The contribution of marine magnetics in the Gulf of Saint-Malo (Brittany, France) to the understanding of the geology of the North Armorican Cadomian belt.

Abstract Marine magnetic data extracted from the geophysical database of the SHOM (the French Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service) offer a first overview of the magnetic offshore environment in the Gulf of Saint-Malo (Brittany, France). Their cross-interpretation with available geological and geophysical knowledge provides a new land and sea model of the western part of the Late Proterozoic North Armorican Cadomian belt. In particular, marine data exhibit relatively intense and heterogeneous magnetic signatures, mainly interpreted as the offshore prolongation of plutonic, volcanic, and metamorphic geologic formations recognized onshore. Imprints of major faults well known on land can be inferred at sea from discontinuities and shifting of magnetic anomalies or followed by high-resolution bathymetry. An impressive and dense dolerite dyke swarm propagated on more than 50 km from the coast seaward. Dykes are characterized by both 1-km-deep and less than 50-m-deep superficial magnetic responses, suggesting the existence of deeply rooted super dykes to which individual small-scale structures are connected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]