Noël Vandenberghe

• KU Leuven

Macroscopic and microscopic drilling-induced deformation structures are documented in cores of Ypresian Ieper Group and Rupelian Boom Formation clays using macro polished slabs and polarising microscopy of thin sections. The cores are recovered in north Belgium from a few hundred meter depth by pushing a steel barrel with a cutting shoe in the non-...

The origin of recent mud deposits as well as the coastal turbidity maximum in the French-Belgian-Dutch nearshore area of the southern North Sea is still under debate in the literature. Some models favor the erosion of the Cretaceous chalk cliffs along the English Channel and subsequent NE ward directed transport, other models focus on the erosion o...

Series of transient greenhouse warming intervals in the early Eocene provide an opportunity to study the response of rock weathering and erosion to changes in temperature and precipitation. During greenhouse warming, chemical weathering is thought to increase the uptake of carbon from the atmosphere, while physical weathering and erosion control se...

In Belgium, numerous karstified sand-carbonate contacts are known for their association with halloysite precipitation. In the Hinnisdael caves of Vechmaal, eastern of Belgium, a similar geological setting is observed in dolines of karstified calcarenite of the Cretaceous Maastricht Formation filled with sand of the Oligocene St. Huibrechts-Hern For...

Our knowledge about large earthquakes in stable continental regions comes from studies of faults that generated historical surface rupturing earthquakes or were identified by their recent imprint in the morphology. Here, we evaluate the co-seismic character and movement history of the Rauw fault in Belgium, which lacks geomorphological expression a...

Thin sections of the plastic Ieper Group and Boom Formation clay have shown a marked heterogeneity due to layering, erosion, bioturbation and pyrite distribution. In the most clay-enriched samples, compartments delineated by primary thin fissures are present and associated small drag lines indicate small displacement. Fissures and drag lines are im...

The Boom Clay Formation of early Oligocene age, which occurs underground in northern Belgium, has been studied intensively for decades as a potential host rock for the disposal of nuclear waste. The goal of the present study is to determine a reference composition for the Boom Clay using both literature methods and methods developed during this wor...

Heat flow shifts between 20 and 60 mW/m2 in the upper ∼2 km of the crust and 60 to 150 mW/m2 at greater depth have been observed in the Soumagne, Havelange and Grand-Halleux deep wells, all located close to the Variscan thrust front in Belgium. We have gathered geologic, hydrogeologic, thermal and paleoclimatic data and have used them to perform la...

The geomorphological analysis of two sections cut into a sandy landscape in north-east Belgium enabled the establishment of a chronology for a sequence of events during the last 15 ka that illustrate the polycyclical nature of the evolution of such landscapes. Field descriptions, analytical sediment and soil characterization, and pollen analysis ar...

A thorough characterization of the mineralogy and detailed clay mineralogy is an important tool in scientific research and industrial applications of shales. It helps to understand the geological history of the deposits and significantly contributes to solving specific geological problems. In three separate examples, it is demonstrated how the clay...

Natural clay-sized glauconite has the same mineralogical composition as sand-sized glauconite pellets but occurs in d 060 values ranging between 1.513 Å and 1.519 Å. Clay-sized glauconite was not neoformed but formed by the disintegration of sandsized glauconite pellets which were abraded or broken up during short-distance transport within the sedi...

The Rupelian Boom Clay in Belgium is a marine sedimentary deposit with an extensive data set. Astronomical control on high-frequency cyclicity has been proven before, and sedimentological analyses have shown climate-driven cycles caused by sea-level fluctuations. A long cycle in grain-size and bed thickness, involving the entire Boom Clay section,...

Quantifying Neogene and Quaternary geodynamic processes requires reliable age control on the geological record from which the rate and intensity of these processes are usually derived. The nature and geometry of marine sediments preserved in the southern North Sea basin, NE Belgium, are influenced by geodynamic processes such as tectonic movements...

The reconstruction of past landscapes yields valuable information on the future evolution of the earth surface environment. Such reconstructions heavily rely on age control in order to link processes with specific landscape changes. The aim of this study is to integrate various archives that contain crucial elements to understand the evolution of t...

The Boom Clay Formation of early Oligocene age, which occurs underground in northern Belgium, has been studied intensively for decades as a potential host rock for the disposal of nuclear waste. The goal of the present study is to determine a reference composition for the Boom Clay using both literature methods and methods developed during this wor...

Miocene rifting and associated rhyolitic (K-rich) volcanism resulted in the deposition of pyroclastic material in the central Simav graben, near Karacaderbent, Turkey. The pyroclastics were deposited in a lacustrine environment, altered to clinoptilolite-rich tuffs and cross-cut by several transform faults along which hydrothermal fluids circulated...

In North Belgium, unusually thick Namurian strata are shown to be rrelate to the existence of deep basin. The presence of a listric growth fault is demonstrated in the Upper Carboniferous, somewhat limiting the Namurian Basin. The associated roll-over structure may contain sandstones with sufficient porosity to become an attractive exploration targ...

The Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) Working Group, after many years of studies, voted to define the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Danian Stage at the base of the boundary clay at a section near El Kef, Tunisia. The GSSP was approved by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and ratified by the International...

The Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic sedimentary record in the Campine Basin along the southern border of the North Sea Basin is analysed in terms of sequence stratigraphy. All available biostratigraphic, and in some cases, magnetostratigraphic data are used to constrain the sequence chronostratigraphy. The relative geographic extent of the strata is u...

Preliminary stable oxygen isotope data are presented from the southern North Sea Basin successions, ranging from the Lutetian to Rupelian. Analyses were performed on fish otoliths, nuculid bivalves and benthic foraminifera and are presented as bulk δ ¹⁸ O values relative to a well established regional sequence stratigraphic framework. The most sign...

This paper presents the results of a detailed rock magnetic and magnetostratigraphic study of the Lower Oligocene Rupelian unit-stratotype. Notwithstanding the relatively low intensity of the natural remanent magnetisation and the diverse and often unstable behaviour during demagnetisation, close-spaced sampling and accurate polarity determinations...

In the Eocene to Oligocene transitional strata in Belgium, clay mineral associations vary in response to the climatic evolution and to tectonic pulses. Decreasing smectite to illite ratios and the systematic occurrence of illite-smectite irregular interlayers are consequences of a cooling climate. A marked increase in kaolinite content occurs just...

A re-analysis of the stratigraphy based on recent dating of palaeo-shores of Neogene to early Pleistocene ages is proposed within a geodynamic context in the Channel and Dover Strait areas. This sector of Europe is controlled by two main geological boundaries: to the North, the Variscan Overthrust and,to the South, the northern branch of the southe...

The Rupel Group strata occur in the subsurface of Belgium, The Netherlands and the German part of the Lower-Rhine area. Stratigraphical traditions in the three countries led to different stratigraphical nomenclatures preventing more detailed correlations between these areas. The present study aims at making such detailed correlations. Lower Oligoce...

The success or failure of transport models in predicting the migration of a contaminant plume is ground water depends to a large extent on the quality of flow and transport parameters used. In this study, the authors investigate the spatial variability in the tracer velocity and dispersivity in a shallow sandy aquifer in northern Belgium. Based on...

From a critical review of published Meuse cross-sections it is concluded that the geometry of the predeformational sediment wedge never was discussed for the construction of these sections. Nevertheless in the Ardennes case it represents a major constraint to produce a balanced cross-section. In order to determine this predeformational sediment wed...

Three profiles are constructed through the Oligocene succession of the borderland between Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The profiles illustrate the geometric relationships between Rupelian and Chattian successions and the lateral and vertical variations within the Rupelian and Chattian deposits. The end-Rupelian profile between Central Belg...

It is difficult to measure karst volume but important to do so to access risk of sinkhole formation. Measurements of airflow and atmospheric pressure pattern on a water well in buried karst of the overexploited Tournai hydrogeological basin (Belgium) show that inflow and ouflow are highly correlated to atmsopheric pressure and differences of extern...

Our basic knowledge of the geothermal potential in Belgium derives from existing geological reconnaissance surveys. As a result of the energy arises in the 1970s and early 1980s, efforts were made by public organisations such as the Belgian National Geological Survey and the Directorate-General for Science, Research and Development of the European...

Shark teeth from the Oligocene Boom Clay Formation (Belgium) have been analyzed for trace elements by neutron activation analysis to examine whether biogenic apatite might record changes in seawater trace-element chemistry throughout a eustatic sequence. An additional set of samples from a wide range of depositional environments has been studied to...

D.H. Porrenga described the green clays from the Lower Oligocene of Aardebrug, east of Leuven in Belgium as glauconitic illite, a mineral intermediate in chemistry between glauconite and illite, and presumed this clay to be neoformed. Backscattered electron microscopy (BSEM) was used to examine the petrology of these clays in sediments for qualitat...

Upper Visean reef-mound carbonates from the Campine Basin, northern Belgium, have a complex diagenetic history, which reflects the evolution of subsurface fluids in the basin. Primary pores became cemented by marine fibrous (stage A) and shallow burial (stage B, C and D) scalenohedral and blocky calcites. Tectonic deformation then created successiv...

The Famenne seismic survey (1978) has identified a major subhorizontal reflector, marking an angular unconformity, which was thought to represent the Condroz Overthrust. The outcrop of this thrust fault to the north marks the front of the Variscan Orogenic belt.The aim of the Havelange well was to reach the thrust fault and to determine whether the...

Temperature gradients are given for the Belgian subsurface. It is demonstrated that temperature measurements show an important spread. The temperature gradients are influenced by groundwater circulation. Temperature maps for different depths are constructed. The temperature distribution in the subsurface is determined by the broad geological struct...

A target area in northwestern Kalimantan, Indonesia, already defined by a geochemical stream-sediment survey, has been further investigated by geochemical analysis of soils and samples of test pits. Overlapping geochemical anomalies in the soils were found for Cu, Mo, Au and Bi. Anomalies and high values of the other elements, Pb, Zn, Fe, Mn and As...

Viaene, W., Suhanda, T., Vandenberghe, N., Sunarya, Y. and Ottenburgs, R., 1981. Geochemical soil prospecting in northwest Kalimantan, Indonesia. In: A.W. Rose and H. Gundlach (Editors), Geochemical Exploration 1980. J. Geochem. Explor., 15: 453–470. A target area in northwestern Kalimantan, Indonesia, already defined by a geochemical stream-sedime...

Phytoclasts and coal particles, present in small quantities in a clay sediment, can be used as source rock indicators. The measurement of their reflectivities revealed characteristic low values typical for British Carboniferous coals, outcropping in Northern England, which may be a source area of the sediment. This technique may be a valuable compl...

Grain-size data of Boom clay (Belgium) are represented on CM, AM, LM diagrams as suggested by Passega. They show a typical ‘uniform suspension’ pattern. It is argued that a ‘uniform suspension’ pattern can be due simply to the clay-rich nature of the sediments. As these sediments are not deposited by a single transport mechanism, the ‘uniform suspe...