Regional correlations across the Internides-Externides front (northwestern Rif Belt, Morocco) during the Late Cretaceous-Early Burdigalian times: palaeogeographical and palaeotectonic implications

Abstract

AbstractNew insights into the palaeogeographical evolution of the Rifian Internides and their external surroundings are inferred from six key stratigraphic successions selected across the Internides-Externides front. These successions span a time interval ranging from the late Cretaceous to the early Burdigalian. The main results are: (1) important lost palaeogeographical domains should be located during the late Cretaceous-Eocene between the present-day Ghomarides and the Dorsale Calcaire, on one hand, and between the Predorsalian units and the Flysch Trough as isolated carbonate platforms, on the other hand; (2) during the late Eocene-early Oligocene an extensional tectonic event, well marked in the Dorsale Calcaire, caused the collapse of these platforms and resulted in olistostromes and coarse-grained breccias in both the Predorsalian and the Béni Ider areas; (3) by the beginning of mid-Oligocene, an overturning contractional event in the Ghomarides resulted in the regional onset of the siliciclastic depositional regime throughout these palaeogeographical areas; (4) during the Aquitanian-early Burdigalian, the stepwise return of pelagic deposition in the Ghomarides indicates extensional phases, whereas the homogenization of the same pelagic facies over the Dorsale Calcaire and its external surroundings may indicate that the previously distant palaeogeographical areas were brought nearer (i.e. just before large-scale thrusting).