Review of the orogenic belts on the western side of the West African craton: the Bassarides, Rokelides and Mauritanides

Abstract

AbstractThe West African craton is fringed along its western side by a 3000 km long orogenic belt subdivided into three separate orogens: the Bassaride (Pan-African I orogeny), Rokelide (Pan-African II orogeny) and Mauritanide (Hercynian orogeny) thrust belts. The Bassarides are cut to the north by the Mauritanides and to the south by the Rokelides but parts of this Bassaride belt are incorporated in the other two younger belts. This review presents the main geological, geophysical and geochronological results from the western side of the West African craton, collected over the past 90 years, concentrating on those from the last 15 years. Former geological investigations underlined the thin-skinned structure model within these thrust belts, whereas the geophysical results gave prominence to the major importance of block faulting resulting from the Pan-African I orogeny and its strong influence on the subsequent orogenic belt features. The geochronological data allow us to distinguish major tectonothermal events related to the Pan-African I (660–650 Ma), Pan-African II (550–530 Ma) and Hercynian (330–300 Ma and 280–270 Ma) orogenies. However, they also reveal five other tectonothermal events (at 1200–1000, 750–700, 600–580, 510–480 and 450–380 Ma), which are still very poorly understood. The 1200–1000 Ma tectonothermal event recently revealed in the northern Mauritanides may correspond to a remanent orogenic belt segment that witnessed the Grenvillian orogeny.