Search results for "Continental margin"
showing 10 items of 78 documents
The Geologic History of the Marginal Basins Along the North Shore of the Gulf of Guinea
1973
The North shore of the Gulf of Guinea forms the coastline of Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Dahomey, Nigeria, and the Cameroons (Fig. 1). The westernmost point of the coastal region to be discussed here is Cape Palmas (long 8° W) on the border between Liberia and the Ivory Coast. The easternmost limit is formed by the Cameroons Bight at long 9° 30′ E. The marginal basins are limited to the north by the upper Guinea arch which stretches for more than 2000 km in a west-east direction from Liberia to the Cameroons. In this arch region the metamorphic basement is exposed over wide areas. Some of the details of this basement are discussed by Hurley and Rand, and by Grant in this book. Fo…
U–Pb zircon geochronology and Hf–Nd isotopic systematics of Wadi Beitan granitoid gneisses, South Eastern Desert, Egypt
2015
Abstract Migmatitic granitoid gneisses are widespread in the southern Eastern Desert of Egypt, but their formation ages are poorly understood. They consist of granitoid gneiss ranging in composition from tonalite to granodiorite, with a distinct calc-alkaline chemical character. Zircons from three migmatitic gneiss samples from Wadi Beitan were dated on SHRIMP II and yielded magmatic emplacement ages of 719 ± 10, 725 ± 9 and 744 ± 10 Ma, respectively, indicating that the gneiss protoliths are Neoproterozoic. The zircons yielded eHf(t) values of − 4.8 to + 12.5 and corresponding Hf crustal model ages ranging from 824 to 1753 Ma. These data indicate the involvement of both juvenile and older …
Preliminary data concerning the morphology of a Calabrian Ionian margin area: Caulonia and Marina di Gioiosa canyons
2008
In the framework of the Vector National Italian Project (VulCost line), aimed to study the role of the morphology and the geology of the Ionian Calabrian margin in the coastline evolution, an oceanographic cruise was planned to collect geophysical data along two canyon systems: Caulonia and Marina di Gioiosa. The survey explored the continental shelf and slope from a depth of 15 m to more than 1150 m, using Multibeam Echosounder to investigate the seafloor topography. This work provides an outline of the erosive feature of the slope, shaped mostly by seasonal river input and by the connection to the structural and geological characteristics of the margin, made interesting by a narrow shelf …
Elusive active faults in a low strain rate region (Sicily, Italy): Hints from a multidisciplinary land-to-sea approach
2022
Low Strain Rate regions (LSRrs), i.e., areas undergoing tectonic deformation at rates of 1 mm/yr or less, often host important cities and highly vulnerable anthropogenic assets, and due to their subdued topography and relatively infrequent seismicity, are often considered low seismic hazard areas. Despite this, infrequent but high-magnitude earthquakes in such regions suggest that identifying active structures in the LSRr is one of the primary challenges for both the scientific community and modern societies. In such regions, one of the main issues in identifying active faults is the lack of valuable outcrop data due to erosional/sedimentation rates overwhelming the fault deformation, causi…
Active tectonics, sedimentation history and geomorphological features in the northern Sicily continental margin: implications for the marine geohazar…
2020
Starting from the assumption that seismic events in the active margins are accompanied by evidence of a depositional, geomorphologic and structural type, which constitutes the geological record of their activity, we analysed different features of the Northern Sicily continental margin (NSCM) to reconstruct the deformational field and related stress field in the Southern Tyrrhenian sea. As an outcome of this project we were going to obtain seismotectonic setting and mapping to provide a powerful tool in managing and assessing the marine geological hazards. The study area extends from the San Vito Peninsula to the Termini Gulf along the NSCM, including the Ustica island, and is located in a t…
Evolution of the neodymium isotopic signature of neritic seawater on a northwestern Pacific margin: new constrains on possible end-members for the co…
2013
11 pages; International audience; The Neodymium(Nd) isotope composition of fish remains has beenwidely used to track past changes in oceanic circulation. Although the number of published Nd isotope data for the Cretaceous has markedly increased in the last years, no consensus has been reached on the structure of the oceanic circulation and its evolution during the Late Cretaceous. Yet this period is characterised bymajor geodynamical and climatic changes andmarked by the disappearance of global oceanic anoxic events inwhich changes in oceanic circulation modesmay have played a significant role. In this study we present the first record of Nd isotopic composition of fish remains from contine…
First Evidence of Contourite Drifts in the North-Western Sicilian Active Continental Margin (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea)
2021
We present the results of an integrated geomorphological and seismo-stratigraphic study based on high resolution marine data acquired in the north-western Sicilian continental margin. We document for the first time five contourite drifts (marked as EM1a, EM2b, EM2, EM3a, and EM3b), located in the continental slope at depths between ca. 400 and 1500 m. EM1a,b have been interpreted as elongated mounded drifts. EM1a,b are ca. 3 km long, 1.3 km wide, and have a maximum thickness of 36 m in their center that thins northwards, while EM1b is smaller with a thickness up to 24 m. They are internally characterized by mounded seismic packages dominated by continuous and parallel reflectors. EM2 is loc…
Submarine Slope Failures Along the Northern Sicilian Continental Margin (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea) and Possible Implications for Geo-Hazard
2013
Mass wasting and downslope movements are common processes that have contributed to shape the northern Sicilian continental margin (southern Tyrrhenian Sea) since the Late Quaternary. Nevertheless, processes controlling their evolution are still partially unknown and a variety of geologic factors can be responsible for their formation. In this work we present an overview of the main mass wasting features (submarine canyons, landslides, debris flows) observed and mapped in different sectors of the northern Sicilian margin. The margin is characterized by a narrow, steep continental shelf (1-2°) and a very irregular and steep (6-8°) upper slope. The main aims of this work are: (1) to outline th…
How Offshore Groundwater Shapes the Seafloor
2018
The MARCAN project, launched last January, is working to fill a gap in our knowledge of how freshwater flowing underground shapes and alters the continental margins.
Age of Palaeozoic granites and metamorphism in the Tuvino-Mongolian Massif of the Central Asian Mobile Belt: loss of a Precambrian microcontinent
2001
Abstract The Tuvino-Mongolian Massif (TMM) was previously interpreted as a Precambrian block within the Central Asian Mobile Belt. According to this idea, it consists of tectonic slices composed of metamorphic rocks of pre-Mesoproterozoic basement that experienced two episodes of regional metamorphism, and Mesoproterozoic ‘cover rocks’ that were reworked together with the basement during high-grade metamorphism. Zircon U–Pb dating of granitoids from all metamorphic complexes demonstrates that the earliest metamorphic event occurred at 536±6 Ma, significantly later than the deposition of the cover rocks. Regional upper amphibolite-facies metamorphism, which affected all metasedimentary units…