Journal Article

Dating the late Miocene marine sediments around the southern middle Durance Valley (Provence, SE France); new evidences for a Tortonian age

Conesa, Gilles, Braucher, Régis, Bourlès, Didier, Ségué-Passama, Gaëlle, Duvail, Cédric, Aumaitre, Georges, Léanni, Laetitia, Bellier, Olivier, Hollender, Fabrice, Demory, François, Keddadouche, Karim, Delanghe, Doriane, Fioravanti, Anna, Nutz, Alexis, Blard, Pierre-Henri

2024

Overview

The present study aims dating the topmost 50 m of a 115 m-long core retrieved from a valley located in the Cadarache Area (Upper Provence, South East France). Based on burial dating by in situ produced cosmogenic nuclides (10Be, 26Al and 21Ne), and paleomagnetic analyses, a Tortonian age was determined for the sedimentary succession exhibited in the core. In addition, thin sections, grain size analyses and quartz morphoscopy were used to characterize a shallow marine environment and to correlate the sediment core to the surrounding exposed sections. When comparing the studied sedimentary record to global sea level estimates, we establish that the local Tortonian transgression was not synchronous with the global scale sea level high-stand, but happened more likely later, during a global regressive trend. The timing of the Tortonian flooding in Upper Provence was therefore most probably driven by regional tectonic forcing. Finally, the Tortonian shallow marine sediments are topped by lacustrine tight carbonates. These carbonates protect the marine sediments from the following major erosional events resulting from the Messinian sea level drop and from interglacial-glacial fluctuations that both yielded to the present-day valley topography.

• Publisher: Société Géologique de France,EDP Sciences,Société géologique de France - EDP Sciences
• Subject: Al-26 / alkaline earth metals / aluminum / Be-10 / beryllium / Bouches-du-Rhone France / burial / burial dating / Cadarache / Carbonates / Cenozoic / correlation / cosmogenic elements / cosmogenic nuclides / dating / Durance Valley / Earth Sciences / Ecological succession / Europe / exposure age / Fluctuations / France / geochronology / Geology / Interglacial periods / isotopes / magnetization / Marine environment / Marine sediments / Messinian / metals / Miocene / natural remanent magnetization / Ne-21 / Neogene / neon / noble gases / Palaeomagnetism / Paleomagnetism / petrography / Provence / Quartz / radioactive isotopes / relative age / remanent magnetization / Reproducibility / Sciences of the Universe / Sea level / sea-level changes / Sediment / Sedimentation & deposition / Sediments / Soil erosion / stable isotopes / Stratigraphy / tectonics / Tertiary / Tortonian / tortonien / upper Miocene / Valleys / Vallon de la Bete / vallée de la durance / Western Europe