Contraintes par imagerie sismique pénétrante sur l'évolution d'une marge Cénozoïque réactivée en compression (cas de la marge algérienne, secteur de Tipaza)

The inversion of passive margins appears to be one of the first steps towards the initiation of new subduction zones. This crucial step in plate tectonics nevertheless still raises many questions. The study of margins currently reactivated by compressional tectonics is thus essential to better understand this process. These margins are uncommon, located in different geodynamic settings, and the factors determining their evolution are poorly constrained. The Algerian margin, located in North Africa, is one of handful of modern examples worldwide. The evolution of this margin, rifted during the Miocene, in a back-arc setting, is part ofthe complex puzzle of the western Mediterranean. Since a few million years, the margin has suffered inversion and compression in the framework of slow on going convergence between the European and African plates. This convergence generates moderate to strong earthquakes in North Algeria. The relatively young age of the Algerian basin, the large sediment load, and the compressive forces, constitute favorable conditions to the formation of a future subduction zone. Studies from the past ten years indicate, that themain unresolved questions are related to (1) the deep structure of the Algerian basin and its southern margin (the type of margin, the nature of the basement, the dimension and nature of the ocean-continent transition, the style and the distribution of the compressional deformation), and (2) the history of the kinematic and geodynamic evolution of the basin. All of these unknowns have prevented a complete and thorough analysis of modalities of the Algerian margin inversion. This study focuses on the Central Algerian margin, in the area of Tipaza (West of Algiers), a key region to understand the mechanism of the opening of the Algerian basin. Processing and analysis of a deep wide-angle and multichannel seismic new data set acquired in the context of the French-Algerian project SPIRAL (Sismique profonde et Investigation Régionales en Algérie, 2009)have enabled us to determine the crustal structure of the Algerian basin and its southern continental margin,as well as the pseudo-3D structure of a specific feature in the study area: the submarine topographic highformed by the Khayr-al-Din bank. The analysis of the deep structure of the margin reveals features inherited from its complex evolution: (1) a crust of continental nature of more than 15 km thick at the upper margin(Khayr-al-Din Bank), (2) a thin crust of oceanic nature, 5-6 thick in the deep basin, including slightly high velocities at its base (7.2 km/s - 7.3 km/s), (3) similarities with margins formed in context of transform deformation, (4) a progressive deepening of the whole sedimentary cover and the thickening of the Plio-Quaternary sediments, from the distal deep basin towards the margin foot, coeval with (5) a long wavelengthflexuration of the basement in the basin. Results from this study provide new constraints on (1) the geometryand nature of the margin and the basin, (2) the evolution of the margin, suggesting a multiphased history including a stage of rifting and/or oceanic spreading, a transcurrent episode due to the westward migration of the Alboran block, and a diffuse Plio-Quaternary compressional reactivation distributed from the deep basinto the upper margin; (3) the mechanisms of the reactivation marked by newly formed south-dipping blind-thrusts, especially at the foot of the Khayr-al-Din bank, and suggesting a Plio-Quaternary uplift of the bankof 0.2 mm/y to 0.75 mm/y and the early stages of imbricate thrusting of crustal scales