Magnetostratigraphy of the Ouarzazate basin : implications for the timing of deformation and mountain building in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco
Tesón del Hoyo, Eliseo (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geologia)
Pueyo, Emilio (Instituto Geológico y Minero de España)
Teixell Cácharo, Antonio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geologia)
Barnolas, Antonio (Instituto Geológico y Minero de España)
Agustí, Jordi, 1954- (Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social)
Furió Bruno, Marc (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)

Date:	2010
Abstract:	Two magnetostratigraphic profiles (450 samples) have been carried out to constrain the age of synorogenic formations in the southern foreland of the High Atlas of Morocco. The Amekchoud profile covers the Aït Ouglif and Aït Kandoula alluvial formations that form the bulk of the Ouarzazate basin fill, indicating an age between the upper Langhian and the Messinian (Miocene). Data obtained in the previously unexplored Hadida formation profile covers the oldest terms of the foreland basin succession, but the low quality of the magnetic record only allows proposing a tentative age between the middle Lutetian and an undetermined middle to late Eocene. The correlation of the Amekchoud profile is based on the recognition of the long C5n chron (Tortonian) in the middle part of the section studied and a new vertebrate locality of upper Tortonian age found in the upper part. These results indicate a discontinuous record of foreland basin development in the southern Atlas domain from mid Eocene to late Miocene times, punctuated by an intermediate large hiatus of 20-25 ma (late Eocene to mid Miocene). Thrusting in the Sub-Atlas frontal thrust belt began before the Aït Ouglif and Kandoula formations, probably during the Oligocene, and extends up to recent times. The alternation of periods of deposition with others of no sedimentary record, which does not coincide with specific tectonic events, results probably from the interference of orogenic deformation and the mantle-related thermal uplift events that have been described for the Moroccan Atlas.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CDS2006-00041 Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia CGL2006-07226 Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia CGL2006-4548 Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia CGL2005-24158-E
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan aquestes es distribueixin sota la mateixa llicència que regula l'obra original i es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Eocene ; High Atlas ; Magnetostratigraphy ; Miocene ; Morocco ; Thrusting ; Uplift
Published in:	Geodinamica acta, Vol. 23, issue 4 (2010) , p. 151-165, ISSN 1778-3593

DOI: 10.3166/ga.23.151-165

17 p, 4.8 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles