Integrated 3D geophysical and geological modelling of the Hercynian Suture Zone in the Champtoceaux area (south Brittany, France)

International audienceThis paper combines geological knowledge and geophysical imagery at the crustal scale to model the 3D geometry of a segment of the Hercynian suture zone of western Europe in the Champtoceaux area (Brittany, France). The Champtoceaux complex consists of a stack of metamorphic nappes of gneisses and micaschists, with eclogite-bearing units. The exhumation of the complex, during early Carboniferous times, was accompanied by deformation during regional dextral strike–slip associated with a major Hercynian shear zone (the South Armorican Shear Zone, SASZ). Dextral shearing produced a km-scale antiformal structure with a steeply dipping axial plane and a steeply eastward plunging axis. Armor 2 deep seismic profile shows that the regional structure was cut by a set of faults with northward thrusting components. Based on the seismic constraint, direct 2D crustal-scale modelling was performed throughout the Champtoceaux fold on seven radial gravity profiles, also using geological data, and density measurements from field and drill-hole samples. The 3D integration of the cross-sections, the digitised geological map, and the structural information (foliation dips) insure the geometrical and topological consistency of all sources of data. The 2D information is interpolated to the whole 3D space using a geostatistical analysis. Finally, the 3D gravity contribution of the resulting model is computed taking into account densities for each modelled geological body and compared to the Bouguer anomaly. The final 3D model is thus compatible with the seismic and gravity data, as well as with geological data. Main geological results derived from the modelling are (i) the overall 3D geometry of the south dipping thrust system interpreted on the seismic profile emphasises northward thrusting and folding of the Champtoceaux complex which was coeval with strike–slip along the South Armorican Shear Zone; (ii) the gravity modelling suggests the presence of a relatively dense body below the Champtoceaux complex that could be interpreted as a result of relative uplift of midcrustal material during thrusting along the E–W trending wrench–thrust system; (iii) the northern limb of the Champtoceaux anticline is a relatively shallow feature; and (iv) Vigneux synkinematic granitic body is a laccolith sheared and rooted along the southern branch of the SASZ and spreads away from the strike–slip zone within weak country-rocks