Oligo-Miocene thinning of the Beni Bousera peridotites and their Variscan crustal host rocks, Internal Rif, Morocco†

Frédéric Gueydan (1) , Pavel Pitra (2) , Abdelkhaleq Afiri (3) , Marc Poujol (2) , Abderrahim Essaifi (4) , Jean-Louis Paquette (5)

1 Géosciences Montpellier
2 GR - Géosciences Rennes
3 Facultés des Sciences et Techniques de Mohammedia
4 Laboratoire Dynamique de la Lithosphere et Genèse des Ressources
5 LMV - Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans

Deciphering Variscan versus Alpine history in the internal Rif system is a key to constraining the tectonic evolution of the Alboran domain and hence the geodynamics of the western Mediterranean system during the Cenozoic. This study focuses on the evolution of the metamorphic envelope of the Beni Bousera massif and its relation to the underlying peridotites. Combining structural geology, metamorphic petrology, and LA-ICP-MS U-Th-Pb dating of monazite, this study contributes to the understanding of the tectonic history of the western internal Rif. The regional foliation (S2) is characterized by LP/HT mineral assemblages and obliterates a former foliation (S1) developed along a barrovian (MP/MT) metamorphic gradient. The dating of some metamorphic monazite grains from a micaschist and a migmatitic gneiss demonstrates that the crustal envelope of the peridotite recorded two distinct tectonometamorphic episodes. Data from monazite inclusions in S1 garnet suggest that the first event, D1, is older than 250-170 Ma and likely related to the Variscan collision, in agreement with the barrovian type of the metamorphic gradient. The second event, D2, is Alpine in age (at circa 21 Ma) and corresponds to a strong lithosphere thinning allowing subsequent subcontinental mantle exhumation. Such a tectonic context provides an explanation for the LP/HT metamorphic gradient that is recorded in the regional foliation of the western Betic-Rif system. This extension is probably related to a subduction slab roll-back in the western end of the Mediterranean realm during the Oligo-Miocene times. No evidences for a Tertiary HP/LT metamorphism have been identified in the studied area

Domains: Earth Sciences

Frédéric Gueydan, Pavel Pitra, Abdelkhaleq Afiri, Marc Poujol, Abderrahim Essaifi, et al.. Oligo-Miocene thinning of the Beni Bousera peridotites and their Variscan crustal host rocks, Internal Rif, Morocco†. Tectonics, 2015, 34 (6), pp.1244-1268. ⟨10.1002/2014TC003769⟩. ⟨insu-01152517⟩