In 1842, Darwin identified three types of reefs: fringing reefs, which are directly attached to volcanic islands; barrier reefs, which are separated from volcanic islands by lagoons; and ring reefs, ...which enclose only a lagoon and are defined as atolls. Moreover, he linked these reef types through an evolutionary model in which an atoll is the logical end point of a subsiding volcanic edifice, as he was unaware of Quaternary glaciations. As an alternative, starting in the 1930s, several authors proposed the antecedent karst model; in this model, atolls formed as a direct interaction between subsidence and karst dissolution that occurred preferentially in the bank interiors rather than on their margins through exposure during glacial lowstands of sea level. Atolls then developed during deglacial reflooding of the glacial karstic morphologies by preferential stacked coral-reef growth along their margins. Here, a comprehensive new model is proposed, based on the antecedent karst model and well-established sea-level fluctuations during the last 5 million years, by demonstrating that most modern atolls from the Maldives Archipelago and from the tropical Pacific and southwest Indian Oceans are rooted on top of late Pliocene flat-topped banks. The volcanic basement, therefore, has had no influence on the late Quaternary development of these flat-topped banks into modern atolls. During the multiple glacial sea-level lowstands that intensified throughout the Quaternary, the tops of these banks were karstified; then, during each of the five mid-to-late Brunhes deglaciations, coral reoccupied their raised margins and grew vertically, keeping up with sea-level rise and creating the modern atolls.
Although it is widely accepted that erosion and sediment transfer respond to millennial-scale climatic variability, these changes remain difficult to detect in marine sedimentary archives. In the Var ...sediment-routing system, northwestern Mediterranean Sea, the absence of a continental shelf results in a direct connection between the Var River mouth and the deep basin during both highstand and lowstand conditions. This makes the Var sediment-routing system an ideal target to test whether rivers can transmit climate-driven high-frequency changes in sediment flux to the ocean. On the basis of an unprecedented (centennial-to-millennial-scale) resolution in turbidite sequences, we reconstructed the activity of turbidity current overflows along the deep-sea Var Sedimentary Ridge over the past 75 kyr. The overflow activity is highest (one event every 10–30 yr) during maximum glacial conditions (30 kyr–16 kyr ago ka) and rapidly decreases (down to one event every 100–500 yr) during the last glacial-interglacial transition (Termination 1). During marine isotope stage (MIS)4 and MIS3 (75–30 ka), peaks in the overflow activity occurred synchronously with cold and arid Dansgaard-Oeschger stadials, while warmer and wetter interstadial conditions correspond to low overflow activity. We conclude that overflow activity on the Var Sedimentary Ridge mainly reflects changes in the magnitude of hyperpycnal currents flowing in the turbiditic channel-levee system in relation with variations in suspended-sediment concentration during Var River floods. We show that this signal is sensitive to changes in pure sediment flux induced by climatic perturbations occurring inland: (1) the decrease in glacier-derived sediment input after glacier retreat and (2) changes in erosion induced by shifts in the vegetation cover in response to Dansgaard-Oeschger climate swings.
The past two million years of eastern African climate variability is currently poorly constrained, despite interest in understanding its assumed role in early human evolution
. Rare palaeoclimate ...records from northeastern Africa suggest progressively drier conditions
or a stable hydroclimate
. By contrast, records from Lake Malawi in tropical southeastern Africa reveal a trend of a progressively wetter climate over the past 1.3 million years
. The climatic forcings that controlled these past hydrological changes are also a matter of debate. Some studies suggest a dominant local insolation forcing on hydrological changes
, whereas others infer a potential influence of sea surface temperature changes in the Indian Ocean
. Here we show that the hydroclimate in southeastern Africa (20-25° S) is controlled by interplay between low-latitude insolation forcing (precession and eccentricity) and changes in ice volume at high latitudes. Our results are based on a multiple-proxy reconstruction of hydrological changes in the Limpopo River catchment, combined with a reconstruction of sea surface temperature in the southwestern Indian Ocean for the past 2.14 million years. We find a long-term aridification in the Limpopo catchment between around 1 and 0.6 million years ago, opposite to the hydroclimatic evolution suggested by records from Lake Malawi. Our results, together with evidence of wetting at Lake Malawi, imply that the rainbelt contracted toward the Equator in response to increased ice volume at high latitudes. By reducing the extent of woodland or wetlands in terrestrial ecosystems, the observed changes in the hydroclimate of southeastern Africa-both in terms of its long-term state and marked precessional variability-could have had a role in the evolution of early hominins, particularly in the extinction of Paranthropus robustus.
Seismic reflection and multibeam echosounder data were acquired in the Mozambique Channel in 2014 and 2015 during the PTOLEMEE, PAMELA-MOZ02 and -MOZ04 marine surveys aboard the RV Atalante and ...Pourquoi Pas? These data revealed that an active fault system is deforming the oceanic lithosphere of the Mozambique Basin which has developed during Jurassic-Cretaceous times. The correlation between the fault system and the arrangement of earthquake epicenters suggests that this tectonically active zone directly connects northward with the southern part of the eastern branch of the East African Rift System which corresponds to the seismically active graben system bounding the northern part of the Davie ridge. The fault zone extends southwestward of the Mozambique Ridge along the same trend as the Agulhas-Falkland transform fault zone. The general organization of the fault zone shows the characteristics of an extensional system north of the Mozambique Channel (north of the Europa Island) and a right-lateral transtensional system with coeval normal faults and strike-slip faults south-west of Europa. This tectonic activity is associated with volcanic activity since at least Late Miocene times. Our findings emphasize that the eastern branch of East African Rift System is extending largely toward the south, not only in continental domains but also through the oceanic lithosphere of the Mozambique basin. This fault zone is participating to the complex plate boundary between the main African continent (Nubia Plate) and Madagascar (Somalia Plate).
•Active faulting across the Mozambique is correlated with seismicity and the regional distribution of recent volcanics.•The tectonic activity is affecting the oceanic lithosphere that developed much before during Jurassic and Cretaceous times.•The tectonically active zone corresponds to the southernmost part of the eastern branch of the East African Rift System.•This work contributes to locate more precisely the plate boundary between the Nubian plate and the Somalian plate.
Isolated carbonate platforms occur throughout the geologic record, from Archean to present. Although the respective roles of tectonics, sediment supply and sea-level changes in the stratigraphical ...architecture of these systems are relatively well constrained, the details of the nature and controls on the variability of sedimentological patterns between and within individual geomorphologic units on platforms have been barely investigated. This study aims at describing and comparing geomorphological and sedimentological features of surficial sediments and fossil reefs from three isolated carbonate platforms located in the SW Indian Ocean (Glorieuses, Juan de Nova and Europa). These carbonate platforms are relatively small and lack continuous reef margins, which have developed only on windward sides. Field observations, petrographic characterization and grain-size analyses are used to illustrate the spatial patterns of sediment accumulation on these platforms. The internal parts of both Glorieuses and Juan de Nova platforms are blanketed by sand dunes with medium to coarse sands with numerous reef pinnacles. Skeletal components including coral, green algae, and benthic foraminifera fragments prevail in these sediments. Europa platform exhibits a similar skeletal assemblage dominated by coral fragments, with the absence of wave-driven sedimentary bodies. Fossil reefs from the Last interglacial (125,000 years BP) occur on the three platforms. At Glorieuses, a succession of drowned terraces detected on seismic lines is interpreted as reflecting the last deglacial sea-level rise initiated 20,000 years ago. These findings highlight the high potential of these platforms to study past sea-level changes and the related reef response, which remain poorly documented in the SW Indian Ocean.
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•A geological study of the Iles Eparses (SW Indian Ocean) is proposed.•Distribution of modern carbonate sands has been evaluated.•Fossil reefs have been studied to evaluate their links with past sea-level changes.
Because the initial phase of barrier reef evolution is often buried under more recent phases of coralgal growth, the origins of modern barrier reefs have remained elusive. Direct observations on the ...nature of the substrate on top of which barrier reefs have developed are lacking, and simple questions about whether the substrate contributes to their overall linear morphology have remained unanswered. We present here a review dedicated to late-Quaternary shelf-edge deposition in tropical mixed siliciclastic-carbonate systems. These modern analogs are used to develop a quantitative understanding of shelf-edge barrier reef formation during different segments of relatively well-established sea-level cycles. The onset of rapid sea-level rise during early deglaciations, when siliciclastics were deposited along newly formed coasts at up-dip positions, provided opportune time windows for coralgal communities to establish themselves on top of maximum lowstand siliciclastic coastal deposits, such as beach ridges and lowstand shelf-edge deltas.
Oceanic carbon storage is one of the main sinks for atmospheric CO2, and thought to be the major contributing factor for CO2 drawdown during past glacial periods. Both physical and biogeochemical ...processes control the capacity of carbon storage in the ocean. During glacial periods of the Pleistocene the larger volume of deep-water masses of Southern Hemisphere origin in the Atlantic has been shown to promote carbon storage in the Southern Ocean. However, the latitudinal extension of this water mass in the Indian Ocean has been scarcely studied. In this study, we combine foraminiferal εNd and benthic δ13C of two sediment cores in the southwest Indian Ocean (MD96–2077, 33°S, 3781 m water depth; MD96–2052, 19°S, 2627 m water depth), to reconstruct the spatial and temporal evolution of glacial carbon-rich deep waters in the SW Indian over the last 630 kyr. The combined use of foraminiferal εNd and benthic δ13C allows to distinguish δ13C changes related to water mass mixing and from respired carbon accumulation within the water masses. Nutrient-rich deep waters, which cannot be explained by the enhanced proportion of southern-sourced waters, were present at core sites deeper than 2700 m during glacial periods and extended at least until 33°S into the SW Indian Ocean. From Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 14 to MIS 10, glacial carbon storage increased gradually until reaching its highest capacity during the extreme glacial periods MIS 12 and 10. Orbital forcing (100-kyr eccentricity, 41-kyr obliquity), restricted air-sea exchange and enhanced ocean stratification, fostered higher carbon storage during periods of relatively lower eccentricity and obliquity. Furthermore, after MIS 10, a progressive transition was observed from 100-kyr eccentricity to 41-kyr obliquity cycles in benthic δ13C and δ18O records of core MD96–2077 and sea-ice cover changes derived from ice-rafted debris of the Agulhas Plateau composite core site.
In this short communication, we present a multidisciplinary study of sedimentary records collected from a deep-sea interfluve proximal to the mouths of major northwestern Madagascan rivers. For the ...last 60 years, the seafloor has been repeatedly disturbed by the deposition of organic rich, tropical, terrestrial sediments causing marked reductions in benthic biodiversity. Increased soil erosion due to local land-use, deforestation and intensifying tropical cyclones are potential causes for this sedimentary budget and biodiversity shift. Our marine sedimentary records indicate that until now, these conditions have not occurred within the region for at least 20,000 years.
•Since the 1950s, the seafloor off NW Madagascar has been disturbed by terrestrialsediments. •This abrupt sedimentary change has caused marked reductions in benthic biodiversity.•Land-use, deforestation and intensifying tropical cyclones are potentialcauses of soil erosion.
In this study we used major element composition, neodymium isotopes ratios (εNd) and concentration of REE to track and quantify the sediment routing in the Var sedimentary system from source ...(Southern French Alps) to sink (Ligurian Sea) over the last 50 ka. Our data reveal that changes in sediment sources over that period, associated with concomitant changes in the hyperpycnal (i.e. flood-generated turbidity currents) activity in the Var submarine canyon, were mainly driven by paleoenvironmental conditions in the upper basin and in particular by the presence of glaciers during the last glacial period. Based on this evidence, we determined when and how glacier-derived sediments were produced, then excavated and transferred to the ocean, allowing us to ultimately tune offshore sedimentary records to onshore denudation rates. In contrast to large glaciated systems, we found that sediment export from the Var River to the Mediterranean Sea directly responded to climate-induced perturbations within the basin. Finally, we estimated that sediment fluxes in the Var routing system were 2.5 times higher during the Last Glacial Maximum than today, thus confirming that glacier denudation rates exceed fluvial rates and that such a pattern also governs the interglacial–glacial sediment flux cycle in other small mountainous basins.
•We used εNd to track the sediment routing in the Var system over the last 50 kyr.•Glaciers are the main driver of the glacial/interglacial cycle of sediment flux.•The estimated sediment fluxes are 2.5 times higher during the LGM than today.•A major change in turbidite activity and sources is observed between 19 and 16 ka.•The glacial sediment transfer to the sea depends on the catchment's characteristics.
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