Search results for "SED"
showing 10 items of 21612 documents
Tracking archaeological and historical mines using mineral prospectivity mapping.
2014
13 pages; International audience; The present study proposes a technological transfer from modern mining prospection to the field of archaeology, providing a methodology to facilitate the discovery of ancient mining sites. This method takes advantage of the thousands of geochemical analyses of streambed sediments, performed by national geological surveys to inventory mineral substances. In order to delineate geochemical anomalies, the datasets are treated following two different approaches: Exploratory Data Analysis and a fractal-based method often recognised as more powerful. Mineral prospectivity maps are then obtained by combining the results with a geographical information system. The s…
The stable isotope composition of organic and inorganic fossils in lake sediment records: current understanding, challenges, and future directions
2018
This paper provides an overview of stable isotope analysis (H, C, N, O, Si) of the macro- and microscopic remains from aquatic organisms found in lake sediment records and their application in (palaeo)environmental science. Aquatic organisms, including diatoms, macrophytes, invertebrates, and fish, can produce sufficiently robust remains that preserve well as fossils and can be identified in lake sediment records. Stable isotope analyses of these remains can then provide valuable insights into habitat-specific biogeochemistry, feeding ecology, but also on climatic and hydrological changes in and around lakes. Since these analyses focus on the remains of known and identified organisms, they …
Revisiting the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic Transition in the Extreme NW of Africa : The Latest Results of the Chronological Sequence of the Cave of Kaf…
2021
[EN] This study focuses on the chronostratigraphic sequence of the Cave of Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Dar Ben Karrich, Tétouan, Morocco) excavated in 2012 in the framework of the AGRIWESTMED research project. The broad sequence reveals a series of occupations ranging from the Pleistocene (Moroccan Aterian) to recent historical times. Our research identifies a rich Early Neolithic phase (sixth millennium cal BC) containing the earliest pottery and domesticated animal and plant remains in the western Maghreb. However, this Early Neolithic level is not an immediate successor of the last traces of the Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer occupation, which started at the end of the Younger Dryas (10,900–9700 …
Environmental responses of past and recent agropastoral activities on south Greenlandic ecosystems through molecular biomarkers
2016
Paleoenvironmental studies previously performed on Lake Igaliku revealed two agropastoral phases in south Greenland: the Norse settlement from AD 986 to ca. AD 1450 and the recent installation of sheep farmers, since the 1920s. To improve the knowledge of the timing and magnitude of the Greenlandic agropastoral activities, a lipid inventory was realized and compared with biological and geochemical data. During the 12th century, a major increase in deoxycholic acid (DOC) and coprophilous fungal spores revealed a maximum of herbivores. Synchronously, a minimum of the n-C29/ n-C31 alkane ratio and tree and shrub pollen and a maximum of triterpenyl acetates showed a reduction in the tree and s…
Record of latest Barremian-Cenomanian environmental change in tectonically controlled depressions from the Jura-Burgundy threshold (Jura Mountains, e…
2019
Abstract The area of the western Jura Mountains constitutes the former Jura-Burgundy threshold between the Tethys Ocean and the epicontinental Paris Basin Sea. During the Barremian, the area was covered by a shallow-water Urgonian carbonate platform. Tectonic processes influenced the architecture of the Urgonian platform and were notably responsible for the formation of fault-related depressions on top of the Urgonian series, which were subsequently transformed into incised valleys and then to marine depocenters. Their sedimentary infills are mostly represented by the Perte-du-Rhone Formation and record stepwise environmental change on the innermost platform, which was strongly influenced b…
Community replacement of neritic carbonate organisms during the late Valanginian platform demise: a new record from the Provence Platform.
2012
24 pages; International audience; The Valanginian is marked by amajor platform demise inducing a hiatus in the northern Tethyan neritic carbonate record from the top of the lower Valanginian to the lower Hauterivian. New biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic data from the Ollioules section (Provence Platform, southern France) are presented here, demonstrating that a large part of the upper Valanginian is preserved in an inner platform environment. The thick, upper Valanginian, aggrading carbonate succession is observed in an aborted rift domain, implying relatively low subsidence. In this context, a relatively long-term sea-level rise was required to sustain a keep-up style of carbonate p…
Drowning of a carbonate platform as a precursor stage of the Early Toarcian global anoxic event (Southern Provence sub-Basin, South-east France)
2011
The Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event is well-known as coinciding with a carbonate crisis, coupled with organic matter accumulation and perturbation of the carbon cycle expressed by carbon-isotope excursions. In this palaeoenvironmental setting, the present research attempts to better constrain the palaeoenvironmental conditions leading to the drowning of a carbonate platform during Late Pliensbachian to Early Toarcian times. This study is based on the integrated sedimentological, diagenetic and geochemical (stable isotopes and Rock-Eval pyrolysis) analysis of several stratigraphic successions located in the Southern Provence sub-Basin (South-east France). Eodiagenetic ferroan calcite cements b…
A tale of two gorges: Late Quaternary site formation and surface dynamics in the Mula basin (Murcia, Spain)
2018
Abstract We present a case-study in Palaeolithic archaeology focusing on formation processes at cave- and rock-shelter-sites in a Mediterranean context and on the correlation between site deposits, Quaternary surface sediments and the morphology of the surrounding land. We study three sites located in the basin of River Mula (Murcia, Spain): the cave-site of Cueva Anton and the rock-shelters of Finca Dona Martina and Abrigo de la Boja, in the Rambla Perea valley. They are examined through an integrated geoarchaeological approach that takes into account geomorphological, stratigraphic and soil micromorphological data. The three sites are found within a short distance and cover similar time s…
Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of sediment drift accumulation in the Malta Graben (central Mediterranean Sea)
2018
The Malta Graben is a deep tectonic depression in the Sicily Channel, bounded by NW-SE normal faults and filled by thick Pliocene-Quaternary deposits. A previous analysis of a giant piston core (LC09) from the Malta Graben had revealed a wide range of sedimentary features (carbonate turbidites, bioturbated mud and scours), although the chronostratigraphic constraint of the stacking pattern has remained elusive. After establishing a reliable chronological framework based on seven radiocarbon dates for a shorter core from the Malta Graben (ANSIC03-735), a down-core analysis of planktonic foraminifer and coccolith abundance, stable isotopes and sediment grain size was carried out. Since the la…
The relationships between soft-sediment deformation structures and synsedimentary extensional tectonics in Upper Triassic deep-water carbonate succes…
2016
Abstract We describe soft-sediment deformation structures into the Upper Triassic cherty limestone outcropping in the Pizzo Lupo section (Central Sicily, Italy), pertaining to the deep-water palaeodomain of the Southern Tethyan margin. In the study section, mainly consisting of thin-bedded mudstone/marl alternations with bedded chert intercalations, some lithofacies have been separated on the basis of the abundance of the calcium carbonate/clay content and the overall textural features. The deformational structures, displaying different deformational styles as folded and faulted beds, disturbed layers, clastic dikes, and slumps occur mainly in the deformed horizons that involve marl-dominat…