article · Marine and Petroleum Geology
Geological examination of Carboniferous sandstone and microconglomerate rocks from the Ghomaride Subdomain in northern Morocco provides fresh insight into ancient plate movements along northern Gondwana. Petrographic analysis reveals that these rocks are quartzolithic sandstones, ranging from litharenites to lithic arkoses, originating from a recycled mountain-building system. Material within the samples shows low to middle-upper grade metamorphic rock fragments and serpentinite-like debris, indicating the erosion of subducted continental terrain and metamorphosed oceanic crust. In tandem with volcanic rock fragments, these mineral signatures point to active subduction and local oceanic sutures rather than distant sediment sources. By comparing these deposits to regional formations across the western Paleotethys, a comprehensive tectonic reconstruction shows that the sandstones accumulated in a deep marine basin situated between an emerging northern crystalline hinterland and an oceanic branch bounded by the North African passive margin.
Understanding ancient plate tectonics clarifies how continents merged and split over geological history. By identifying the origin of ancient sediments in northern Morocco, this work refines the paleogeographical map of the western Mediterranean region. These insights help geoscientists reconstruct lost ocean basins and mountain chains, building a clearer picture of the structural evolution of the Earth's crust across northern Africa and southern Europe.
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The Carboniferous detrital suites of the Ghomaride Subdomain (Rif Cordillera, N Morocco) has been undertaken in order to obtain paleogeographic and paleotectonic constraints. Microconglomerate and sandstone samples from eight sections belonging to four sectors were petrographically studied. This northern Gondwana domain was part of the Paleo-Mesomediterranean Plate, located between the Iberian-French Plates and the African Paleo-Atlas-Saharian Domain, which outlines a gap of knowledge since these domains are now part of the Alpine peri-Mediterranean chains. Part of this data-lacking is related to the sandstone detrital modes that have never studied in this area, allowing to obtain information about provenance derived from growing orogens, as well as orogenic processes, and tectonic, climatic and/or erosional events. The study has revealed that the sandstones are litharenites to feldsphatic litharenites, evolving upward to lithic arkoses, and has evidenced a quartzolithic petrofacies with a transitional recycled orogen provenance. The metamorphiclastic detritus displays a low to middle-upper metamorphic rank upwardly referred to a subducted terrane. Serpentinite-like detritus indicates a metamorphosed oceanic crust being dismantled. A supply from the Rheic Ocean seems improbable since it was very far and beyond the Iberian Plate. Therefore, closer oceanic sutures should be proposed, probably separating the Paleo-Mesomediterranean Plate from the Iberian-French Plate and from the Paleo-Atlas-Saharian Domain. The sin-sedimentary volcanic activity (felsic to mafic) reinforces the idea of subductions. A correlation with other Culm successions of the western Paleotethys has allowed the performing of a paleogeographic-paleotectonic model during the Paleotethysian tectonic phase, in which the studied sandstones were deposited in a foredeep connected northward with limestone platforms and with a crystalline emerged domain (hinterland-orogenic front: Iberia-French Plate and part of the Paleo-Mesomediterranean Plate) and transitioning southward to an oceanic branch of the western Paleotethys, and finally with the Paleo-Atlas-Saharian band acting as passive margin in the foreland. • Culm sandstones in Ghomaride Complex are quartzolithic. • High-to-low metamorphic-grade detritus reflects a recycled orogen source. • Ophiolitic detritus suggests a lost oceanic branch. • Acid to basic volcaniclastics refer to lost synsedimentary volcanic arcs. • Sandstone detrital mode reveals foredeep depositional environment.
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DOI: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2024.106861
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