Earth responses to ice mass changing in iceland

The reological properties of the crust and the upper mantle beneath Iceland make the earth surface sensitive to recent ice mass changing. On a short time scale, strong correlation exists between seasonal variations in continuous GPS time series and snow covering. The overall retreat of Icelandic glaciers is causing uplift of over 2 cm/yr around Vatnajökull, the largest Icelandic ice cap. Recent modelling also suggests that the same phenomena is causing increased mantle melting and magma generation under Vatnajökul

From surface fault traces to a fault growth model: the Vogar fissure swarm of the Reykjanes Peninsula, Southwest Iceland

International audienceThe Vogar Fissure Swarm is one of four en-echelon fracture swarms that connect the Reykjanes Ridge to the South Iceland Seismic Zone and the Western Volcanic Zone. Occurring in an area of flat topography, this fissure swarm is clearly visible at the surface, where it can be seen to affect recent postglacial lavas. Using remote sensing methods to identify and measure all the faults and fractures in the swarm, combined with additional field observations and measurements, we measured 478 individual fractures, 33% of them being faults and 67% being fissures. The fracture lengths show roughly log-normal distributions. Most of the individual fractures belong to 68 main composite fractures, seven of which are longer than 2500 m and correspond to the main fault scarps of the fissure swarm. We showed that these main faults are distributed along five, equally spaced zones, ~500 m apart and a few kilometers long. We drawn 71 across-strike profiles to characterize the shape of the fault scarps, and 5 along-strike profiles to characterize the evolution of vertical throw along the main faults. Each fault consists of a coalescence of individual segments of approximately equal length. Fault throws are never larger than 10 m and are smallest at the junctions between individual segments. Analyses of along-strike throw profiles allowed us to determine the early stages of growth after coalescence. The earliest stage is characterized by an increase in the throw of the central parts of segments. This is followed by a second stage during which the throw increases at the junctions between segments, progressively erasing these small- throw zones

Images et modèles 3D en milieux naturels

Ce numéro 12 de la Collection EDYTEM est à l'image des précédents : un espace ouvert d'expression dédié au croisement de regards scientifiques. L'accent est ici mis sur les méthodes dédiées aux représentations 3D des milieux naturels afin d'en extraire les données nécessaires aux recherches aussi bien en géosciences, en sciences de l'environnement, qu'en sciences humaines et sociales. Ce numéro recueille plus de vingt articles consacrés à l'imagerie et à la modélisation 3D. Ce volume s'ouvre par quatre articles qui posent les concepts, les méthodes et les outils de la lasergrammétrie et de la photogrammétrie. Les articles suivants constituent autant d'exemples d'application. Un tiers de ceux-ci sont issus des recherches menées par des collègues qui participent à l'école thématique. Les deux autres tiers concernent les travaux que mène le laboratoire EDYTEM en montagne (glaciers, parois, torrents...) et en milieu souterrain naturel

The influence of bedrock topography on the dynamics of two clayey landslides in the Trièves (French Alps)

International audienceThe two large adjacent landslides of Avignonet and Harmalière, affecting thick clayey quater- nary deposits, are located in the Trièves area (French Alps). Remote techniques (Lidar) and GPS measure- ments were used to characterize the two landslides. Results show major differences between the dynamics of the two landslides, both in morphology, displacement rate magnitudes and motion directions. Seismic noise measurements (H/V technique) were performed to map the clay layer thickness. Combined with Lidar derived DEM, these data yielded the paleo-topography of the seismic substratum made of compact alluvial layers and Mesozoic bedrock. The difference in dynamics between the two landslides is likely to result from the pres- ence of a ridge of compact formations at the Avignonet landslide toe, preventing an eastward deep active slid- ing to develop and explaining the observed shallow slip surfaces. To the South, this buttress disappears at the Harmalière toe, favoring a deep sliding in a Southeastern direction with a fast regression of the headscarp, which evolves into a mudslide at its base

Combined use of geophysical methods and remote techniques for characterizing the fracture network of a potential unstable cliff site (the “Roche du Midi”, Vercors massif, France)

International audienceStability assessment of a cliff strongly depends on the fracture pattern and the face topography. Geological observations as well as classical geodetic measurements are difficult to perform on high nearly vertical cliffs like the ones surrounding the town of Grenoble (French Alps). In this study we combine remote and ground imaging techniques for characterizing the geometry and the fracture pattern of potential unstable cliff sites. A Dense Digital Surface Model (DDSM) of the rock face can now be obtained from laser scanning (Lidar) or photogrammetry. These techniques are safer and quicker than direct measurements. They offer the possibility to collect structural data and to sample the shape of the outcrop at a centimetric resolution. We applied these two techniques to a potential unstable site (the “Roche du Midi”, Vercors massif) for determining the main fracture families affecting the rock mass and we obtained results similar to direct measurements performed on the nearby outcrops and on the cliff face itself. The laser scanning data suffers a bias in the illumination of the site. Geophysical experiments were also conducted on the plateau and on the cliff face in order to delineate the fracture pattern inside the rock mass. ERT (Electrical Resistivity Tomography) and GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) profiles were performed on the plateau and allowed near-vertical open fractures to be located in the vicinity of the surface. Best geophysical results in terms of penetration and resolution were however obtained from GPR profiles conducted directly on the cliff face. Laser scanning data were combined with GPR data in order to take into account the shape of the sampled profiles. The combination of vertical and short horizontal profiles allowed the strike and dip of the discontinuities to be determined. The two main families were imaged, as well as a major continuous inward dipping reflector which was not shown during the initial reconnaissance. Further investigation inside the mass effectively showed the existence of this fracture. These results highlight the power of the GPR technique in characterizing the discontinuity pattern inside rock mass for improving the model in view of hazard assessment

Present kinematics of the Tjörnes Fracture Zone, North Iceland, from campaign and continuous GPS measurements

The Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ), North Iceland, is a 120 km transform offset of the Mid-Atlantic-Ridge that accommodates 18mmyr−1 plate motion on two parallel transform structures and connects the offshore Kolbeinsey Ridge in the north to the on-shore Northern Volcanic Zone (NVZ) in the south. This transform zone is offshore except for a part of the right-lateral strike-slip Húsavík-Flatey fault (HFF) system that lies close to the coastal town of Húsavík, inducing a significant seismic risk to its inhabitants. In our previous work we constrained the locking depth and slip-rate of the HFF using 4 yr of continuous GPS measurements and found that the accumulated slip-deficit on the fault is equivalent to a Mw6.8± 0.1 earthquake, assuming a complete stress release in the last major earthquakes in 1872 and a steady accumulation since then. In this paper we improve our previous analysis by adding 44 campaign GPS (EGPS) data points, which have been regularly observed since 1997. We extract the steady-state interseismic velocities within the TFZ by correcting the GPS data for volcanic inflation of Theistareykir—the westernmost volcano of the NVZ—using a model with a magma volume increase of 25× 106m3, constrained by InSAR time-series analysis results. The improved velocity field based on 58 GPS stations confirms the robustness of our previous model and allows to better constrain the free model parameters. For the HFF we find a slightly shallower locking depth of ∼6.2km and a slightly higher slip-rate of ∼6.8mmyr−1 that again result in the same seismic potential equivalent to a Mw6.8 earthquake. The much larger number of GPS velocities improves the statistically estimated model parameter uncertainties by a factor of two, when compared to our previous study, a result that we validate using Bayesian estimatio

Scannerisation laser et photogrammétrie : deux techniques complémentaires pour l'étude des risques naturels par télédétection rapprochée en haute montagne

International audienc