DOI:10.1016/j.tecto.2012.01.021 How plate tectonics is recorded in chalk deposits along the eastern English Channel in Normandy (France) and Sussex (UK)

• Main Authors: Anne Duperret, Sara V, Rory N. Mortimore, Albert Genter, Prince Edwards Road, Sussex Bn Be
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.370.1824; http://hal.inria.fr/docs/00/75/99/19/PDF/tectonophysics-2011Duperret-corrected.pdf

Intra-plate stresses that occurred in the Anglo-Paris Basin and English Channel during Upper Cretaceous and Cenozoic times are a consequence of the convergence between Eurasia and Africa and the opening of the North Atlantic area. This geodynamic re-organisation is recorded on each side of the English Channel, with the emergence of regional structures such as the the Weald-Artois anticline and the reactivation of large-scale strike-slip faults. We analyse the Anglo-Paris Basin Chalk fracture system, on each side of the eastern English Channel, using a set of 1600 meso-scale fractures data collected on coastal chalk cliffs in Normandy (NW France) and Sussex (UK). Mesoscale fracture system is precisely dated using chalk lithostratigraphy correlations within the basin. Moreover, an inversion method is used on fault slip data to evidence a paleostress chronology in the Anglo-Paris Basin. Three main Upper Cretaceousextensive events, characterized by normal faults and jointing are recorded in Normandy and two Cenozoic compressive and extensive events with strikeslip and normal faults appear in Sussex. Paleostress records vary on each part of the eastern English Channel. The meso-scale fracture system is thus used to better define the type of relationship between meso-scale and large-scale brittle deformation in the Chalk during Meso-Cenozoic. A first