Aymon Baud

Tethyan margins in space and time

Abstract Rifting processes, leading to sea-floor spreading, are characterized by a sequence of events: transtensive phase of extension with syn-rift volcanism; simple shear extension accompanied by lithospheric thinning and asthenospheric up-welling and thermal uplift of the rift shoulder and asymmetric volcanism. The simple shear model of extension leads to an asymmetric model of passive margin: a lower plate tilted block margin and an upper plate flexural, ramp-like margin. Both will be affected by thermal contraction and subsidence, starting soon after sea-floor spreading. Based on these actualistic models Tethyan margins are classified as one type or the other. Their evolution from the first transtensional phase of extension to the passive margin stage are analyzed. Four main rifting events are recognized in the Tethyan realm: an episode of lower Paleozoic events leading to the formation of the Paleotethys; a Late Paleozoic event leading to the opening of the Permotethys and East Mediterranean basin; an early Mesozoic event leading to the opening of the Pindos Neotethys and a Jurassic event related to the opening of the Alpine/Atlantic Neotethys. Type margins are given as example of each rifting event: Northern Iran (Alborz) as a type area for the Late Ordovician to Silurian rifting of Paleotethys. Northern India and Oman for the Late Carboniferous to early Permian rifting of Permotethys. The East Mediterranean (Levant, Tunisia) as a Late Carboniferous rifting event. The Neotethyan rifting phases are separated in two types: an eastern Pindos system found in Turkey and Greece is genetically linked to the Permotethys with a sea-floor spreading delayed until middle Triassic; a western Alpine system directly linked to the opening of the central Atlantic is characterized by a Late triassic transtensive phase, an early to Middle Liassic break-away phase and, following sea-floor spreading, a thermal subsidence phase starting in Dogger. Problems related to the closure of the Paleozoic oceanic domains are reviewed. A Late Permian, early Triassic phase of “docking” between an European accretionary prism (Chios) and a Paleotethyan margin is supported by recent findings in the Mediterranean area. Back-arc rifting within the European active margin led to the formation of marginal seas during Permian and triassic times and will contribute to the closure of the Paleozoic oceans.

Sedimentary record of the northward flight of India and its collision with Eurasia (Ladakh Himalaya, India)

Abstract— Stratigraphic and petrographic analysis of the Cretaceous to Eocene Tibetan sedimentary succession has allowed us to reinterpret in detail the sequence of events which led to closure of Neotethys and continental collision in the NW Himalaya.During the Early Cretaceous, the Indian passive margin recorded basaltic magmauc activity. Albian volcanic arenites, probably related to a major extensional tectonic event, are unconformably overlain by an Upper Cretaceous to Paleocene carbonate sequence, with a major quartzarenite episode triggered by the global eustatic sea-level fall at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. At the same time, Neotethyan oceanic crust was being subducted beneath Asia, as testified by calc-alkalic volcanism and forearc basin sedimentation in the Transhimalayan belt.Onset of collision and obduction of the Asian accretionary wedge onto the Indian continental rise was recorded by shoaling of the outer shelf at the Paleocene/Eocene boundary, related to flexural uplift of the passive ...

Rapid marine recovery after the end-Permian mass-extinction event in the absence of marine anoxia

A new Early Triassic marine fauna is described from the Central Oman Mountains. The fauna is Griesbachian in age, on the basis of abundant conodonts and ammonoids, and was deposited in an oxygenated seamount setting off the Arabian platform margin. It is the first Griesbachian assemblage from a well-oxygenated marine setting and thus provides a test for the hypothesis that widespread anoxia prevented rapid recovery. The earliest Griesbachian (parvus zone) contains a low-diversity benthic fauna dominated by the bivalves Promyalina and Claraia. A similar level of recovery characterizes the immediate postextinction interval worldwide. However, the middle upper Griesbachian sedimentary rocks (isarcica and carinata zones) contain an incredibly diverse benthic fauna of bivalves, gastropods, articulate brachiopods, a new undescribed crinoid, echinoids, and ostracods. This fauna is more diverse and ecologically complex than the typical middle to late Griesbachian faunas described from oxygen-restricted settings worldwide. The level of postextinction recovery observed in the Oman fauna is not recorded elsewhere until the Spathian. These data support the hypothesis that the apparent delay in recovery after the end-Permian extinction event was due to widespread and prolonged benthic oxygen restriction: in the absence of anoxia, marine recovery is much faster.

Growth and demise of Permian biogenic chert along northwest Pangea: evidence for end-Permian collapse of thermohaline circulation

Abstract The Permian Chert Event (PCE) was a 30 Ma long episode of unusual chert accumulation along the northwest margin of Pangea, and possibly worldwide. The onset of the PCE occurred at about the Sakmarian–Artinskian boundary in the Sverdrup Basin, Canadian Arctic, where it coincides with a maximum flooding event, the ending of high-frequency/high-amplitude shelf cyclicity, the onset of massive biogenic chert deposition in deep-water distal areas, and a long-term shift from warm- to cool-water carbonate sedimentation in shallow-water proximal areas. A similar and coeval shift is observed from the Barents Sea to the northwestern USA. A landward and southward expansion of silica factories occurred during the Middle and Late Permian at which time warm-water carbonate producers disappeared completely from the northwest margin of Pangea. Biotically impoverished and increasingly narrow cold-water carbonate factories (characterised by non-cemented bioclasts of sponges, bryozoans, echinoderms and brachiopods) were then progressively replaced by silica factories. By Late Permian time, little carbonate sediments accumulated in the Barents Sea and in the Sverdrup Basin, where the deep- to shallow-water sedimentary spectrum was occupied by siliceous sponge spicules. By that time, biogenic silica sedimentation was common throughout the world. Silica factories collapsed in the Late Permian, abruptly bringing the PCE to an end. In northwest Pangea, the end-Permian collapse of the PCE was associated with a major transgression and with a return to much warmer oceanic and continental climatic conditions. Chert deposition resumed in the distal oceanic areas during the early Middle Triassic (Anisian) after a 8–10 Ma interruption (Early Triassic Chert Gap). The conditions necessary for the onset, expansion and zenith of the PCE were provided by the thermohaline circulation of nutrient-rich cold waters along the northwestern and western margin of Pangea, and possibly throughout the world oceans. These conditions provided an efficient transportation mechanism that constantly replenished the supply of silica in the area, created a nutrient- and oxygen-rich environment favouring siliceous biogenic productivity, established cold sea-floor conditions, hindering silica dissolution, while increasing calcium carbonate solubility, and provided conditions adverse to organic and inorganic carbonate production. The northwest margin of Pangea was, for nearly 30 Ma, bathed by cold waters presumably derived from the seasonal melting of northern sea ice, the assumed engine for thermohaline circulation. This process started near the Sakmarian–Artinskian boundary, intensified throughout Middle and Late Permian time and ceased suddenly in latest Permian time. It led to oceanic conditions much colder than normally expected from the palaeolatitudes, and the influence of cold northerly-derived water was felt as far south southern Nevada. The demise of silica factories was caused by the rapid breakdown of these conditions and the establishment of a much warmer marine environment accompanied by sluggish circulation and perhaps a reduced input of dissolved silica to the ocean. Complete thawing of northern sea ice would have ended thermohaline circulation and led to warm and sluggish oceanic conditions inimical to the production, accumulation and preservation of biogenic silica.

A unique Permian^Triassic boundary section from the Neotethyan Hawasina Basin, Central Oman Mountains

In the Wadi Wasit area (Central Oman Mountains), Dienerian breccias are widespread. These breccias consist mostly of Guadalupian reefal blocks, often dolomitised, and some rare small-sized blocks of lowermost Triassic bivalve-bearing limestones. A unique block, with a size of about 200 m3, including Permian and earliest Triassic faunas has been studied in detail. The so-called Wadi Wasit block consists of three major lithological units. A basal unstratified grey limestone is rich in various reef-building organisms (rugose corals, calcareous sponges, stromatoporoids) and has been dated as Middle Permian. It is disconformably overlain by well- and thin-bedded light grey to yellowish coloured limestones rich in molluscs. Two major lithologies (Coquina Limestone respectively Bioclastic Limestone unit) characterise the shelly limestones, their contact seems gradual. These two units are well-dated; they are of Griesbachian age and contain three conodont zones, the Parvus Zone, the Staeschei Zone and the Sosioensis Zone, and two ammonoid zones, the Ophiceras tibeticum Zone and an ‘unnamed interval’. The third unit consists of a grey marly limestone containing Neospathodus kummeli (basal Dienerian). It is the first record of well-dated basal Triassic sediments in the Arabian Peninsula. The Coquina Limestone is dominated by the bivalve Promyalina with some Claraia and Eumorphotis. This bivalve association is interpreted as a pioneering opportunistic assemblage. Towards the top of the Bioclastic Limestone unit, the faunal diversity increases and contains probably more than 20 taxa of bivalves, microgastropods, crinoids, brachiopods, ammonoids, echinoid spines, ostracods and conodonts. The generic diversity of this biofacies exceeds by far any other Griesbachian assemblage known. Our data give new evidence for the geodynamical history for the distal carbonate shelf bordering the Hawasina Basin. A break in the sedimentation characterises the Late Permian. The basal Triassic shows a steady transgression and the breccias may record a distinct gravitational collapse of platform margins linked with sea-level low stand at the end of Induan time (late Dienerian–basal Smithian). δ13Ccarb isotopic analyses were performed and yield typical Permian values of around 4‰ for the Reefal Limestone, with a strong negative shift across the Permian–Triassic boundary. During the Griesbachian values shift positively from 0.5 to 3.1‰ parallel to an increase in faunal diversity and probably primary productivity. The detailed faunal analysis and the discovery of an unexpected diversity give us a new understanding of the recovery of the Early Triassic marine ecosystem.

Late Permian and Early Triassic evolution of the Northern Indian margin: carbon isotope and sequence stratigraphy

AbstractThe Northern part of Great-India underwent an early rifting phase in the late Paleozoic, just at the end of the large scale Gondwanian glaciation. The beginning of the rifting processes is marked by large hiatus and discontinuities (para- conformities) between the early or middle Paleozoic sedimentary succession and the discontinuous middle-late Permian Traps and transgressive sediments. The Northern Indian passive margin consists of the present High and Lower Himalaya and a small part of the Indian craton and their sedimentary cover. The Permian rift shoulder is located in the Higher Himalaya, with part being in the underthrusted Lower Himalaya. The rim basin (landward of the shoulder) is well developed in the Pottawar- Salt Range area. From the rifting to the beginning of the drifting stages (early late Permian to late early Triassic time), the sedimentary evolution is characterised by three transgressive- regressive (T-R) second order cycles, two in the late Permian and one in the early Triassi...

The Oman Exotics: a key to the understanding of the Neotethyan geodynamic evolution

AbstractThe study of the exotic blocks of the Hawasina Nappes (Sultanate of Oman) leads to give apposit data that allow us to propose a new paleogeographic evolution of the Oman margin in time and space. A revised classification of exotic blocks into different paleogeographical units is presented. Two newly introduced stratigraphic groups, the Ramaq Group (Ordovician to Triassic) and the Al Buda’ah Group (upper Permian to Jurassic) are interpreted as tilted blocks related to the Oman continental margin. The Kawr Group (middle Triassic to Cretaceous) is redefined and interpreted as an atoll-type seamount. The paleogeography and paleoenvironments of these units are integrated into a new scheme of the Neotethyan rifting history. Brecciae and olistoliths of the Hawasina series are interpreted to have originated from tectonic movements affecting the Oman margin and the Neotethyan ocean floor. The breccias of late Permian age were generated by the extension processes affecting the margin, and by the creation of...

Early Permian (Sakmarian) brachiopods from southeastern Oman

Abstract The Lower Permian succession of the Huqf area (Sultanate of Oman) represents the uppermost part of a mega-sequence which includes the Late Carboniferous to? Sakmarian tillites of the Al Khlata Fm. and the overlying transgressive marine Saiwan Fm. of Early Permian age. The Saiwan yields a rich brachiopod fauna associated with bivalves, gastropods, crinoids, conularids, cephalopods and bryozoans. The brachiopod fauna of the Saiwan includes Derbyia haroubi nov. sp., Arctitreta cf. bioni ( Reed ), Reedoconcha permixta ( Reed ), Neospirifer aff. hardmani ( Foord ), Neospirifer sp., Trigonotreta sp., ?Cyrtella aff. nagmargensis ( Bion ), Subansiria sp., Punctocyrtella spinosa Plodowski , Punctospirifer sp., Callispirina sp., Fletcherithyris sp., ?Gilledia sp. This brachiopod assemblage indicates a Late Sakmarian age. Application of the Unitary Association method (Guex 1991) to the brachiopod data of the Saiwan leads to establish a local biochronological sequence of three faunal associations.

Les événements de la limite Permien-Trias : Derniers survivants et/ou premiers re-colonisateurs parmi les ostracodes du Taurus (Sud-Ouest de la Turquie)

The events of the Permian-Trias boundary: last survivors and/or first colonisers among the ostracods of the Taurides (southwestern Turkey). Very few data on Early Triassic marine ostracods are available. In most of cases, the data concern the upper part of the Early Triassic. The Curuk da u g section, located in the Western Taurides (Turkey), well stratigraphically constrained by conodonts and foraminifera, has been re-sampled for ostracod study. A significant fauna has been discovered in the Late Permian and the levels of the Earliest Triassic (Hindeodus parvus and Isarcicella isarcica staeschei zones). The ostracods of the basis of the Kokarkuyu Fm. are the oldest Triassic forms ever discovered. The occurrence of Palaeocopes in the earliest Triassic and similarity between the Permian and Induan assemblages suggest that the Lower Triassic Curuk dau g ostracods represent a survival assemblage after the Permo-Triassic mass-extinction. To cite this article: S. Crasquin-Soleau et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 489-495.  2002 Academie des sciences / Editions

Lower Triassic bryozoan beds from Ellesmere Island, High Arctic, Canada

In the Sverdrup Basin (Canadian Arctic), the Lower Triassic Blind Fiord Formation, comprising siltstone and shale, overlies various Middle to Late Permian (post-Wordian) sedimentary units. This formation is subdivided into three members: the Confederation Point, Smith Creek and Svartfjeld members of, respectively, Griesbachian–Dienerian, Smithian–Spathian and Spathian ages. Lower Triassic bryozoan beds are known from many sections of Ellesmere Island, but have never been studied in detail. During the Early Triassic biotic recovery interval, immediately following the Permian/Triassic extinction event, only one new bryozoan genus evolved in the Boreal region: Arcticopora. The first lower Triassic bryozoan bed appears in the upper part of the Confederation Point Member, and is dated as late Dienerian. Succeeding bryozoan levels occur in the upper Smith Creek Member, and are late Smithian–early Spathian in age. Bryozoan beds occupy a similar stratigraphic position in Spitsbergen. There, they occur scattered in silt to coarse sandstone beds, but also in bryozoan-dominated packstone beds resembling the packstone units in the uppermost part of the Confederation Point Member of Ellesmere Island. Previously, bryozoan-rich beds of Triassic age have not been reported, and the present work fills an important time gap in the bryozoan carbonate database.