Stratigraphie du Quaternaire et phoque fossile, région de la Durantaye, Québec

Le squelette presque complet d'un phoque fossile a été découvert près de La Durantaye, Québec, dans des sédiments marins associés à la submersion de la mer de Goldthwait. Une identification préliminaire a révélé qu'il s'agit d'un phoque gris ou d'un phoque à capuchon. Le cadre stratigraphique de la région a été précisé. De la base au sommet les unités suivantes se succèdent: 1) des sables et graviers grossiers (5 m) ; 2) des rythmites de type distal (2 m) ; 3) un till rougeâtre argileux très compact (1 à 2 m) ; 4) des sables et graviers fins biens lités (2 m) ; 5) des rythmites de type proximal (2 m) ; 6) un diamicton glacio-marin à Balanus hameh (2 m) ; 7) une argile silteuse parfois très noire (où fut trouvé le phoque fossile) (3 m) ; 8) des silts sableux très fossilifères contenant parfois des blocs (5 m) ; 9) une argile grise massive (jusqu'à 50 m) ; 10) des sables et graviers littoraux (1 m) ; 11) des sédiments fluviatiles récents (1 m). Les rythmites préglaciaires et postglaciaires sont associées respectivement aux varves de Beaupré et aux sédiments varvés de la rivière Chaudière. L'extension vers l'est de la moraine de Breakeyville est également proposée. Enfin, les silts sableux marqueraient un abaissement du niveau marin caractérisé par une activité glacielle pendant l'épisode marin.The almost complete squeleton of a fossil seal has been found near La Durantaye, Québec, in marine sediments associated with the submersion of the Goldthwait Sea. A preliminary identification has revealed it to be a grey or a hooded seal. The stratigraphie setting of the region has been defined. The following units are, from bottom to top : 1 ) coarse sand and gravel (5m); 2) distal-type rythmites (2m); 3) a reddish, very compact clay till (1 to 2 m); 4) well-bedded fine sands and gravels (2) ; 5) proximal-type rythmites (2m) ; 6) a glacial marine diamicton with Balanus hameri (2m); 7) a silty, sometimes very black, clay (the fossil seal was found here) (3m); 8) very fossiliferous sandy silts occasionally containing blocks (5m); 9) a massive grey clay (up to 50m); 10) littoral sands and gravels (1m); 11) recent fluvial sediments (1m). The pre-glacial and post-glacial rythmites are associated with the Beaupré varves and the varved sediments of the Rivière Chaudière respectively. The extension of the Breakeyville moraine towards the east is suggested. Finally, the sandy silts would mark a lowering of the sea level characterized by floating ice activity during the marine episode.Das fast vollstàndige Skelett eines Seehund-Fossils wurde in der Nâhe von La Durantaye, Québec, in Meeres-Sedimenten entdeckt, die mit der Ùberschwemmung durch das Goldwaith-Meer in Verbindung gebracht werden. Eine vorlàufige Identifizierung zeigte, daB es sich um einen grauen Seehund oder einen Kapuzenseehund handelt. Der Schichtungsrahmen des Gebiets wurde prâzisiert. Von der Basis bis zur obersten Schicht findet man nacheinander die folgenden Einheiten: I) grober Sand und Kies (5 m); 2) Rythmite vom Distal-Typus (2 m); 3) ein rôtliches, sehr kompaktes Ton-Till (1-2 m); 4) feiner, gut geschichteter Sand und Kies (2 m); 5) Rythmite des Proximal-Typus (2 m); 6) ein glazial-marines Diamikton mit Balanus hameri (2 m); 7) schlammiger, manchmal sehr schwarzer Ton (hier wurde das Seehund-Fossil gefunden) (3 m); 8) sandhaltiger, sehr fossilisierter Schlamm, der manchmal Blôcke enthâlt (5 m); 9) grauer, massiver Ton (bis zu 50 m); 10) Kustensand undkiesel (1m); II) neuere Flup-Sedimente (1 m). Die voreiszeitlichen und nacheiszeitlichen Rythmite werden jeweils mit den Warwen von Beaupré und den Bander-Sedimenten des Chaudière-Flusses in Verbindung gebracht. Die Ausdehnung der Moràne von Breakeyville nach Osten wird unterbreitet. Endlich sollen die sandhaltigen Silte eine Senkung des Meeres-Niveaus deutlich machen, charakterisiert durch eine Treibeis-Aktivitàt wâhrend der marinen Episode

The Saint-Jude landslide of May 10th, 2010, Quebec, Canada : investigation and characterisation of the landslide and its failure mechanism

A landslide occurred on May 10, 2010, along the Salvail River, in the municipality of Saint- Jude, Quebec. Debris of the landslide was formed of blocks clay having horst and graben shapes, typical of spreads in sensitive clays. A detailed investigation was carried out by the Ministère des Transports, de la Mobilité durable et de l’électrification des transports du Québec in collaboration with Université Laval, with the objective of characterizing this landslide, determining the causes and learning about its failure mechanism. The soil involved is a firm, grey, sensitive lightly overconsolidated clay with some silt. Data from piezometers installed near the landslide indicated artesian conditions underneath the Salvail River. Cone penetration tests allowed to location of two failure surface levels. The first one starting 2.5 m below the initial river bed and extending horizontally up to 125 m and a second one 10 m higher reaching the backscarp. Investigation of the debris with onsite measurements, light detector and ranging surveys, cone penetration tests, and boreholes allowed a detailed geotechnical and morphological analysis of the debris and reconstitution of the dislocation mechanism of this complex spread.Un glissement est survenu le 10 mai 2010 le long de la rivière Salvail, dans la municipalité de Saint-Jude au Québec. Les débris de ce glissement étaient formés de blocs d’argile ayant la forme de horst et de grabens, typique des étalements dans les argiles sensibles. Le Ministère des Transports, de la Mobilité durable et de l’électrification des transports du Québec et l’Université Laval ont réalisé l’investigation détaillée de ce glissement de terrain, dans le but de le caractériser, d’en déterminer les causes et d’en apprendre d’avantage sur le mécanisme de rupture. Le sol impliqué est une argile sensible grise avec un peu de silt, de consistance ferme, légèrement surconsolidée. Les piézomètres installés à proximité du glissement indiquent des conditions artésiennes sous la rivière Salvail. L’utilisation du piézocône a permis de localiser deux niveaux de surfaces de ruptures. L’un à 2,5 m sous la position initiale de la rivière, s’entendant horizontalement sur 125 m, et l’autre 10 m plus haut, allant jusqu’à l’escarpement arrière. L’investigation des débris par mesures prises sur le terrain, levées de télédétection par laser, piézocônes et forages a permis une analyse géotechnique et morphologique détaillée de ces derniers et la reconstitution du mécanisme de dislocation de ce glissement complexe

Geophysical and geotechnical characterization of a sensitive clay deposit in Brownsburg, Québec

The results of a geophysical and geotechnical investigation in a sensitive clay deposit affected by numerous landslide scars in Vases Creek Valley near Brownsburg, Quebec, Canada are presented herein. The main objective of this investigation was to assess the suitability of electrical resistivity measurements in marine clay deposits for mapping out areas prone to flowslides. In addition to a 1.6 km-long electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) carried out perpendicular to the axis of the Vases Creek Valley, six piezocone penetration tests and five boreholes with sampling were also performed along the geophysical survey line. Moreover, standard geotechnical parameters and pore water salinity, as well as electrical resistivity of undisturbed clay samples were measured in the laboratory. According to the correlations found between the remoulded shear strength, the pore water salinity and the electrical resistivity, clay samples with salinity below 6.2 g/l are characterized by remoulded shear strength below 1 kPa and electrical resistivity above 2.8 and 10 m measured respectively in the field and in the laboratory. In such conditions, sensitive clay deposits can be prone to flowslides if all other criteria are also met. Based on this resistivity limit value, only one small area of nonsensitive clay was identified in the interpretative stratigraphic cross-section assessed from the field investigation. Otherwise, the deposit is entirely composed of sensitive clay. The ERT is a promising geophysical tool for the delineation of areas prone to large landslides in eastern Canad

L'entretien de recherche avec des journalistes Editorial

International audienceThis is true of our first issue on interviews, a methodology which cuts across the fields of human and social sciences. We invite you to read it and consider what this particular research approach yields from real people in different disciplinary—and cultural—contexts

The 1994 landslide at Sainte-Monique, Quebec : geotechnical investigation and application of progressive failure analysis

In 1994, a landslide occurred in the municipality of Sainte-Monique, Quebec. The debris of the landslide had graben and host shapes, typical of spreads in sensitive clays. The geotechnical investigation shows that the soil involved is a firm to stiff, sensitive, nearly normally consolidated grey silty clay of high plasticity. This soil exhibits a high sensitivity and a high brittleness during shear and is therefore susceptible to progressive failure. Traditional stability analysis cannot explain this landslide. This gives the opportunity to examine the applicability of progressive failure analysis to this spread. Using the finite elements method, it is demonstrated that the initiation and observed extent of the failure surface are explained by a soil having high brittleness during shear and a large-deformation shear strength close to the remoulded shear strength of the soil. The dislocation of the soil mass can also be explained by the active failure occurring in the soil mass above the failure surface during or shortly after failure propagation. It is therefore numerically demonstrated that progressive failure explains the initiation and the extent of the failure surface of this spread.Un glissement de terrain est survenu en 1994 dans la municipalité de Sainte-Monique, Québec. Les débris présentaient des formes de horsts et grabens typiques des étalements dans les argiles sensibles. L’investigation géotechnique démontre que le sol impliqué dans ce glissement est une argile silteuse grise normalement consolidée, sensible, de forte plasticité et ayant une consistance ferme à raide. Ce sol présente une sensibilité et une fragilité lors du cisaillement élevées et peut donc être susceptible à la rupture progressive. Les analyses de stabilité traditionnelles n’arrivent pas à expliquer ce glissement. Ceci offre donc l’opportunité d’examiner l’application du concept de la rupture progressive sur cet étalement. À l’aide de programmes d’éléments finis, il est démontré que l’initiation et l’étendue de la surface de rupture observée peuvent être expliquées par un sol ayant une grande fragilité lors du cisaillement et une résistance à grandes déformations près de la résistance du sol remanié. La dislocation de la masse de sol en horsts et grabens est expliquée par la rupture active survenant dans la masse de sol au-dessus de la surface de rupture pendant ou peu après la propagation de la rupture. Il est donc démontré numériquement que la rupture progressive explique l’initiation et l’étendue de la surface de rupture d’un étalement

Development of a long term monitoring network of sensitive clay slopes in Québec in the context of climate change

The Government of Québec recently initiated the deployment of a vast groundwater pressures monitoring network in postglacial marine clays to document their variations in time and improve our understanding of the relationship between failure initiation and climate in clay slopes. This project aims at evaluating the impacts of climate change on clay-slope stability and how it can be integrated in landslide risk management to improve public safety. Hydrogeological data will be acquired at sites located throughout the Québec Province’s post-glacial clay deposits to create a public georeferenced index of typical hydrogeological conditions. The project goes beyond the characterization of groundwater pressures and their variations in clay slopes. Indeed, slope deformation will be measured at several sites. Also, two sites in flat terrain will be instrumented in order to evaluate mechanical properties of clay layers in simple 1-D conditions and groundwater recharge. The unsaturated clay crust in slopes susceptible to superficial landslides will be characterized and instrumented. The current lifetime of the monitoring project has been set to a period of 25 years.

Field performance of four vibrating-wire piezometer installation methods

Vibrating wire piezometers provide a number of advantages over the traditional hydraulic piezometer design. There are many methods and configurations for installing vibrating-wire piezometers, with the most common being: single piezometers in sand packs (SP), multilevel piezometers in sand packs (MLSP), and fully-grouted multilevel piezometers using either bentonite (FGB) or cement-bentonite grout (FGCB). This study assesses the performance of these four different installation methods for vibrating wire piezometers at a field site possessing complex stratigraphy, including glacial and marine sediments. Pore pressure data recorded between December 2017 and July 2019 were analyzed to accomplish this objective. Data indicate that SP, MLSP, and FGB piezometers performed well. This determination is based on the fact that piezometers installed at the same depth with these arrangements recorded similar pressure variations that were coherent with the hydrogeological setting. Of the two fully-grouted installations using cement-bentonite grout, one installation failed completely due to a hydraulic short circuit, caused either by shrinkage of the grout or flow occurring along the wires of the embedded instruments. While the FGB-type piezometers used in this study worked correctly, the lack of standard methods concerning both the construction of fully-grouted piezometers is concerning. Furthermore, the lack of a standard method for mixing cement-bentonite grout likely contributed to the failure of the FGCB installations. Thus, due to the lack of guidance for both construction and grout preparation, the use of a bentonite grout removes a degree of uncertainty when fully-grouted installation techniques are used

Hydrogeology of a complex Champlain Sea deposit (Quebec, Canada) : implications for slope stability

The thick sequences of marine clayey deposits which blanket the St. Lawrence Lowlands in south-eastern Canada are highly susceptible to landslides. With 89% of the population of the Province of Quebec living in this region, improving our understanding of the mechanisms causing landslides in these sediments is a matter of public security. To accomplish this goal, instruments were deployed at a field site in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Quebec, Canada to monitor atmospheric, soil, and groundwater conditions. Field and laboratory measurements of soil geotechnical and hydraulic properties were also performed. Results indicate that the groundwater and pore pressure dynamics at the site cannot be explained using simplified site conceptual models. Further analysis indicates that groundwater dynamics and pore pressures in the massive clay deposits on-site are determined by (i) the highly-heterogeneous nature of the local geological materials (ii) the contrasting hydraulic and geotechnical properties of these materials, (iii) the presence of two unconfined aquifers at the site, one surficial and one at depth, and (iv), the presence of the Sainte-Anne River. These results were used to create a new conceptual model which illustrates the complex groundwater flow system present on site, and shows the importance of including hydrogeologic context in slope stability analysis

Inclusive Search for Anomalous Production of High-pT Like-Sign Lepton Pairs in Proton-Antiproton Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV

We report on a search for anomalous production of events with at least two charged, isolated, like-sign leptons with pT > 11 GeV/c using a 107 pb^-1 sample of 1.8 TeV ppbar collisions collected by the CDF detector. We define a signal region containing low background from Standard Model processes. To avoid bias, we fix the final cuts before examining the event yield in the signal region using control regions to test the Monte Carlo predictions. We observe no events in the signal region, consistent with an expectation of 0.63^(+0.84)_(-0.07) events. We present 95% confidence level limits on new physics processes in both a signature-based context as well as within a representative minimal supergravity (tanbeta = 3) model.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. Minor textual changes, cosmetic improvements to figures and updated and expanded reference

Measurement of the Strong Coupling Constant from Inclusive Jet Production at the Tevatron pˉp\bar pp Collider

We report a measurement of the strong coupling constant, $\alpha_s(M_Z)$, extracted from inclusive jet production in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$1800 GeV. The QCD prediction for the evolution of $\alpha_s$ with jet transverse energy $E_T$ is tested over the range 40<$E_T$<450 GeV using $E_T$ for the renormalization scale. The data show good agreement with QCD in the region below 250 GeV. In the text we discuss the data-theory comparison in the region from 250 to 450 GeV. The value of $\alpha_s$ at the mass of the $Z^0$ boson averaged over the range 40<$E_T$<250 GeV is found to be $\alpha_s(M_{Z})= 0.1178 \pm 0.0001{(\rm stat)}^{+0.0081}_{-0.0095}{\rm (exp. syst)}$. The associated theoretical uncertainties are mainly due to the choice of renormalization scale (^{+6%}_{-4%}) and input parton distribution functions (5%).Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, using RevTeX. Submitted to Physical Review Letter