Academic literature on the topic 'Artois (France)'

AbstractA synthesis of existing borehole data and seismic profiles has been conducted in the Artois area (northern France), along the northern border of the Paris basin, in order to explore the possible control exerted at depth by the Upper Carboniferous Variscan thrust front on the distribution of Late Paleozoic-Mesozoic depositional centers and their subsequent uplift in Tertiary times. Such control was demonstrated recently in the Weald-Boulonnais basin (Eastern Channel area) that forms the western prolongation of the area under study but was so far poorly constrained in the Artois area. Presented data provide evidence for the topography of the Artois hills and the altitude of sedimentary layers to be controlled by the activity of a network of relaying WNW-ESE striking faults inducing the systematic uplift of the southern fault blocks. Those steeply S-dipping faults branch downward onto the ramp of the Variscan thrusts forming listric faults that locally limit to the north buried half-graben structures, filled with fan-shaped fluviatile Stephanian-Permian deposits. Such clear syn-rift geometry shows that the ramp of the main Variscan frontal thrust (the Midi thrust) has been reactivated as a normal fault in Stephanian-Permian times thus forming a very demonstrative example of a negative inversion process. The reverse offset of the transgressive Middle Cretaceous-Lower Eocene layers covering unconformably the Paleozoic substratum argue for a Tertiary (Middle Eocene-Late Oligocene?) contractional reactivation of the fault network thereby documenting a repeated inversion process along the Artois Variscan thrust front. The Variscan frontal thrust zone is thus shown here to represent a prominent crustal-scale mechanical discontinuity that localized deformation in the Artois-Boulonnais area since Upper Paleozoic times.

In the spring of 1314, the three daughters-in-law of King Philip the Fair of France were seized as adulteresses, and two young knights, their alleged lovers, were brutally put to death at Pontoise, their property confiscated.1 The knights in question were brothers, Philippe and Gautier d’Aulnay, whose actions brought singular dishonor to their line and to their father Gautier, a faithful vassal and supporter of Count Charles of Valois, Philip the Fair’s brother and close confidant.2 Two of the king’s disgraced daughters-in-law were sent to the Norman fortress of Château-Gaillard. The oldest, Marguerite of ducal Burgundy (ca. 1289‐1315), the daughter of the late Duke Robert of Burgundy (1248‐1306) and of Saint Louis’s daughter Agnes of France († 1327), was married to Louis (1289‐1316, r. 1314‐1316), king of Navarre and heir to the throne of France. Taken with her was Blanche of Artois and comital Burgundy (1296/1297‐1325/1326), wife of the king’s third son Charles of La Marche (1294‐1328, r. 1322‐1328), and daughter of the late Count Othon of Burgundy († 1303) and of Mahaut († 1329), countess of Artois and Burgundy. Jeanne (1287/1288‐1330), Blanche’s elder sister and wife of Philip of Poitiers (1290/1291‐1322, r. 1316‐1322), enjoyed prestige and standing the other two lacked because of the great landed inheritance, the county of Burgundy, which she had brought to her marriage. Perhaps because of this, perhaps because her guilt seemed less clear than that of the others, she was treated differently and imprisoned near Paris, at Dourdan. After Philip the Fair died on 29 November 1314, Jeanne was released, around Christmastime, declared innocent after proceedings in the Parlement of Paris. News of the shocking and unprecedented scandal spread throughout the realm of France and beyond its borders. Marguerite and Blanche were generally considered guilty, even though there was wonderment at how the affair could have taken place.3

AbstractIn southern Belgium (Mons Basin and Tournai region) and northern France (area between Lille, Valenciennes and Maubeuge), condensed sequences have been referred to as ‘tourtias’ since the start of the nineteenth century. These levels correspond to a succession of trangressive systems tracts and generally appear as dark green, glauconitic and microconglomeratic facies. They are distributed all along the base of the more important transgressive systems tracts of the Cenomanian and basal Turonian from the Boulonnais (northwest France) to the Mons Basin (southern Belgium), through the Artois and Douaisis. Their age can now be determined more accurately by identification of their ammonite content, as housed in museums such as the Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique (IRScNB, Brussels) and the Musée d'Histoire naturelle de Lille (MHNL). Here material from the IRScNB collections is described, illustrated and discussed; specimens contained in the MHNL collections were described in a previous paper.

Abstract The geology of the Boulonnais has been well studied since the early part of the last century [Gosselet and Bertaut, 1873; Olry, 1904; Pruvost and Delepine, 1921]. Extensive coal exploration added substantially to the general understanding of the geology of the region but as outcrop is poor, many questions remain. Gravity methods used in the analysis of geological structures have had a long and successful history in helping to study the earth's crust for scientific and applied objectives. Regional gravity data are particularly useful in mapping geographic distribution and configuration of density contrast of rocks. Previous gravity research shows the main trends of the structure. In most cases the regional Bouguer gravity hides the relationship between the geology and the shape of the anomaly caused by the perturbing body. New information can be obtained by filtering the maps. The purpose of filtering a map is to remove unwanted characteristics and enhance desirable characteristics that are diagnostic for the geology. Because of their simple mathematical forms, most potential field filters are in the spectral domain. It is advisable to transform the original unfiltered field to the spectral domain, apply the filter, then transform the filtered map back to the spatial domain for use in the interpretation. Several spectrally filtered versions of the original gravity map are used in this regional interpretation. In the case of the Boulonnais the most useful filters have been the horizontal component and the first vertical derivative. In the first instance computing the horizontal gradients of the gravity field permits us to localise the limit of the blocks and then the fault positions. The gravimetric field above a vertical contact of rock with different density shows a low on the side of the low density rocks and a high on the side of the high density rocks. The inflection point is located just on the contact of the two types of rocks. This contact can be outlined by locating the maxima of the horizontal gradient. In the case of a low dipping contact maxima stay close to the contact, but are displaced down dip. In the second instance the first vertical derivative acts as a booster for the short wavelength; this attenuates or destroys the effect of the regional field. The resulting map shows a better structure because in complex areas they give a better definition of the different bodies by separating their effects. In the case of the Boulonnais the first vertical derivative allows us to distinguish the depressed region from the uplifted one. The structural evolution of the Boulonnais-Artois area includes two main extensional events in the late Palaeozoic-early Cretaceous interval and an inversion in mid-late Palaeocene time. The new gravity data in combination with recent field and published data have provided a new insight into the structure of the Boulonnais-Artois area and a new interpretation is proposed. -- Fault patterns are oriented 110N and 040N in the Boulonnais and 140N in Artois areas. -- The linkage between the faults shows a relay geometry with transfer zones [cf. Morley et al., 1990 and Pea-cock and Sanderson, 1994]. The best example is located between Sangatte (near the tunnel) and Landrethun faults where overlapping synthetic faults with a relay ramp are imaged. -- There is no major continuous fault zone but a complex en echelon fault system. -- Linkage between Boulonnais and Artois fault is not well constrained. An important discontinuity between the two regions is apparent. This model underlines the importance of overlapping fault tips with the generation of transfer zones. These structures are also known in the Wessex and Weald basins [Stoneley, 1982; Chadwick, 1993] where heritage and inversion are significant.

Thisstudyis aimed at determining the fate of some heavy metals and hydrocarbons in soils amended with sludge from river cleaning out. Northern France has been chosen for the experiment because it is a heavily industrialized region where contamination by micropollutants has been very acute for many years. Several French laboratories are associated in this joint project which is partly sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Artois-Picardie Water Agency. The parcel of land studied has a surface area of 100m2. It has been instrumented with Chamberland candles in order to get water for micropollutants analysis, tensiometers and a neutronic probe so as to collect informations on the hydric state of the soil. Once instrumented the parcel has been spread with sludge from river cleaning out. The main objective is to obtain an estimation of the fluxes of micropollutants and to evaluate the respective proportions of infiltration and drainage. A lab study based on lysimeters is carried out together with the field study. The field study will last at least 2 years while the lab study will be going on for a year.