Cenozoic denudation in the Marrakech High Atlas,Morocco: insight from apatite fission‐track thermochronology |
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| Authors: | Yves Missenard Omar Saddiqi Jocelyn Barbarand Pascale Leturmy Geoffrey Ruiz Fatima‐Zahra El Haimer Dominique Frizon de Lamotte |
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| Institution: | 1. Univ. Cergy‐Pontoise, Département des Sciences de la Terre (CNRS, UMR 7072), site de Neuville/Oise, F‐95 000 Cergy, France;2. Département de Géologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université Hassan II A?n Chok, Route d’El Jadida, BP5366?Maarif – Casablanca, Maroc;3. Département des Sciences de la Terre (UMR 8148 IDES), Université de Paris‐Sud, Bat. 504, F‐91405 Orsay Cedex, France;4. Institut de Géologie et Hydrogéologie, Rue Emile Argand 11, CP 158, CH‐2009, Neuchatel, Switzerland |
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| Abstract: | In North Africa, the High Atlas belt culminates at more than 4000 m. In Morocco, recent work shows that a lithospheric thinning explains about 1000 m of the mean topography, the remaining topography being related to crustal shortening. We combine regional geology with new apatite fission‐track (AFT) ages to constrain the timing of these events in the Marrakech High Atlas (MHA). In the inner belt, 10 AFT ages are comprised between 9 ± 1 and 27 ± 3 Ma. These Neogene ages indicate that the MHA underwent significant denudation during that time. In the southern foreland domain of the belt, three samples give scattered AFT ages between 27 ± 2 and 87 ±5 Ma. Geological evidences allow us to constrain the age of a major denudation event during Middle Miocene age. We propose that it is linked to the thermal doming highlighted in the whole Moroccan Atlas domain. |
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