Construite sur une analyse approfondie des archives de Robert Smithson, cette thèse réévalue la série des Nonsites (1967-1969) dans sa relation d'inspiration avec les Géosciences. Elle rappelle le contexte culturel des années soixante comme toile de fond pour l’inspiration de l’artiste et détermine l’envergure de son expertise dans le domaine des sciences. Des documents préparatoires inédits viennent éclairer son processus de création et la manière dont il formule ses œuvres complexes, à partir des sources géologiques, de l'information scientifique et de la muséographie. La relation entre arts et sciences apparaît centrale dans l’élaboration des Nonsites. Chaque œuvre de la série est ainsi rattachée à ses sources artistiques et scientifiques et révèle le moment historique de l’émergence de la sculpture post-minimale. Le jeu de l’espace muséal avec la tridimensionnalité est alors enrichi par le déploiement de strates d’informations contextuelles et crée les prémices d’une interaction nouvelle entre œuvre et spectateur.De plus, deux perspectives ouvertes sur un choix d'œuvres de Giuseppe Penone et Olafur Eliasson démontrent comment leurs démarches artistiques sont en résonance avec les préoccupations créatives de Smithson. Il est ainsi possible de problématiser l’expédition scientifique de terrain (et la manière de penser le territoire qui lui préexiste), ainsi que les agencements muséographiques en art comme en sciences comme sources déterminantes dans la confluence de l’art et des sciences. / Based on a thorough analysis of Robert Smithson's archives, this dissertation re-evaluates the Nonsites series (1967-1969) in its inspirational relationship with the Geosciences. It recalls the cultural context of the sixties as a backdrop for the artist's inspiration and determines the scope of his expertise in the field of science. Unpublished preparatory documents enlighten his creative process and the way he formulates his complex works from geological sources, scientific information and museography. The relationship between arts and sciences is central to the development of the Nonsites. Each work in the series is thus linked to its artistic and scientific sources and reveals the spectacular historical moment of the emergence of post-minimalist sculpture. The play between the museum space and three-dimensionality is then enriched by the deployment of layers of contextual information and provides the basis for a new interaction between viewer and artwork.In addition, two perspectives are drawn towards the work of Giuseppe Penone and Olafur Eliasson and demonstrate how their artistic approaches resonate with Smithson's creative concerns. It is thus possible to problematize the scientific field expedition (and the analysis of the territory, its prerequisite), as well as the museographic arrangements, as determining sources in the confluence of art and science.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The Antler and Sonoma orogenies occurred along the southwest-trending passive Pacific margin of North America during the Paleozoic concluding with the accretion of the McCloud Arc. A southeast-trending sinistral transform fault truncated the continental margin in the Permian, becoming a locus for initiation of an east-dipping subduction zone creating the Sierran magmatic arc. Constrained in age between two early Triassic tuff layers, the volcanic clasts in the breccia of Frog Lakes represent one of the earliest records of mafic magmatism in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Tholeiitic rock clasts found in the breccia of Frog Lakes in the Saddlebag Lake pendant in the east central Sierra Nevada range in composition from 48% to 63% SiO2. Boninites produced by early volcanism of subduction initiation by spontaneous nucleation at the Izu-Bonin-Mariana arc are more depleted in trace element concentrations than the clasts while andesites from the northern volcanic zone of the Andes produced on crust 50 km thick have similar levels of enrichment and provide a better geochemical modern analogue. Textural analysis of the breccia of Frog Lakes suggest a subaqueous environment of deposition from a mature magmatic arc built on continental crust > 50 km thick during the Triassic. The monzodiorites of Saddlebag and Odell Lakes are temporal intrusive equivalents of the breccia of Frog Lakes and zircon geochemistry indicates a magmatic arc petrogenesis.