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Depuis 2011, les afflux massifs de sargasses sur les littoraux de l’ouest de l’Atlantique central et de la Caraïbe en particulier sont considérés comme un véritable fléau à l’origine de problèmes sanitaires, économiques et environnementaux. Le ramassage et l’élimination de milliers de tonnes échouées à chaque saison se révèlent être un casse-tête couteux pour les populations, la biodiversité et les collectivités. Les travaux menés dans le cadre du projet ANR Sargassum CESAR ont permis de valider l’hypothèse de départ que les sargasses ont un statut juridique variable en fonction de l’endroit où elles se trouvent et selon qu’elles sont vivantes ou mortes. Cette variabilité est riche de conséquences à de nombreux égards. Since 2011, the massive influx of sargassum on the coasts of the western Central Atlantic and the Caribbean in particular isa real scourge causing health, economic and environmental problems. Collecting and disposing thousands of tons of stranded rotting sargassum each season is proving to be a costly headache for populations, biodiversity and public authorities. The deliverable of the NRA project Sargassum CESAR has validated the initial hypothesis that sargassum can have various legal status, depending on where they are found and whether they are alive or dead. This variability is rich in consequences in many aspects.

The northern subbelt in the western segment of the Yarlung Zangbo suture zone, Tibet, China, includes the Dajiweng, Kazhan, Baer, Cuobuzha, Jianabeng, and Zhalai ophiolitic massifs. These ophiolites are strongly dismembered, typically 1–2 km wide and 10–20 km long, and composed chiefly of peridotites with minor volcanic and siliceous sedimentary rocks. No cumulates have been observed in the northern ophiolitic belt. Harzburgites of the Dajiweng and Zhalai ophiolites have prominent light rare earth element (LREE)–enriched (U-shaped or spoon-shaped) chondrite-normalized rare earth element (REE) patterns. Such patterns have generally been interpreted as the result of modification by suprasubduction zone (SSZ) melts/fluids. However, the abundance of peridotites sampled from mid-ocean ridge with similar LREE-enriched REE patterns suggest that this feature is not unique to SSZ peridotites. The U-shaped REE patterns of the Dajiweng harzburgites, combined with their low heavy rare earth element (HREE) contents and their mineral chemistry, indicate that these rocks most likely have been modified by SSZ melts (e.g., boninitic melts) in a forearc setting. In contrast, the Zhalai harzburgites, which also have U-shaped REE patterns but are characterized by high HREE contents, high Al2O3/SiO2 ratios, low MgO/SiO2 ratios, and relatively fertile mineral compositions, most likely have been refertilized in a mid-ocean ridge setting. The Zhalai, Kazhan, Baer, and Cuobuzha peridotites are similar to abyssal and back-arc peridotites in mineral chemistry and whole-rock geochemistry. Combining the mafic intrusions from Jianabeng, Baer, and Cuobuzha massifs, we propose that the ophiolites in the northern belt of the western segments have been trapped in an intraoceanic forearc–arc–back-arc system. According to the zircon U-Pb age of mafic intrusions, the geochemical characteristics of both mafic and ultramafic rocks, a detrital zircon study of Zhongba terrane, and the klippen structure of ophiolitic massif in the southern belt, we conclude that the northern and southern ophiolitic belts were developed in the same intraoceanic subduction system.

Plus encore que les réserves naturelles, les parcs nationaux entretiennent dès l’origine une relation ambiguë au tourisme. Au début du XXe siècle, « l’idée de créer des parcs nationaux connaît un certain succès en France. Les nombreux articles publiés dans les revues du Club alpin français et du Touring club de France en témoignent. L’objectif est de disposer d’une institution capable de protéger des paysages exceptionnels, de favoriser et de réglementer leur fréquentation touristique ». Quant à l’élaboration de la loi du 22 juillet 1960, elle est « fortement influencée par les débats qui ont lieu depuis plusieurs années autour du projet du parc national dans le massif de la Vanoise en Savoie. Les scientifiques sont assez hostiles à l’idée d’ouvrir le parc au public, ce qui leur paraît contradictoire avec l’idée de protection et peu compatible avec leurs projets de recherches. D’autres veulent au contraire en faire un lieu largement ouvert pour offrir une compensation aux populations urbaines privées du contact avec la nature ». Le parlement réalise une synthèse des propositions, qui permet de créer le premier parc en 1963 : « les partisans d’une conception \"pure et dure\" des parcs nationaux auront des réserves intégrales ; les institutions cynégétiques une sorte de parc à bouquetins avec la zone centrale et les tenants d’un parc national culturel la zone périphérique ».

The Almogholagh–Dehgolan region is in the North Sanandaj–Sirjan zone of NW Iran. The granites of the region are metaluminous and display geochemical and textural characteristics of transitional granites between ferroan (A-type) and I-type granites. In geotectonic discrimination diagrams, the Almogholagh–Dehgolan granites plot mainly in the fields of within-plate granites and volcanic arc granites. With the exception of the Qalaylan granites, parts of other granites resemble A2-type granites. Granites of the Qalaylan intrusive body have petrographic and geochemical features close to I-type granites and are not A-type. Primary mantle and chondrite-normalized spider diagrams show enrichments in light rare earth elements relative to heavy rare earth elements. For an age of 150 Ma, the initial 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd ratios vary from 0.702769 to 0.706545 and from 0.512431 to 0.512558, respectively. Epsilon Nd values vary in a relatively limited range between −0.3 and +2.2, which corresponds to a mixed mantle–crustal source. On the basis of new geochemical and isotopic data, we suggest a geodynamic model involving partial melting of lower crustal rocks with the contribution of mantle magmas in a weakly extensional tectonic setting for the generation of the A-type granites of the region. The occurrence of ferroan (A-type) granites in this region of the Sanandaj–Sirjan zone indicates the existence of a partly extensional tectonic environment in a mainly compressional subduction-related regime in Late Jurassic time.

High-Cl amphiboles and micas were found in rocks of the Kusa-Kopan complex of the Middle Riphean layered ore-bearing (Ti, Fe, V) mafic intrusions in the Southern Urals, Russia. Chloro-hastingsite (3.30–4.57 wt% Cl) was found in garnet-bearing orthoamphibolite in the Medvedevsky massif. Compositions of Cl-rich (3.26–4.84 wt% Cl) amphibole from borehole # 2 of the Kusinsky massif located to the north, correspond to “potassic-ferro-chloro-pargasite”, in some cases to potassic-chloro-hastingsite. Thus, in addition to the high-K trend in the evolution of Cl-rich amphiboles, a tendency to low-K content was revealed. Apart from amphibole, biotite with Cl content from 1.73 to 2.32 wt% corresponding to the annite-phlogopite series was observed. Calculations showed that Cl content reached 1.4 wt% in the melt/fluid during the crystallization of the high-Cl amphiboles of the Kusa part of the layered intrusion, and was about 6000 ppm during the crystallization of the “chloro-hastingsite” from the Medvedevsky massif. The same effect could be seen in lower-Cl varieties, where the differences reached a factor of three. The Cl content in the initial melt did not exceed 400 ppm, locally increasing up to 1000–4000 ppm. Chlorine-rich amphiboles are the result of a local excess concentration of chlorinated compounds of complex composition at the final stage of the magmatic system development (under subsolidus conditions). The emergence of an open system cannot be ruled out, in which Cl content in the fluid increases over time resulting from an external source, which is enriched in Cl due to the addition of mobilized brines from the host rocks additionally enriched with CO2.

This first overview of large-scale rock slope failure (RSF) in the yrenees addresses the eastern third of the range. Around 30 principal RSFs greater than 0.25 km 2 and 20 lesser or uncertain cases have been identified from remote imagery and groundtruthing. Compared with other European mountain ranges, RSF incidence is relatively sparse, displays no obvious regional trend or spatial clustering, and occurs across diverse landscape types, if mainly on metamorphic rocks. A transition is observed from paraglacial RSFs in formerly glaciated valleys to what are here termed 'parafluvial' RSFs, within wholly or mainly fluvial valleys but where slope failure is not directly provoked by or linked to river erosion. RSFs are particularly found in three topographic settings: at cirque and trough-head thresholds (transition zones of elevated instability between cirque and main glaciated trough walls); near the upper or outer periphery of the ice field, where glacial adaptation of fluvial valleys is incomplete; and in fluvial valleys beyond glacial limits where incision is locally intense. RSF is absent from the range divide, from within cirques, and from most main valleys. In the montane areas, RSF is strongly associated with vestiges of preglacial summit surfaces, confirming that plateau ridges are less stable than sharpened crests and horns. RSF is contributing significantly to the progressive destruction of this paleic relief. The overall sparsity of RSF indicates insufficient rock mass stresses, including rebound after concentrated bedrock erosion. This may reflect a relatively weak imprint of glacial erosion, including breaching, in a context of relatively low mean rates of neotectonic uplift, possibly signalling overall that eastern yrenees landscapes are close to dynamic equilibrium.

Two Gondwana-derived Paleozoic belts rim the Archean/Paleoproterozoic nucleus of the East European Platform in the Black Sea region. In the north is a belt of Paleozoic passive-margin-type sedimentary rocks, which extends from Moesia to the Istanbul Zone and to parts of the Scythian Platform (the MOIS Block). This belt constituted the south-facing continental margin of the Laurussia during the Late Paleozoic. This margin was deformed during the Carboniferous by folding and thrusting and forms the Variscan foreland. In the south is a belt of metamorphic and granitic rocks, which extends from the Balkanides through Strandja, Sakarya to the Caucasus (BASSAC Block). The protoliths of the metamorphic rocks are predominantly late Neoproterozoic granites and Paleozoic sedimentary and igneous rocks, which were deformed and metamorphosed during the Early Carboniferous. There are also minor eclogites and serpentinites, mostly confined to the northern margin of the BASSAC Block. Typical metamorphism is of low pressure–high temperature type and occurred during the Early Carboniferous (Visean, 340–330 Ma) coevally with that observed in the Central Europe. Volumetrically, more than half of the crystalline belt is made up of Carboniferous–earliest Permian (335–294 Ma) granites. The type of metamorphism, its concurrent nature over 1800 km length of the BASSAC Block and voluminous acidic magmatism suggest that the thermal event probably occurred in the deep levels of a continental magmatic arc. The BASSAC arc collided with Laurussia in the mid-Carboniferous leading to the foreland deformation. The ensuing uplift in the Permian resulted in the deposition of continental red beds, which are associated with acidic magmatic rocks observed over the foreland as well as over the BASSAC Block. In the Black Sea region, there was no terminal collision of Laurussia with Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic and the Laurussia margin continued to face the Paleo-Tethyan ocean in the south.

In Western Corsica, remnants of pre-batholitic lithological and metamorphic assemblages are preserved as km-scale septa enclosed within Lower Carboniferous to Early Permian plutons. Two groups of septa were recognized: (1) the Argentella and Agriates-Tenda fragments correspond to Neoproterozoic rocks deformed and metamorphosed during the Cadomian–Panafrican orogeny, and (2) the Zicavo, Porto-Vecchio, Solenzara–Fautea, Belgodère, Topiti, and Vignola fragments consist of Variscan metamorphic rocks. The lithological content and the main ductile deformation events for each septum are presented. In the Zicavo, Porto-Vecchio, and Topiti septa, a top-to-the-SW ductile shearing (D1 event) coeval with an amphibolite facies metamorphism is responsible for crustal thickening at ca 360 Ma. This main event was preceded by eclogite and granulite facies metamorphic events preserved as restites within migmatites dated at ca 345–330 Ma. A top-to-the-SE ductile shearing (D2 event) coeval with the crustal melting accommodated the exhumation of the D1 event. In contrast, the Belgodère segment is peculiar as it exhibits a top-to-the-E vergence, although retrogressed high-pressure rocks are also recognized. The pre-Permian fragments are arranged in four NW–SE-striking stripes that define a SW–NE zoning with (1) a Western domain in Topiti, Vignola, Zicavo, Porto-Vecchio, and Solenzara–Fautea; (2) a Neoproterozoic basement with its unconformable Early Paleozoic sedimentary cover in Argentella; (3) an Eastern metamorphic domain in Belgodère; (4) another Neoproterozoic basement with its Upper Paleozoic sedimentary cover in Agriates-Tenda. The Argentella basement is separated from the Western and Eastern domains by two sutures: S1 and S2. The Variscan Corsica represents the Eastern part of the Sardinia–Corsica–Maures segment. The comparison of this segment with other Variscan domains allows us to propose some possible correlations. We argue that the Western domain, Argentella, Belgodère, and Agriates-Tenda domains can be compared with the Southern Variscan belt exposed in French Massif Central–Southern Massif Armoricain, Armorica microblock, Léon block, respectively.

The Sopcha massif, which is part of the Paleoproterozoic layered Monchegorsk Pluton (Monchepluton), contains an ore horizon with an average thickness of ca. 4 m within the homogeneous orthopyroxenite sequence. This horizon has a layered internal structure with variations in composition from dunite to orthopyroxenite and sulfide mineralization enriched in platinum group elements (PGE). All the rocks of the ore horizon include accessory chrome-spinels, which demonstrate a high variability of the composition and are divided into two groups based on their optical properties and chemical composition. Group I chrome-spinels belong to Al-chromites. They occur as homogeneous grains in fine-to-medium-grained orthopyroxenite at the top of the horizon and form cores of zoned chrome-spinels in the medium-to-coarse-grained orthopyroxenite and harzburgite. Group II chrome-spinels belong to Fe-chromites. They form homogeneous grains in dunite and harzburgite and rims of zoned grains in harzburgite. Chemical compositions of Group I chrome-spinels are characterized by high contents of Al2O3 and Cr2O3, an increased MgO but low contents of FeOtot and values of Cr#= Cr/(Cr + Al) and Fe3+# = Fe3+/Fetot. Group II chrome-spinels have low Al2O3 and MgO contents, and sharply increased values of Cr# and Fe3+#. This variability in the composition of chrome-spinels is caused by decreasing melt temperature in the process of its cooling during two stages of magmatic crystallization. At the first stage, cumulus crystallization of Group I chrome-spinels and subsolidus diffusion between spinel and olivine (“mineral-mineral” reaction) occurred at a temperature of about 1170 °C. At the second stage, reactions between Group I chrome-spinels and intercumulus melt (“mineral-melt” reactions) resulted in the formation of a rims of zoned chrome-spinels and homogeneous Group II chrome-spinels at a temperature of 1070–970 °C.

The recent installation of new broadband seismic stations in the French Massif Central (FMC) has resulted in the detection of a few “deep” earthquakes located near the crust‐mantle boundary beneath volcanic regions. Analysis of the spectral content of the respective waveforms has shown that the spectra of these “deep” earthquakes are significantly depleted in high frequencies. Based on these observations of anomalous depth and spectral content, these earthquakes can be classified as Deep Long Period (DLP) events. This is a specific class of volcanic seismicity observed beneath many active volcanoes around the World. While the exact physical origin of this type of earthquakes is still debated, they are often considered as indicators of the presence of magma near the crust‐mantle boundary. Therefore, observation of DLP earthquakes can bring new insights into understanding the state and the activity of the recent FMC volcanoes.