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High Resistant Sand Injected Marl and Low Resistant Damaged Marl to Locate and Characterize the Thénia Fault Zone in Boumerdes City (North-Central Algeria)

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to locate and characterize the Thénia Fault Zone (TFZ) in the urban area of Boumerdes city; geological and electrical resistivity tomography surveys have targeted the Plaisancian marl and its Quaternary cover. As a whole, data indicate a complex near-vertical fault zone with an asymmetric and zoned internal structure of at least 150 m wide and with a straight N120° overall trending. The fault zone is traversed with two elongated parallel fault branches (FB1 and FB2), generally, 70 m distant from each other. These fault branches locate two intense damage zones (IDZs) of 10–15 m thick each, situated at the margin of two damage zones each having a thickness of several tens of meters. Downward sand injections into IDZs during Pleistocene epoch, possible pulverization of Plaisancian marl rocks, systematic deflection of actual stream channels, and vertical displacement of at least 30 m affecting Quaternary alluvial deposits show that the area would have undergone active tectonic driven by the TFZ.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Mr. Chaouche of the GEOMICA Company for providing us with boreholes data. Mr. Zidane is thanked for granting us permission to work on building site. Anonymous reviewers are thanked for their constructive review that improved significantly the paper. The authors thank the editorial board for their guidance. This is the Thénia Fault research project supported by the Centre National de Recherche Appliquée en Génie Parasismique (CGS), Algiers, Algeria.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CGS, Centre National de Recherche Appliquée en Génie Parasismique, Rue Kaddour Rahim, Hussein Dey, 16040, Algiers, Algeria

    Hakim Moulouel, Rabah Bensalem, Djamel Machane & El-Hadi Oubaiche

  2. USTHB, Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumedienne, Bab Ezzouar, Algiers, Algeria

    Abderrahmane Bendaoud & Walid Skendri

  3. CRAAG, Centre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique, Bouzaréah, Algiers, Algeria

    Sofiane Gharbi

  4. Institute of Land and Infrastructure Management, Tsukuba, Japan

    Hassane Ousalem

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  1. Hakim Moulouel
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Moulouel, H., Bensalem, R., Machane, D. et al. High Resistant Sand Injected Marl and Low Resistant Damaged Marl to Locate and Characterize the Thénia Fault Zone in Boumerdes City (North-Central Algeria). Pure Appl. Geophys. 174, 103–115 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-016-1400-2

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