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Previous paleomagnetic studies performed in the central North-Algeria (Chellif and Mitidja basins) on Neogene formations pointed out tectonic clockwise blocks rotations. This deformation pattern was interpreted as resulting from a bookshelf neotectonics, consequence of the Africa-Eurasia plates convergence. A new paleomagnetic study was conducted on the Neogene volcanic rocks outcropping in the northwestern Algeria (Marset Ben Mhidi, Ain Temouchent, Tifaraouine area). The obtained stable remanent magnetization is mainly carried by Ti-poor titanomagnetite. The paleomagnetic data show that, since the lava emplacement, the northwestern Algeria underwent a mean moderate clockwise block rotation of 9.3° ± 4.5°. For the Algerian margin, this confirms a context of transpression and blocks rotations in a strike-slip tectonic setting. A decreasing deformation gradient from the E to the W affected the different basins of this margin, from strong rotations within the Mitidja, to the moderate ones in the Chellif and to Marset Ben Mhidi, Ain Temouchent, Tifaraouine area, where rotation magnitudes are significantly lower.

International audience; The present day architecture of the Western Mediterranean mainly results from the interplay of different litho-spheric plates and the Cenozoic consumption of various branches of the Alpine Tethys and Neo-Tethys Oceans.Identifying relicsofthese oceanic domains inthe peri-Mediterranean belts enables pinpointing the earlieststagesof this evolutionary framework. In NE Algeria, the Kef Lakhal Complex (Edough Massif) is composed of amphib-olites and meta-gabbros metamorphosed under amphibolite facies conditions and thrust onto the northernAfrican margin during earliest Miocene. Geochemical analyses reveal that amphibolites and metagabbros havemajor and trace element signatures characteristic of tholeiitic basalts and gabbros and display N-MORB (La/SmN=0.7–0.9) toE-MORB (La/SmN=1.1–1.2) affinities. Enrichments in U and alkalis (Cs, Rb) and high87Sr/86Sriratios on bulk rocks and minerals (up to 0.70856) are typical of seawater alteration and indicate thatthe Kef Lakhal Complex represents a piece of altered oceanic crust. Parental magmas were derived from a De-pleted Mantle source (WRεNdi= 8.2–9.9 andεHfi= 10.4–14.4) that preserved some canonical MORB ratios(Ti/Eu = 5700–7600 and Y/Ho = 27.4–29.0), but which was contaminated by a component akin to recycled oce-anic crust and associated sediments (Ce/Pb = 10.5–22.2;206Pb/204Pbi=18.41–18.74;207Pb/204Pbi=15.49–15.59;208Pb/204Pbi=37.73–38.37). The sedimentary component is consistent with a volcaniclastic originand substantiatesanintra-oceanic setting.The geochemicalcharacteristics oftheKef Lakhalrocksare comparableto present day (Mariana, W Pacific Ocean) or fossil (Xigaze, SE Tibet) fore-arc oceanic crust. An overview of theWestern Mediterranean geodynamic indicates that the most likely period for initiating formation of a fore-arccorresponds either to the Early/Late Cretaceous or to the Middle Eocene.40Ar/39Ar dating on amphibole furtherindicate that after thrusting onto the African margin, the Kef Lakhal Complex cooled down toc.550 °C at18.14 ± 0.27 Ma (2σ).

International audience; In North Africa, the Algerian margin is made of basement blocks that drifted away from the European margin, namely the Kabylia, and docked to the African continental crust in the Early Miocene. This young margin is now inverted, as dated Miocene (17 Ma) granites outcrop alongshore, evidencing kilometre-scale exhumation since their emplacement. Age of inversion is actually unknown, although Pliocene is often considered in the offshore domain. To decipher the exhumation history of the margin between 17 and 5 Ma, we performed a coupled apatite fission track (AFT) and (U-Th-Sm)/He (AHe) study in the Cap Bougaroun Miocene granite. AFT dates range between 7 +/- 1 and 10 +/- 1 Ma, and mean AHe dates between 8 +/- 2 and 10 +/- 1 Ma. These data evidence rapid and multi-kilometre exhumation during Tortonian times. This event cannot be related to slab break-off but instead to the onset of margin inversion that has since developed as an in-sequence north-verging deforming prism.

International audience; Miocene (17-11 Ma) magmatic activity in the Kabylies emplaced K-rich (and minor medium-K) calc-alkaline plutonic and volcanic rocks in five zones, delineating a ∼450 km long EW trending strip located along the northern coast of Algeria, between Annaba and Algiers. Their most likely source is the Kabylian subcontinental lithospheric mantle previously metasomatized during the Paleogene subduction of the Tethys oceanic lithosphere. Our preferred tectono-magmatic model involves a Tethyan slab detachment combined with African mantle delamination and crustal stacking, leading to the superimposition of the African continental crust over the Kabylian metasomatized lithospheric mantle. At ca. 17 Ma, the asthenospheric upwelling arising from lithospheric delamination and Tethyan slab tear triggered the thermal erosion of the latter mantle, inducing its partial melting. The corresponding mafic medium-K calc-alkaline magmas interacted with the African basement units during their ascent, generating intermediate to felsic K-rich calc-alkaline melts that display a characteristic trace element and isotopic crustal signature. Later on, slab tears propagated eastward and westward, promoting slab rollback perpendicular to plate convergence and inducing the emplacement of magmatic rocks of decreasing ages from central-eastern Algeria towards Tunisia and Morocco.

Miocene K-rich calc-alkaline magmatic rocks are exposed over a ~ 150 km2 area in Cap de Fer and West Edough, along the NE Algerian Mediterranean coast. They include andesitic pyroclastic and lava flows, small dioritic plutons, and large microgranodioritic intrusions that intrude and/or overlie Miocene sediments. New 40K-40Ar ages obtained on the igneous rocks range from 16.84 ± 0.58 to 12.91 ± 0.31 Ma and define three successive magmatic pulses at ~ 16.5, ~ 15, and ~ 13 Ma. These data are in good agreement with biostratigraphic data obtained on the Miocene marls that yielded Langhian (N8 biozone) to Late Langhian-Serravallian ages (N9–N10 biozones). This consistency suggests that the time span (~ 3.5 m.y.) deduced from K-Ar datings is not due to perturbations of the K-Ar clock; it is more likely related to long-lasting tectono-magmatic processes. According to the regional context (“no-slab” area), these processes result from the uprise of hot asthenospheric mantle through the tear generated by the detachment of the oceanic part of the African slab beneath the Algerian margin that triggered the partial melting of the overlying metasomatized lithospheric mantle of the Kabylides.

The high-level sub-circular North Tihimatine granitic pluton, intrusive in the In Ouzzal terrane, has been dated at 600 ± 5 Ma (LA-ICP-MS U–Pb zircon) and at 602 ± 4 Ma (SHRIMP U–Pb zircon). At this time, while Tihimatine intruded a brittle In Ouzzal without major metamorphism, large high-K calc-alkaline granitoid batholiths emplaced in the adjacent terranes under ductile conditions and regional amphibolite facies metamorphism. Outside In Ouzzal, high-level plutons emplaced under brittle conditions are known only at c. 580 Ma. The In Ouzzal terrane (500 km × 80 to 5 km), made of c. 2 Ga very high-temperature granulitic lithologies with Archean protoliths, is the sole terrane within the Tuareg Shield to have been largely unaffected by the Pan-African orogeny. The field, petrographic, geochemical and isotopic characteristics of the In Ouzzal granitic plutons studied herein, give keys for the understanding of the atypical behavior of the In Ouzzal terrane. The In Ouzzal Pan-African granitoids present chemical compositions varying from medium-K to high-K calc-alkaline to alkaline compositions. This is recorded by the Sr and Nd radiogenic isotopes (−4 < ɛNd < −30; 0.704 < ISr < 0.713), pointing to a mixing between a heterogeneous and old Rb-depleted source, the Eburnean granulitic In Ouzzal crust, and a Pan-African mantle. The latter is represented by the nearby bimodal Tin Zebane dyke swarm (ɛNd = +6.2, ISr = 0.7028; Hadj Kaddour et al. in Lithos 45:223–243, 1998), emplaced along the mega-shear zone bounding the In Ouzzal terrane to the west. Trace element composition and Sr–Nd isotope modeling indicate that 20–40% of different crustal lithologies outcropping in the In Ouzzal terrane mixed with mantle melts. At least two, most probably three, Eburnean granulitic reservoirs with Archean protoliths are needed to explain the chemical variability of the In Ouzzal plutons. The Pan-African post-collisional period is related to a northward tectonic escape of the Tuareg terranes, including the rigid In Ouzzal terrane, bounded by major shear zones. Blocking of the movement of the In Ouzzal terrane, which occurred 20 Ma earlier (at 600 Ma) on the western side than on the eastern side, induced its fracturing along oblique faults inside the terrane. This process allowed asthenosphere to rise and to locally melt the In Ouzzal crust, giving rise to the studied plutons. This corresponds to a metacratonization process. The In Ouzzal terrane demonstrates that a relatively small rigid block can survive within a major orogen affected by a post-collisional tectonic escape at the cost of a metacratonization, particularly at depth along faults.

The magnetic fabric obtained in the Hoggar shield on several plutons is related to various origins: simple flow, syn-deformation flow, stress field during late-magmatic stage and solid-state deformation. These results also evidenced the important role of hosting frame, acting as a more or less efficient “protection” against the effects on the magnetic fabric of the regional stress field. Combined studies, on neighboring sites of the main intrusion and of late-magmatic dykes crosscutting it, yield key-arguments about the acquisition age of this fabric. P′(Km) diagrams clearly highlight the strain gradient in plutons very close to shear zones. The fact that K1 axis is mainly a mineral lineation, at least in three plutons, is evidenced by the determination of the magnetic zone axis. The plutons AMS is associated with different Pan-African stages in the Hoggar: gneissification of Eburnean plutons, syn-thrust pluton emplacement, pluton emplacement under regional shearing context. Accordingly, the main movements along the major shear zones, related to the oblique collision of the Hoggar shield with the West African Craton, are contemporaneous of the first stages. Shearing context during the following period points out that this collision had still active effects, probably associated with a progressive change in orientation of the continental convergence.

In Ordovician and Silurian sedimentary formations of the Murzuq basin (Saharan platform, Algeria), different remagnetization processes have been highlighted. These magnetic overprints totally replaced the primary magnetization. They are mainly due to chemical phenomena. Even in a site affected by contact metamorphism during Devonian, chemical changes, associated to the acquisition of the thermo-remanent overprint, were important, affecting the characteristics of the magnetite grains. In the remaining sites, remagnetizations of Cenozoic age have also a chemical origin and are carried by magnetite as well as by hematite. Contrary to what is generally deemed, these remagnetizations processes appeared limited to very short duration of acquisition, and to very local geographical extension.

International audience; The ultramafic rocks of the Collo region in northeastern Algeria crop out as “stratified” masses that cut across older metamorphic formations of the Petite Kabylie basement. Based on petrological compositions and mineralogical observations, these rocks are mainly peridotites and serpentinites. The peridotites are identified as lherzolites, but dunites may occur rarely. The lherzolites are composed of olivine, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene and chromian spinel. Their chemical composition shows high MgO (34.4–37.5 wt%), Cr (0.14–0.27 wt%), Ni (0.14–0.26 wt%) and Co (34–133 ppm) contents and low CaO and Al2O3 concentrations (0.02–2.2 wt% and 0.5 to 2.8 wt%, respectively). The chromite, which represents approximately 1–3% of the rock, is ubiquitous and shows two different generations: primary millimetric euhedral crystals and secondary fine xenomorphic grains and interstitial aggregates. The primary chromites are alumino-ferro-magnesian crystals that show high Al2O3 (25.77%–27.36%) and MgO (10.70%–13.36%). Cr# (100 × Cr/(Al + Cr)) ranges from 45 to 48, and Mg# (100 × Mg/(Mg + Fe2+)) from 49 to 59. The secondary interstitial grains are iron-rich chromites. They show low Al2O3 (4.67%–9.54%) and MgO (4.60%–4.65%). Cr# is relatively high (77–88), whereas Mg# shows relatively low values, ranging from 22 to 25. Primary chromite and whole-rock chemistry show that the Collo ultramafic rocks belong to Alpine-type peridotites that were emplaced within an orogenic setting. The oxygen isotopic composition of both peridotites and chromites is consistent with their derivation from a mantle source (δ18O ranges from +3.0 to +5.9‰). Low δ18O values (

Diamond-bearing UHP metamorphic rocks witness for subduction of lithospheric slabs into the mantle and their return to shallow levels. In this study we present U–Pb and trace elements analyses of zircon and rutile inclusions from a diamond-bearing garnet megacryst collected in a melange unit exposed on the northern margin of Africa (Edough Massif, NE Algeria). Large rutile crystals (up to 300 μm in size) analyzed in situ provide a U–Pb age of 32.4 ± 3.3 Ma interpreted as dating the prograde to peak subduction stage of the mafic protolith. Trace element analyses of minute zircons (≤30 μm) indicate that they formed in equilibrium with the garnet megacryst at a temperature of 740–810 °C, most likely during HP retrograde metamorphism. U–Pb analyses provide a significantly younger age of 20.7 ± 2.3 Ma attributed to exhumation of the UHP units. This study allows bracketing the age of UHP metamorphism in the Western Mediterranean Orogen to the Oligocene/early Miocene, thus unambiguously relating UHP metamorphism to the Alpine history. Exhumation of these UHP units is coeval with the counterclockwise rotation of the Corsica–Sardinia block and most likely resulted from subduction rollback that was driven by slab pull.

International audience; Bougaroun is the largest pluton (~ 200 km2) in the 1200 km-long Neogene magmatic belt located along the Mediterranean coast of Maghreb. New U–Pb dating on zircons and K–Ar ages on whole rocks and separated minerals document its emplacement at 17 Ma within the Lesser Kabylian basement, a continental block that collided with the African margin during the Neogene. This Upper Burdigalian intrusion is therefore the oldest presently identified K-rich calc-alkaline massif in the whole Maghrebides magmatic lineament and marks the onset of its activity. The Bougaroun peraluminous felsic rocks display a very strong crustal imprint. Associated mafic rocks (LREE-enriched gabbros) have preserved the “orogenic” (subduction-related) geochemical signature of their mantle source. Older depleted gabbros cropping out at Cap Bougaroun are devoid of clear subduction-related imprint and yielded Ar–Ar hornblende ages of 27.0 ± 3.0 Ma and 23.3 ± 3.2 Ma. We suggest that they are related to the Upper Oligocene back-arc rifted margin and Early Miocene oceanic crust formation of the nearby Jijel basin, an extension of the Algerian basin developed during the African (Tethyan) slab rollback. The fact that the Bougaroun pluton intrudes exhumed Kabylian lower crustal units, mantle slices and flysch nappes indicates that the Kabylian margin was already stretched and in a post-collisional setting at 17 Ma. We propose a tectono-magmatic model involving an Early Miocene Tethyan slab breakoff combined with delamination of the edges of the African and Kabylian continental lithospheres. At 17 Ma, the asthenospheric thermal flux upwelling through the slab tear induced the thermal erosion of the Kabylian lithospheric mantle metasomatized during the previous subduction event and triggered its partial melting. We attribute the strong trace element and isotopic crustal signature of Bougaroun felsic rocks to extensive interactions between ascending mafic melts and the African crust underthrust beneath the Kabylie de Collo basement.

The Tuareg Shield, to which Hoggar (southern Algeria) belongs, has a swellshaped morphology of lithospheric scale of ~1000 km in diameter linked to Cenozoic volcanism occurring in several regions, including Atakor, the center of the swell, which reaches nearly 3000 m in altitude. The lack of high-resolution geophysical data for constraining its deep structure is at the origin of a controversy about its innermost nature and about the origin of the Cenozoic volcanism. During the course of this study, magnetotelluric (MT) broadband data were collected at 18 sites forming a northeast-southwest profi le 170 km long within the Atakor region. The electrical resistivity model obtained by inverting the magnetotelluric data reveals lithospheric structure down to a depth of ~100 km. From this depth to the surface, the model does not show any regional anomaly that may result from a metasomatized lithosphere or from an asthenospheric upwelling, including a mantle plume. MT data reveal rather a lithosphere affected by a set of rather thin subvertical conductors that can be attributed to the electrical signature of some known shear zones resulting from the Pan-African evolution of the LATEA metacraton, which globally corresponds to the uplifted Central Hoggar swell. The main anomaly is deeply rooted in the lithosphere and underlies the Atakor-Manzaz volcanic districts. As a whole, MT data are therefore properly integrated within the hypothesis of the reactivation of shear zones due the intraplate deformation related to the collision between Africa and Europe since the Eocene, applied onto the metacratonic region.

The Miocene igneous activity in Lesser Kabylia includes a ~130 km-long EW-trending lineament that extends along the eastern Algerian margin from Kabylie de Collo to Ouest-Edough-Cap de Fer area. It includes mostly medium-K to High-K calc-alkaline plutonic and volcanic rocks. In the studied area, these magmatic rocks crosscut and/or overlie the inner zones of the Maghrebides represented by basement and Kabylian cretaceous and Numidian flyschs nappes. New U-Pb dating on zircons and K-Ar ages on whole rocks and separated minerals document a 17 Ma onset for the post-collisional K-rich calc-alkaline magmatism. These Upper Burdigalian ages obtained on the Bougaroun pluton are the oldest presently identified for Krich calc-alkaline rocks in the whole 1200 km-long EW trending magmatic belt located along the Mediterranean coast of Maghreb. However, according to new K-Ar ages, magmatic activity started in Ouest Edough zone at ~16 then persisted intermittently in the two studied areas at ~15.5 Ma, 14-13 Ma and stopped at ~11 Ma, with the emplacement of mafic and felsic dykes in Kabylie de Collo. In addition, we measured older (Upper Oligocene) Ar-Ar hornblende ages of 27.0 ± 3.0 Ma and 23.3 ± 3.2 Ma on LREE-depleted gabbros outcropping at Cap Bougaroun sensu stricto. According to our new geochemical and isotopic data, we distinguish two sources for magmatic rocks in the studied area: a depleted mantle source which could represent the ambient asthenosphere still not modified by the subduction processes at the time of emplacement of the Upper Oligocene LREE-depleted gabbros. The latter could be related to the Upper-Oligocene rifting before the back-arc crust formation in Algerian basin or to dyke systems or gabbroic intrusions crosscutting the stretched Kabylian continental crust. An enriched mantle source modified by a subduction component (melt or fluid) escaping from a northward-dipping subducted Tethyan oceanic lithosphere. The enriched mafic magmas are believed to come from this metasomatized mantle and are genetically related to the differentiated rocks through crystal fractionation and assimilation of large amounts of crustal lithologies, during their ascent through the African continental crust. We propose a tectono-magmatic model involving an Early Miocene Tethyan slab breakoff combined with delamination of the edges of the African and Kabylian continental lithospheres. At 17 Ma, the asthenospheric thermal flux upwelling through the slab tear induced the thermal erosion of the Kabylian lithospheric mantle metasomatized during the previous subduction event and triggered its partial melting. We attribute the strong trace element and isotopic crustal signature of Bougaroun felsic rocks to extensive interactions between ascending mafic melts and the African crust underthrust beneath the Kabylie de Collo basement.; L’activité magmatique miocène en Petite Kabylie s’exprime par la mise en place de roches plutoniques et volcaniques de composition majoritairement riche en K ainsi que moyennement riches en K. Ces roches forment des pointements dispersés sur près de 130 km le long de la marge méditerranéenne de l’Algérie. Dans les deux secteurs d’étude : la Kabylie de Collo et l’Ouest Edough-Cap de Fer, elles recoupent les empilements de nappes de socle et de flyschs crétacés et numidiens. De nouvelles datations U-Pb sur zircons et K-Ar sur roche totale et minéraux séparés ont permis de fixer à 17 Ma le début de l’activité magmatique post-collisionnelle à affinité calco-alcaline riche en K2O. Ces âges obtenus sur le batholithe granitique de Bougaroun (200 km2) sont les plus anciens jamais obtenus dans toute la Marge Méditerranéenne du Maghreb. L’activité magmatique s’étend vers l’Est et atteint la zone ouest-Edough-Cap de Fer vers ~16 Ma puis se poursuit de façon intermittente dans les deux secteurs d’étude à ~15 Ma, 14-13 Ma jusqu’à 11 Ma avec la mise en place de corps filoniens mafiques et felsiques en Kabylie de Collo. En outre, un âge oligocène supérieur (27.0 ± 3.0 Ma et 23.3 ± 3.2 Ma) a été mesuré par la méthode Ar/Ar sur amphiboles des gabbros à caractère océanique du Cap Bougaroun s.s (Kabylie de Collo). Les nouvelles données géochimiques et isotopiques ont permis de mettre en évidence deux sources pour le magmatisme dans les deux secteurs étudiés. Une première source mantellique appauvrie, non modifiée par un composant de subduction qui est à l’origine des gabbros à caractère océanique du Cap Bougaroun s.s et de Bou Maïza au Sud de l’Edough. Ceux-ci pourraient représenter des reliques du stade de rifting d’âge oligocène supérieur en prélude à l’ouverture en position arrière-arc du bassin algérien. Une deuxième source enrichie en terres rares légères et en éléments mobiles est représentée par le manteau lithosphérique subcontinental kabyle précédemment métasomatisé durant la subduction à vergence nord de la lithosphère océanique téthysienne au Paléogène. Les magmas mafiques enrichis en LREE issues de cette source ont ensuite évolué par cristallisation fractionnée et contamination crustale pour former les roches intermédiaires et felsiques de la marge est-algérienne. Nous proposons un modèle tectono-magmatique de rupture de slab téthysien associée à une délamination crustale au niveau des bordures des deux lithosphères continentales africaine et kabyle. A 17 Ma, le flux thermique d’origine asthénosphérique ascendant à travers la déchirure du slab téthysien induit la fusion du manteau téthysien. Les magmas mafiques calco-calcalins moyennement potassiques subissent des échanges chimiques avec le socle africain durant leur ascension à travers celui-ci, générant les magmas intermédiaires et felsiques calco-alcalins riches en K caractérisés par une importante signature crustale.