Frédéric Christophoul

Placing limits to shortening evolution in the Pyrenees: Role of margin architecture and implications for the Iberia/Europe convergence

Estimating shortening in collision belts is critical to reconstruct past plate motions. Balanced cross-section techniques are efficient in external domains but lack resolution in the hinterland. The role and the original extent of the continental margins during the earliest stages of continental convergence are debated. Here we combine existing and new sequentially restored cross sections in the central Pyrenees, with Iberia/Europe (IB/EU) plate kinematic reconstructions and new apatite fission track, zircon (U-Th)/He, and U/Pb ages to discuss higher and lower bounds of crustal shortening and determine the amount of distal margin sutured during collision. We show that after extension in the Albian (~110 Ma), a 50 km wide extremely thinned crustal domain underwent subduction at 83 Ma. Low-temperature data and thermal modeling show that synorogenic cooling started at 75–70 Ma. This date marks the transition from suturing of the highly extended margin to collision of the more proximal margin and orogenic growth. We infer a relatively low crustal shortening of 90 km (30%) that reflects the dominant thick-skinned tectonic style of shortening in the Pyrenees, as expected for young (Mesozoic) and weak lithospheres. Our proposed reconstruction agrees with IB/EU kinematic models that consider initially rapid convergence of Iberia, reducing from circa 70 Ma onward. This study suggests that plate reconstructions are consistent with balanced cross sections if shortening predicted by age-dependent properties of the continental lithosphere is taken into account.

Stratigraphic responses to a major tectonic event in a foreland basin: the Ecuadorian Oriente Basin from Eocene to Oligocene times

The Eocene to Oligocene sediments of the Ecuadorian Oriente Basin record two kinds of second-order stratigraphic response to the tectonic evolution. Lower Eocene shows evidences of local scale syntectonic deposits. This tectonic activity can be related to right lateral convergent movements inverting pre-cretaceous extensional structures. Upper Eocene and Oligocene sediments are integrated as the expression of an isostatic rebound characterizing a basin scale syntectonic deposition. This response is evidenced by a reciprocal architecture of the depositional sequences identified in the sedimentary formations. These data have allowed us to propose a new geodynamic model for the Paleogene evolution of the Oriente Basin.

Thick-skinned tectonics in the Oriente foreland basin of Ecuador

Abstract The Oriente Basin is part of the retro-arc foreland basin system that developed in the zone of transition between the Central Andes and the Northern Andes since Late Cretaceous times. It is deformed by thick-skinned tectonics related to the inversion of pre-Cretaceous extensional fault systems, which have broken the basin into three tectonic domains during three mean periods of inversion (Late Cretaceous–Palaeocene, Early Eocene and Miocene). The northern part of the present-day Sub-Andean wedge-top corresponded, during the Late Cretaceous, to the forebulge depozone. The NNE–SSW Sacha–Shushufindi Corridor (SSC) extends from the northern region of the Oriente foredeep to the Sub-Andean Cutucú Cordillera. It results from inversion of the Late Triassic–Early Jurassic rifting. The eastern Capiron–Tiputini Inverted System (CTIS) results from the inversion of the normal faults of the Late Jurassic back-arc basin. The Ishpingo–Tambococha–Tiputini (ITT) trend is located in the present-day forebulge depozone of the basin. This position presents favourable conditions for oil biodegradation. Source rocks throughout the Oriente Basin are immature or poorly mature. A large part of oil accumulations must be explained by long-distance migration from the west, before the Eocene uplift of the Cordillera Real, or from the south.

Retro-wedge foreland basin evolution along the ECORS line, eastern Pyrenees, France

The eastern Aquitaine basin and North Pyrenean Zone show many characteristics of retro-wedge models. However, they differ significantly in that slow subsidence and low deformation continued throughout orogenesis so that growth and steady-state phases cannot be distinguished. We show that the eastern Pyrenees record two clear phases of convergence and probably never attained steady state. Analysis of the Aquitaine retro-foreland basin along the Ariège ECORS deep seismic line, eastern French Pyrenees, integrates a new litho- and chronostratigraphy, subsidence analysis, low-temperature thermochronology data, new interpretations of seismic lines and a balanced cross-section. Within an overall regression, two shallowing-up cycles (Latest Santonian–Danian, Thanetian–Oligocene) record slow tectonic subsidence of the eastern Aquitaine basin separated by a quiet period. Continuing thick-skinned shortening was low to moderate. The early marine basin, generated by loading of the weak, extended margin, was supplied axially from an unknown eastern edifice while the young Pyrenean orogeny to the south remained submerged. During the quiet period of ultra-slow subsidence, no basin migration and negligible sediment supply, continental conditions characterized the eastern orogen. The second marine transgression was quickly followed by continental conditions. The basin was supplied by the now emerging Pyrenean orogen and continued to subside until Miocene time.

Les ensembles fluviatiles néogènes du bassin subandin d'Équateur et implications dynamiques

Abstract A sedimentological study of the Neogene continental infill of the Subandean foreland basin of Ecuador led us to define an evolution of the fluvial system from an alluvial plain to an alluvial fan with an increasing slope in the same time as the drainage changed from mostly longitudinal to transverse. Combined with the data presently available on palaeotopography, exhumation, tectonic evolution and geomorphology, these results enable us to infer that, in contrast with the other Subandean foreland basins of Bolivia and Peru, the progradation of the Neogene alluvial fans proceeded by an overall expansion, associated with a relatively small tectonic shortening and not as a result of the development of successive thrust-related depocentres. This also indicates that the surrection of the Cordillera progressed in Ecuador throughout the Neogene. To cite this article: F. Christophoul et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 1029–1037.

Time, place and mode of propagation of foreland basin systems as recorded by the sedimentary fill: examples of the Late Cretaceous and Eocene retro-foreland basins of the north-eastern Pyrenees

Abstract The relationship between tectonics and sedimentary fill has been studied in two syncontractional basins of the western Corbières (eastern North Pyrenean retro-foreland basin). The Late Cretaceous basin formed during c. 10–12 Ma as a result of left-lateral transpressional deformation, and is composed of forward-younging sub-basins characterized by reworking of the forelimbs of growing fold-propagation folds. Thrust-wedge advance and cratonward migration of the platform are recorded by a deepening-upward stacking pattern indicating increased regional subsidence with a limited contribution of the submarine orogen. Tectonic quiescence and erosional unloading lasting 29–30 Ma are recorded by a shallowing-upward stacking pattern, and fluvial sedimentation issued from widespread sources in the emerging inner orogen. The Early to Middle Eocene basin formed as a result of pure shortening normal to the range. The marine Early Eocene basin developed during c.2 Ma by widening of a single basin provoked by the two-step propagation of a basement duplex. This is recorded by growth-stratal patterns and coarsening-upward depositional sequences indicating the increasing contribution of the emerged orogen. The Middle Eocene continental deposits infilled two sub-basins working synchronously and were transported by alluvial fans with a provenance in the inner orogen, during decreasing thrust-wedge advance and increasing erosional unloading.

Stabilization of large drainage basins over geological time scales: Cenozoic West Africa, hot spot swell growth, and the Niger River

Reconstructing the evolving geometry of large river catchments over geological timescales is crucial to constraining yields to sedimentary basins. In the case of Africa, it should further help deciphering the response of large cratonic sediment routing systems to Cenozoic growth of the basin-and-swell topography of the continent. Mapping of dated and regionally correlated lateritic paleolandscape remnants complemented by onshore sedimentological archives allows the reconstruction of two physiographic configurations of West Africa in the Paleogene. Those reconstructions show that the geometry of the drainage stabilized by the Late Early Oligocene (29 Ma) and probably by the end of the Eocene (34 Ma), allowing to effectively link the inland morphoclimatic record to offshore sedimentation since that time, particularly in the case of the Niger catchment – delta system. Mid-Eocene paleogeography reveals the antiquity of the Senegambia catchment back to at least 45 Ma and suggests that a marginal upwarp forming a continental divide preexisted Early Oligocene connection of the Niger and Volta catchments to the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Such a drainage rearrangement was primarily enhanced by the topographic growth of the Hoggar hot spot swell and caused a major stratigraphic turnover along the Equatorial margin of West Africa.

Gradual diversions of the Rio Pastaza in the Ecuadorian piedmont of the Andes from 1906 to 2008: role of tectonics, alluvial fan aggradation, and ENSO events

The successive courses of the Rio Pastaza in the upper Amazonian Puyo plateau (Ecuador) during the past century have been followed using historical maps, aerial photographs, satellite imagery, topographic and river long profiles, and field studies. The abrupt change in direction of the Rio Pastaza from transverse to longitudinal was a result of two avulsions occurred between 1906 and 1976 at the braided-meandering transition of the former alluvial plain. These avulsions are related to aggradation at the toe of a braided piedmont fan prograding on to a hinterland-dipping topographic slope formed by ongoing tectonic backtilting. The main avulsion proceeded by annexation of a south-dipping depression created in front of the cordillera by backtilting of the plateau. A partial and gradual avulsion having occurred upstream of the former site between 1976 and 2008 is marked by the progressive predominance of a newly formed inner branch. Tectonic backtilting enhanced aggradation upstream of the initial site while it offered the newly avulsed channel a still more favorable way along the cordillera by creating a westward lateral slope. The correlation between ENSO events and the occurrence of the 1976–2008 avulsions strongly suggests that the triggers of the avulsions were the floods caused by the high water and sediment discharges associated with ENSO (La Niña) events contrasting with the regular monthly discharge and the lack of actual ‘normal’ floods during the inter-ENSO periods.

Insights Into the Crustal‐Scale Dynamics of a Doubly Vergent Orogen From a Quantitative Analysis of Its Forelands: A Case Study of the Eastern Pyrenees

This study was funded by the ANR (France) PYRAMID research project. The French-Norwegian Foundation (13-06 PYR-FFTP; sedimentary basin and North Pyrenean foreland fold and thrust belt formation) supported study visits to the University of Bergen, Norway. Collaboration with CSIC Barcelona, Spain was funded by the project ALPIMED (PIE-CSIC-201530E082).

El pre-aptense en la cuenca oriente ecuatoriana

Resumen El presente trabajo describe las características estructurales, estratigráficas y sísmicas de las unidades pre-Aptense en la Cuenca Oriente. La elaboración de columnas Jitológicas de pozos tales como: Sacha Profundo, TarnbocochaJ, etc., y la interpretación de secciones sísmicas permitieron redefinir las formaciones pre-Aptenses en el centro Norte y Este de la cuenca. Una nueva formación fue definida en este estudio como Fm. Tambococha (Jurásico MedioCretácico Temprano) al este de la cuenca.