masse and Laurent (2016) take the reader to
the present time, and place him/her at the boundary
between geology and tectonics, history of geological
sciences, and exploitation of natural resources. The
authors show how geological studies have progressed
over the last century in Angola, and how this progress has
been fed both by mining and petroleum companies
interested in the local resources, and by the passion of
scientists that were also explorers.
Altogether the nine papers brought together in this
issue provide important new insights into some of the
most important tectonic features: subduction zones,
continental (especially strike-slip) faults, large earthqua-
kes, and interseismic deformation. In doing so, they render
a tribute to Jean-François Stéphan, who worked on all these
topics, with constant passion and creativity.
References
Aguilar, I., Beck, C., Audemard, F., Develle, A.-L., Boussafir, M., Campos, C.,
Crouzet, C., 2016. Last millenium sedimentation in the Gulf of Cariaco
(NE Venezuela): evidence for morphological changes of gulf entrance
and possible relations with large earthquakes. C. R. Geoscience 348,
(this issue).
Calais, E., Smythe, S., Mercier de Lépinay, B., Prépetit, C., 2016. Plate
boundary segmentation in the northeastern Caribbean from geodetic
measurements and Neogene geological observations. C. R. Geoscience
348, (this issue).
Chemenda, A.I., Cavalié, O., Vergnolle, M., Bouissou, S., Delouis, B., 2016.
Numerical model of formation of a 3-D strike-slip fault system. C. R.
Geoscience 348, (this issue).
Chorowicz, J., 2016. Genesis of the Pieniny Klippen Belt in the Carpa-
thians: possible effects of a major paleotransform fault in the Neo-
Tethyan domain. C. R. Geoscience 348, (this issue).
Faure, M., Lin, W., Chu, Y., 2016. Triassic tectonics of the southern margin
of the South Cjhina Block, 2016. C. R. Geoscience 348, (this issue).
Masse, P., Laurent, O., 2016. Geological exploration of Angola from Sumbe
to Namibe: a review at the frontier between geology, natural resour-
ces and the history of geology. C. R. Geoscience 348, (this issue).
Perrin, C., Manighetti, I., Gaudemer, Y., 2016. Off-fault tip splay networks:
a genetic and generic property of faults indicative of their long-term
propagation. C. R. Geoscience 348, (this issue).
Rangin, C., 2016. Rigid and non-rigid micro-plates: Philippines and
Myanmar-Andaman case studies. C. R. Geoscience 348, (this issue).
Sosson, M., Stephenson, R., Sheremet, Y., Rolland, Y., Adamia, S., Melko-
nian, R., Kangarli, T., Yegorova, T., Avagyan, A., Galoyan, G., Hässig, M.,
Danielan, T., Meijers, M., Müller, C., Sahakyan, L., Sadradze, N., Alania,
V., Enukidze, O., 2016. The eastern Black Sea–Caucasus region during
Cretaceous: new evidence to constrain its tectonic evolution. C. R.
Geoscience 348, (this issue).
Isabelle Manighetti
Université de Nice–Sophia Antipolis, Géoazur, bâtiment 4,
250, rue Albert-Einstein, 06560 Valbonne, France
E-mail address: manighetti@geoazur.unice.fr
Available online 17 December 2015


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Pierre Kamgang

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CV2 - Editorial board ENG

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Genesis of the Pieniny Klippen Belt in the Carpathians: Possible effects of a major paleotransform fault in the Neo-Tethyan domain

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Isabelle Manighetti

Yves Gaudemer

Handled by Vincent Courtillot

Off-fault tip splay networks: A genetic and generic property of faults indicative of their long-term propagation

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