Thèse (M.Sc.T.) -- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 2004. / Bibliogr.: f. 151-161. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

The Velay oriental (Massif Central, France) is a basaltic plateau with abundant viscous phonolite extrusions. The plateau lavas grade from alkali basalt to mugearite, but intermediate compositions are volumetrically scarce. Pyroclastics are absent. The most complete plateau sections are in the south, while in the north intermediate lavas appear only as viscous, phenocryst-rich extrusions. The plateau lavas were erupted between 11.7Ma and 7.6Ma, the southern phonolites 8.5Ma- 6.5Ma and new data show that the northern phonolites were erupted between 13.3Ma and 10.5Ma. Basement uplift occurred during the plateau-building stage, due to the emplacement of magma chambers. Intermediate lavas are scarce because they remained in the magma chambers due to their density, whereas phonolite was able to rise hydrostatically. The magma chambers were within 5km of the surface. Phonolites are divided into miaskitic and agpaiitic types on the basis of their chemistry and petrography. They evolved from the basalt by crystal settling in the magma chambers, whereas the aphyric plateau lavas evolved by plating crystals onto their conduit walls as they flowed towards the surface. Sr-isotopes show that the basalt-phonolite series is uncontaminated, whereas the northern intermediate lavas evolved by assimilation-fractional-crystallisation. A suite of cumulate nodules was recovered from a pyroclastic unit, which is probably younger than the Velay Miocene lavas. They are related to the northern intermediate lavas, and belong to the "Group II" class of nodules. Geothermobarometry suggests that both the cumulates and the northern intermediate lavas crystallised at a depth of 15-20km and probably became contaminated due to the smaller temperature difference between the geotherm and granite solidus at that depth. The vast majority of the Velay lavas are identical to alkalic ocean-island lavas, geochemically unaffected by their passage through the lithosphere, but with their relative proportions at the surface controlled by the density contrast between the basalt and basement granite.

The aim of this study is to define mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of phlogopite-pargasite enriched ultramafic-mafic cumulate rocks from Kuran&ccedil / ali (Kirsehir) and their implications for petrology and regional geological setting. The Kuran&ccedil / ali rocks, found within an allochthonous sliver, are representative for the isolated members of the Central Anatolian Ophiolites, derived from closure of Izmir-Ankara-Erzincan branch of Alpine Neotethys. The rocks overthrust the Metamorphic Ophiolitic M&eacute / lange (the uppermost part of the Central Anatolian Metamorphics) and cut by felsic dykes of the Late Cretaceous Central Anatolian Granitoids. The Kuran&ccedil / ali rocks are unusually enriched in phlogopite and pargasite with varying crystal sizes. They are also composed of diopsidic augite, plagioclase, rutile, ilmenite, sphene, apatite and pyrite. The rocks are divided into six types / clinopyroxenite, clinopyroxenite-with-hydrous minerals-plagioclase, phlogopitite, hornblendite, layered gabbro and diorite. Evaluation of detailed EMP data from constituent minerals of different rock types showed that phlogopite with high Fe2+-Fe3+-Al[6]-Ti, diopsidic-augite with high Ca-Al(t)-Ti, Si-undersaturated pargasite with high Al[4]-K-Na-Ti-contents and intercumulus plagioclase with a wide range of composition (an%=40.61-98.58) display unusual compositions. Substitution mechanisms and elemental variations of the minerals suggest crystallization from hydrous metasomatized mantle, high water pressure and oxygen fugacities during formation of the Kuran&ccedil / ali rocks. Major oxide, trace and rare earth element abundances of the rock units were used to evaluate petrological characteristics. Chemical and tectonic discrimination diagrams, and parallel multi-element and REE patterns with highly enriched in LILE and LREE relative to HREE and HFSE show strong calc-alkaline affinity with slight alkaline features. Troughs at Nb-Ta and Ti characterize the rocks but these elements are slightly enriched than N-MORB. The rocks show high LREE/HREE ratios. Both unusual mineralogical and geochemical features of the rocks show that the rocks were generated in an arc environment. Moreover, they require a mantle wedge source strongly influenced by metasomatic components (fluid/melt) derived from subducting slab and/or OIB-like alkaline melt. Comparison of the rocks with tectonically well-defined rocks displays that they are generated in an intra-oceanic arc environment, but owe a comparison with fore-arc back-arc Central Anatolian Ophiolites within supra-subduction zone environment revealed that Kuran&ccedil / ali rocks are different and generated in an arc basement.

Thèse (D.R.Min.) -- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1992. / These présentée en collaboration de l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi et Institute of geochemistry, Academia Sinica. CaQCU Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

The Malaysian granitoids form the backbone of the Malay Peninsula and have long been recognized as composed of two distinct granitic provinces separated by the Bentong-Raub suture zone: <table><ol><li>Early Permian to Late Triassic Eastern Province (Indochina – East Malaya) with mainly “I-type” hornblende-bearing granitoids, associated with Cu-Au deposits, and subordinate hornblende-free pluton roof-zones hosting limited Sn-W deposits; and</li> <li>Late Triassic Main Range Province, western Malaysia (Sibumasu) with mainly “S-type” hornblende-free granitoids, associated with Sn-W deposits, and subordinate hornblende-bearing granitoids.</li></ol></table> Field observations and new geochemical data suggested that the division of the Eastern Province and Main Range granitoids using Chappell and White’s (1974) I-S classification could be problematic, as there is a large degree of overlap between the two granitic provinces in terms of lithology, mineralogy and metallogenic affinity. The Main Range granitoids are more fractionated than the hornblende-bearing Eastern Province. Although the two granitic provinces were emplaced into different continental terranes, both granitic provinces exhibit common trace element geochemistry in the enrichment of high field strength elements (HFSE) and rare earth elements (REE) compared to typical Cordilleran I-S granites. Such enrichment is interpreted as an inheritance signature from the protoliths. The Kontum massif (an analogue of Indochina lower continental crust) comprises intraplate ortho-amphibolites and para-gneisses, which could serve as two hypothetical source end-members for the Malaysian granitoids. The model suggests that the geneses of the parental magmas of the Eastern Province and the Main Range Province were related to hybridization of melts derived from protoliths, geochemically and isotopically similar to these two source end-members, but in differing proportions. The fact that the granites from the two granitic provinces are so similar compositionally and metallogenically, suggests that similar protoliths were involved in their source. The incorporation of sedimentary-sourced melt makes the Main Range granitoids transitional I/S-type in nature, but this is unlikely to be true for the less evolved Eastern Province fractionated I-type granitoids. The hybridization of igneous- and sedimentary-sourced melts, and granite fractionation promotes Sn metallogenesis in the Main Range granitic province. Previous ages were obtained using whole rock Rb-Sr and biotite K-Ar geochronology in the 1970s and 1980s, dating methods that almost certainly do not accurately represent the crystallization age of granites. New ion microprobe U-Pb zircon ages are presented that provide new temporal constraints for the Malaysian granitic magmatism. Eastern Province granitoids have U-Pb zircon ages that range from 289 to 220 Ma, while Main Range Province magmatism is constrained between 227 and 201 Ma. A progressive westward younging trend is apparent across the Eastern Province, but becomes less obvious in the Main Range Province. In addition, the U-Pb zircon analysis of the Malaysian granitoids suggests that both granitic provinces have Cambro-Ordovician and Mesoproterozoic inheritance signatures, which match the ages of the Kontum intraplate ortho-amphibolites and para-gneisses, the two source end-members of the suspected Indochina basement. Two different tectonic models have been suggested to explain the formation and the emplacement of the Malaysian granitoids. Both models involve an east-dipping subduction zone during the Early and Mid-Triassic with Palaeo-Tethys lithosphere rolling back along the Bentong-Raub suture zone to produce westward younging ages in the Eastern Province granitoids. The first model (modified after Searle et al. 2012) suggests the younger Main Range granitoids were produced by another Late Triassic – Cretaceous east-dipping (Neo-Tethyan) subduction to the west of Sibumasu, after the Sibumasu – East Malaya collision. The transitional I/S-type geochemistry of the Main Range granitoids was caused by the partial melting of the more heterogeneous Sibumasu basement. The second model (Oliver et al. 2014) suggests the younger Main Range granitoids were produced by the westward underthrusting of Indochina crust of East Malaya beneath Sibumasu along the Bentong-Raub suture zone after the continental collision. In this model, the source of the Main Range granitoids was the pre-collision I-type Eastern Province granitoids. The second model is less likely, as no geological evidence for such underthrust is found in the Malay Peninsula.

Mémoire (M.Sc.A.)-- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi ; 1986. / "Mémoire présenté pour l'obtention du grade de maîtrise es sciences appliquées" CaQCU Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Sedimentary basins form when water-borne sediments in shallow seas are deposited over periods of millions of years. Sediments compact under their own weight, causing the expulsion of pore water. If this expulsion is sufficiently slow, overpressuring can result, a phenomenon which is of concern in oil drilling operations. The competition between pore water expulsion and burial is complicated by a variety of factors, which include diagenesis (clay dewatering), and different modes (elastic or viscous) of rheological deformation via compaction and pressure solution, which may also include hysteresis in the constitutive behaviours. This thesis is concerned with models which can describe the evolution of porosity and pore pressure in sedimentary basins. We begin by analysing the simplest case of poroelastic compaction which in a 1-D case results in a nonlinear diffusion equation, controlled principally by a dimensionless parameter lambda, which is the ratio of the hydraulic conductivity to the sedimentation rate. We provide analytic and numerical results for both large and small lambda in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. We then put a more realistic rheological relation with hysteresis into the model and investigate its effects during loading and unloading in Chapter 5. A discontinuous porosity profile may occur if the unloaded system is reloaded. We pursue the model further by considering diagenesis as a dehydration model in Chapter 6, then we extend it to a more realistic dissolution-precipitation reaction-transport model in Chapter 7 by including most of the known physics and chemistry derived from experimental studies. We eventually derive a viscous compaction model for pressure solution in sedimentary basins in Chapter 8, and show how the model suggests radically different behaviours in the distinct limits of slow and fast compaction. When lambda << 1, compaction is limited to a basal boundary layer. When lambda >> 1, compaction occurs throughout the basin, and the basic equilibrium solution near the surface is a near parabolic profile of porosity. But it is only valid to a finite depth where the permeability has decreased sufficiently, and a transition occurs, marking a switch from a normally pressured environment to one with high pore pressures.