SOSSON , Marc

The ophiolites of the Lesser Caucasus belong to the Tethyan Ophiolitic Belt. In the northwestern part of the Sevan Akera suture zone (Lesser Caucasus, Armenia) ophiolites correspond to a major obduction of oceanic crust over the South Armenian continental block. Near the locality of Amasia (NW Armenia), our mapping evidenced a series of (1)...

In order to better understand the tectonic evolution of the Sevan-Akera suture zone, particularly its connection westward into the Ankara-Erzincan suture, field observations and sampling were carried out on the Erzincan suture zone (near Erzincan). The goal of this study is to solve the problem of linking both odbucted ophiolitic domains. As in...

The work poses the question about the impact of inherited structures in the Black Sea back-arc basin (BAB) tectonic evolution. The new structural analysis of the Northern Dobrogea (ND) and the Crimean Mountains (CM) shows that the origins of structural patterns of both regions are in close relationship with deep faults/or fault zones. The...

The Palaeozoic to recent evolution of the Tethys system gave way to the largest mountain chain of the world extending from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans - the Alpine-Himalayan Mountain chain, which is still developing as a result of collision and northwards convergence of continental blocks including Apulia in the west, the Afro-Arabian Plate...

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International audience

During the Mesozoic, the Southern margin of the Eurasian continent was involved in the closure of the Paleotethys and opening Neotethys Ocean. Later, from the Jurassic to the Eocene, subductions, obductions, micro-plate accretions, and finally continent-continent collision occurred between Eurasia and Arabia, and resulted in the closure of...

The tectonic evolution of the Eastern Black Sea Basin has previously been explained based on offshore and onshore data, some of the latter from the Crimean Mountains (CM). However, changes in the stratigraphy of the CM have recently been proposed: the Late Triassic–Early Jurassic Tauric Group was assigned as younger (Albian). To clarify the...

We present new biostratigraphic results from two ophiolite outcrops in Armenia. The discovery of upper Tithonian-lower Berriasian diagnostic radiolarian species (Vallupus gracilis Li and Sashida) in the lower radiolarites of the Dali section allows to date more accurately submarine lava eruptions of transitional to alkaline composition. The...

In the Lesser Caucasus and NE Anatolia, three domains are distinguished from south to north: (1) Gondwanian-derived continental terranes represented by the South Armenian Block (SAB) and the Tauride–Anatolide Platform (TAP), (2) scattered outcrops of Mesozoic ophiolites, obducted during the Upper Cretaceous times, marking the northern Neotethys...

The identification of a large OIB-type volcanic sequence on top of an obducted nappe in the Lesser Caucaus of Armenia helps us explain the obduction processes in the Caucasus region that are related to dramatic change in the global tectonics of the Tethyan region in the late Lower Cretaceous. The ophiolitic nappe preserves three distinct...

In the Lesser Caucasus in Armenia, collision of the SouthArmenian Block (SAB) and Eurasia started during the Paleocene and was forming the Amasia-Sevan-Akera Suture zone (ASASZ). Magmatism covering the suture zone occurred during this collision and is particularly widespread since Middle Eocene. Moreover magmatism occurred after the Arabian...

International audience

In the Lesser Caucasus three main domains are distinguished from SW to NE: (1) the South Armenian Block (SAB), a Gondwanian-derived continental terrane; (2) scattered outcrops of ophiolites coming up against the Sevan-Akera suture zone; and (3) the Eurasian plate. The Armenian ophiolites represent remnants of an oceanic domain which disappeared...

Radiolarians extracted from the sedimentary cover member of the Amasia ophiolite (NW Armenia), Foraminifera, and microfacies observed in the pre-obduction carbonate platform sequence of the South-Armenian Block (Vedi, SE of Yerevan) provide important time constraints for the geodynamic evolution of the Tethyan realm in the Lesser Caucasus.The...

The tectonic evolution of the Black Sea (BS) is a subject of debate, there are several unsolved questions: 1) the timing and the spatial progression of the BS basin opening and 2) the timing of Cenozoic shortening along the northern margin of the Eastern BS basin. The timing of the main compressional deformations, related to the inversion of...

The Island of Corsica (France) occupies a unique position in the Western Mediterranean, since it has recorded both the Cenozoic Alpine orogenic history of the area as well as subsequent extensional collapse and oceanic basin formation. We present 41 new apatite fission track (AFT) ages and 23 measurements of track length distributions from...

The Island of Corsica (France) occupies a unique position in the Western Mediterranean, since it has recorded both the Cenozoic Alpine orogenic history of the area as well as subsequent extensional collapse and oceanic basin formation. We present 41 new apatite fission track (AFT) ages and 23 measurements of track length distributions from...

The Oligo-Miocene extension phase of the Mediterranean basins rifting (30–25 Ma) [Jolivet and Faccenna, 2000] followed by the Ligurian basin oceanic crust formation (21–18 Ma) [Le Pichon et al., 1971 ; Réhault et al., 1984 ; Carminati et al., 1998 ; Gueguen et al., 1998] occurred during the western Alps compression phase. The deformations were...