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The NW‐SE trending Northern Apennine Mountains consist of a series of allochthonous units which were thrust generally to the NE during Neogene crustal shortening, in the direction of a foreland basin to the east andNE. On the hinterland (internal) side of this fold‐and‐thrust belt, a series of small‐scale sedimentary basins developed from the late Miocene and were deformed at the same time. The late Tortonian‐Pleistocene evolution of the Northern Apennines has previously been considered by most authors in terms of a classical model of a NE‐migrating compressional front, which was followed in time and space by a hinterland extensional regime related to the development of the Tyrrhenian Basin.

The Neogene‐Quaternary Taza‐Guercif Basin, northern Morocco, is one of a number of remnants of the basinal “South Rifean Corridor” which connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea during the Miocene. The basin has a hybrid structure because its development was influenced both by the Rif orogenic belt to the north and NW and the Middle Atlas Shear Zone to the SW.