A new sedimentary and biostratigraphic framework for the Callovian-Oxfordian transition on the Atlantic margin of Morocco

A major global marine transgression occurred during the Callovian to Early Kimmeridgian, which was interrupted locally by a hiatus during the Late Callovian to Early Oxfordian. The transgression may have been a major driver for extensive coral buildup development in the Oxfordian. The depositional hiatus may be related to a combination of...

Cretaceous climate change evidenced in the Senegalese rock record, NW Africa

Climate change directly impacts the source, mode and volume of sediment generation which can be observed in the rock record. To accurately model source to sink systems, in addition to hinterland geology, tectonics and transport distance, a thorough comprehension of the climate is essential. In this study we evaluate the role of climate on...

Integrated multi-proxy source-to-sink analysis of Late Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) clastic systems in the Essaouira-Agadir Basin

This study investigates the provenance of the continental and marine Late Barremian clastics of the Bouzergoun Formation, exposed in the Essaouira-Agadir Basin (EAB). Thin section petrography, Scanning Electron Micrography, heavy minerals analysis, and detrital zircon dating were conducted and integrated with a large dataset of published Low...

Architecture of Oxfordian coral buildups along the Atlantic margin of Morocco

Oxfordian (Upper Jurassic) coral buildups developed widely in Tethys and Atlantic realms, during a time when paleoclimate potentially swung between greenhouse climate and cold snaps. Buildups were constructed by platy and branching corals, sponges and microbialites. Although their initiation is commonly linked to the Upper Jurassic global...

Architecture and Evolution of the Southern Chotts-Jeffara Basin, Tunisia

Southern Tunisia is known to be less deformed and simpler than its neighboring Atlassic domain to the north. This area is complex and basin evolution in the Southern Chotts-Jeffara (SCJ) basin is debated. In this paper we combined surface and subsurface data with low temperature thermochronology (LTT) to reinvestigate the tectono-sedimentary...

Identifying local vs. regional drainage using multiproxy provenance tracers: Tracking the Moroccan Late Triassic fluvial system

The Kerrouchen Basin is an understudied rift basin in the Middle Atlas of Morocco, where over 600 m of Triassic stratigraphy is well exposed. It was partially inverted during the Atlasic orogeny whilst preserving the original basin geometry. Within the Kerrouchen Basin, two distinct fluvial systems are present. The first, recorded by the K3...

Early post-rift depositional systems of the Central Atlantic: Lower and Middle Jurassic of the Essaouira-Agadir Basin, Morocco

Passive margins are traditionally regarded as tectonically quiescent, however the increasing recognition of significant post-rift tectonic uplift along their flanks offers an important control on sediment delivery. The most extensive record of the early post-rift succession of the Central Atlantic Margin (CAM) is found in the Lower and Middle...

Syn-depositional Mesozoic siliciclastic pathways on the Moroccan Atlantic margin linked to evaporite mobilisation

Evaporite mobilisation in evaporite-cored anticlines leads to topographic growth that can alter sedimentary routing in shallow marine environments. This paper analyses two evaporite-cored anticlines perpendicular to the NW Africa coast to understand how their tectonic evolution influenced sediment pathways during the Early to Middle Jurassic...

Anticline growth by shortening during crustal exhumation of the Moroccan Atlantic margin

It is unclear how the crustal-scale erosional exhumation of continental domains of the Moroccan Atlantic margin and the excessive subsidence of its rifted domains affected the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous post-rift evolution of the margin. To constrain the km-scale exhumation, we study the structural evolution of the Jbel Amsittene. This...

Low-temperature thermochronology as a control on vertical movements for semi-quantitative source-to-sink analysis: A case study for the Permian to Neogene of Morocco and surroundings

Continental passive margins and their hinterlands in the Atlantic realm have been the locus of many Low Temperature Thermochronology (LTT) and time-Temperature (t-T) modelling studies that evidence pre-, syn- and post-rift episodic km-scale exhumation and burial episodes. In this study, we integrate data from over 30 published LTT and t-T...

New Evidence of ‘Anomalous’ Vertical Movements along the Hinterland of the Atlantic NW African Margin

Low-temperature thermochronology studies revealed major exhumation events affecting domains in the hinterland of the Central Atlantic margins, where Palaeozoic and/or Precambrian basement is exposed. Thus, domains traditionally assumed to be stable since at least the Variscan and juxtaposed to subsiding Meso-Cenozoic basins, appear to be...

Phanerozoic Vertical Movements in Morocco

Our understanding of the Earth’s interior is limited by the access we have of its  deep layers, while the knowledge we have of Earth’s evolution is restricted to harvested information from the present state of our planet. We therefore use  proxies, physical and numerical models, and observations made on and from the...

The Sidi Ifni transect across the rifted margin of Morocco (Central Atlantic): Vertical movements constrained by low-temperature thermochronology

The occurrence of km-scale exhumations during syn- and post-rift stages has been documented along Atlantic continental margins, which are also characterised by basins undergoing substantial subsidence. The relationship between the exhuming and subsiding domains is poorly understood. In this study, we reconstruct the evolution of a 50 km long...

Post-Variscan evolution of the Anti-Atlas belt of Morocco constrained from low-temperature geochronology

The Anti-Atlas belt of Morocco extends ENE–WSW, over more than 600 km, from the Atlantic margin in the west to the interior of the African plate in the east. It exhibits Precambrian rocks outcropping as basement inliers and surrounded by marine Ediacaran–Cambrian sequences around the axis of the mountain range. The belt, which has for a long...