Evolucion climatica al final del Cuaternario en las regiones costeras del norte peruano : breve resena

La situation géographique du Nord-Ouest péruvien, ainsi que l'influence prépondérante excercée sur le climat régional par les paramètres océanographiques expliquent une grande partie des difficultés rencontrées pour reconstituer l'évolution climatique fini-quaternaire de cette zone de transition. La reconstitution des régimes climatiques durant le dernier maximum glaciaire et la transition aux conditions interglaciaires de l'Holocène, a des répercussions importantes sur la modélisation des relations océan/climat dans le Pacifique oriental durant le dernier demi-cycle climatique

Pampa del Palo : an anomalous composite marine terrace on the uprising coast of Southern Peru

Quaternary sediments along the southern Peruvian coast occur as staircase terraces of coastal and shallow-marine deposits in response to continuous uplift related to the active boundary between the Nazca and South-American plates. However, near Ilo (in the same coastal stretch) the emergent Pampa del Palo terrace consists of a relatively-thick, vertical stack of shallow-marine, coastal and lagoonal deposits that indicate a rather different geodynamic behaviour. Coastal deposits are correlatable with the successive marine highstands of isotopic stages 7 (?) and 5 (substages 5e and 5c). Combining aerial photo-interpretation, geomorphological mapping, sedimentological analysis, chronostratigraphical data, and structural observations, the Pampa del Palo feature is interpreted as a faulted block that moved independently of the remaining southern Peruvian coast and, for some time between the end of Middle Pleistocene (before ca. 220 ka) and the early Late Pleistocene (ca. 120 ka), it rose more slowly or was even down-faulted relative to the rest of the southern Peruvian margin. The independent block movements ceased after substage 5e, when the Pampa del Palo "terrace" was incorporated into the regional uplift of the area. Since ca. 100 ka, measured uplift rate in the Ilo area amounted up to 160 mm/1000 y when the area has been affected by a few active, NE-SE trending faults only. (Résumé d'auteur

The Meteorite Fall in Carancas, Lake Titicaca Region, Southern Peru: First Results

The meteorite fall that occurred on September 15, 2007, in the Carancas community is a rare case where it is possible to study both impact phenomenology and meteorite characteristics, including accurate time framework

Dynamical effects of subducting ridges: Insights from 3-D laboratory models

We model the subduction of buoyant ridges and plateaus to study their effect on slab dynamics. Oceanic ridges parallel to the trench have a stronger effect on the process of subduction because they simultaneously affect a longer trench segment. Large buoyant slab segments sink more slowly into the asthenosphere, and their subduction result in a diminution of the velocity of subduction of the plate. We observe a steeping of the slab below those buoyant anomalies, resulting in smaller radius of curvature of the slab, that augments the energy dissipated in folding the plate and further diminishes the velocity of subduction. When the 3D geometry of a buoyant plateau is modelled, the dip of the slab above the plateau decreases, as a result of the larger velocity of subduction of the dense "normal" oceanic plate on both sides of the plateau. Such a perturbation of the dip of the slab maintains long time after the plateau has been entirely incorporated into the subduction zone. We compare experiments with the present-day subduction zone below South America. Experiments suggest that a modest ridge perpendicular to the trench such as the present-day Juan Fernandez ridge is not buoyant enough to modify the slab geometry. Already subducted buoyant anomalies within the oceanic plate, in contrast, may be responsible for some aspects of the present-day geometry of the Nazca slab at depth