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The arch-and-basin geometry that characterizes North Africa was achieved at the end of Paleozoic times. It has been subsequently reactivated during the Mesozoic-Cenozoic with, in particular, the development of large topographic anomalies. Among these, the Tuareg Shield forms a topographic high in which the Pan-African basement reaches 2400 m above sea level (Hoggar core). While Cretaceous sedimentary remnants suggest a possible stage of subsidence during the Mesozoic, currently the area forms a swell, emphasized by Cenozoic volcanic episodes since 35 Ma. In this context, we present the first apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronological data acquired across this swell, with mean ages ranging from 78 ± 22 Ma to 13 ± 3 Ma. These results demonstrate the existence of a widespread Eocene exhumation of the shield before volcanic activity began, which reflects large-scale vertical processes. In the northeastern part of the swell, Cretaceous continental sedimentary remnants unconformably lying on the basement close to our samples evidence that they were near the surface at that time. This study shows that basement rocks have undergone subsequent heating at ∼60–80 °C, suggesting a burial of more than 1 km after the Early Cretaceous. This conclusion can be possibly extended over the whole Tuareg Shield.

International audience; The N-S oriented Raghane shear zone (8 degrees 30') delineates the western boundary of the Saharan metacraton and is, with the 4 degrees 50' shear zone, the most important shear zone in the Tuareg shield. It can be followed on 1000 km in the basement from southern Air, Niger to NE Hoggar, Algeria. Large subhorizontal movements have occurred during the Pan-African orogeny and several groups of granitoids intruded during the Neoproterozoic. We report U-Pb zircon datings (laser ICP-MS) showing that three magmatic suites of granitoids emplaced close to the Raghane shear zone at c. 790 Ma, c. 590 and c. 550 Ma. A comprehensive and detailed (158 sites, more than 1000 cores) magnetic fabric study was performed on 8 plutons belonging to the three magmatic suites and distributed on 200 km along the Raghane shear zone. The main minerals in all the target plutons do not show visible preferential magmatic orientation except in narrow shear zones. The AMS study shows that all plutons have a magnetic lineation and foliation compatible with the deformed zones that are zones deformed lately in post-solidus conditions. These structures are related to the nearby mega-shear zones, the Raghane shear zone for most of them. The old c. 793 Ma Touffok granite preserved locally its original structures. The magnetic structures of the c. 593 Ma Ohergehem pluton, intruded in the Aouzegueur terrane, are related to thrust structures generated by the Raghane shear zone while it is not the case of the contemporaneous plutons in the Assode-Issalane terrane whose structures are only related to the subvertical shear zones. Finally, the c. 550 Ma granite group has magnetic structure related to the N-S oriented Raghane shear zone and its associated NNE-SSW structures when close to them, but NW-SE oriented when further. These NW-SE oriented structures appear to be characteristic of the late Neoproterozoic evolution of the Saharan metacraton and are in relation to the convergence with the Murzuq craton. This evolution reflects the rheological contrast existing along the Raghane shear zone marking the western boundary of the Saharan metacraton.

The variation of the strength of the Earth's magnetic field throughout geological time is known only poorly. Large uncertainties spoil indirect paleointensity determinations based on magnetic anomaly amplitude or remanence of sedimentary rocks. Even when paleointensity data are obtained from direct thermomagnetic studies of magmatic units, fundamental problems related to the actual nature of the primary remanence and to the effects of different cooling rates may result in erroneous determinations. These uncertainties, combined with well-known experimental difficulties, can explain the large scatter in paleointensity data reported in most previous review papers. Because experimental difficulties are more rigourously dealt with using the Thellier method, which also offers some opportunities to minimize some fundamental uncertainties, we carried out a compilation of all Triassic and younger paleointensity determinations made using this method. This selected data set indicates the occurrence of large, long-term changes of the geomagnetic dipole strength with time. The average dipole strength seems to have been approximately constant since Late Cretaceous time, but a dipole strength only one third of the Cenozoic value prevailed during most of Mesozoic time, following a period of larger strength ending possibly during Early Jurassic times. The Mesozoic dipole low may be correlated with a cessation of relative motion between the geomagnetic axis and the mantle. The terrestrial dynamo seems therefore to exhibit different long-term stable states, which are probably controlled by the thermal structure in the lowermost mantle.