Lyell Collection
Geological Society, London, Special Publications
Lyell Centre  |   Lyell Collection  |   Subscriptions   |   Geological Society  |   Email alerts  |   Online bookshop  |   Help

Keywords:
Author:
Advanced search>>
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Chalouan, A.
Right arrow Articles by Hlila, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2006; v. 262; p. 161-175;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.2006.262.01.10
© 2006 Geological Society of London

Mauretanian flysch nappe in the northwestern Rif Cordillera (Morocco): deformation chronology and evidence for a complex nappe emplacement

A. Chalouan1, A. El Mrihi2, Kh. El Kadiri2, A. Bahmad3, F. Salhi4 & R. Hlila2

1 Université Mohammed V-Agdal, Faculté des Sciences, Dep. Geology, BP 1014, Rabat, Morocco chalouan{at}fsr.ac.ma
2 Université Abdelmalek Essaadi, Faculté des Sciences, Dep. Geology, BP 2121, 93003 Tetuan, Morocco
3 Société Nationale d’Etudes du Détroit, (SNED), 31 r. Al Alaouyine, Rabat, Morocco
4 Université Chouaib Doukali, Faculté des Sciences, El Jadida, Morocco

This study deals with the Mauretanian flysch nappe in the southern side of the Gibraltar Strait, NW of the Rif belt (Morocco), where it is possible to better appraise the stacking pattern of its two structural components (the Tisirene and Béni Ider nappes), and to decipher the chronology of deformation and its structural relationships with the overlying (Predorsalian and Numidian nappes) and the underlying nappes (Melloussa and Intrarif units). It is found that the main deformations were produced by an intermittent compressional regime, during which north-south- to NW-SE-directed compressional phases alternated with ENE-WSW to east-west-directed compressional ones. Whereas the former were generated by the Africa-Iberia convergence and resulted in small-scale thrusts and a brittle deformation style, the latter were driven by the west-drifting Alboran plate and resulted in paroxysmal fold-thrust deformations. Field evidence shows that the emplacement of the Mauretanian nappe over the Massylian one and the Intrarif units operated by inter-related compressional and gravitational processes, by virtue of which the majority of nappes stacked in an out-of-sequence regime. The precise age of the paroxysmal phases remains uncertain because of paucity or absence of direct stratigraphical data. However, this structural evolution is likely to have started as early as the mid-Burdigalian, when sedimentation synchronously ceased in the flysch trough. Its final phases may be placed precisely between the Langhian (N8) age of the most recent formations overlapped by these nappes and the late Tortonian age of the oldest formations transgressively covering them.





This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Geological Society, London, Special PublicationsHome page
Kh. El Kadiri, R. Hlila, C. Sanz de Galdeano, A. C. Lopez-Garrido, A. Chalouan, F. Serrano, A. Bahmad, A. Guerra-Merchan, and H. Liemlahi
Regional correlations across the Internides-Externides front (northwestern Rif Belt, Morocco) during the Late Cretaceous-Early Burdigalian times: palaeogeographical and palaeotectonic implications
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 2006; 262: 193 - 215.
[Abstract] [PDF]