Search

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has emerged as a practical and effective technique for studying slow and steady geodynamic movements, enabling continuous monitoring and precise quantification of deformation over different timescales. In Morocco, a network of GNSS stations has been established, offering valuable insights into tectonic processes. This paper focuses on investigating the geodynamic motion of the northwest Moroccan Atlantic Margin. By utilizing GNSS data, subsidence rates and horizontal velocity fields were determined for the first time, providing valuable information for oil and gas exploration activities. The study reveals an active uplift rate of 1 mm/year and a westward horizontal motion of 2.04 mm/year in the Essaouira segment. The paper presents a case study of the Essaouira–Agadir basin (EAB) onshore segment and investigates the anomalous displacement observed in this region compared to other coastal GNSS stations. Possible explanations for the observed movements include local processes such as salt tectonics and regional northwest–southeast compression related to Africa–Eurasia convergence. We suggest that the anomalous movement detected in this work is due to the regional northwest–southeast compression related to Africa–Eurasia convergence imparting an extrusion of the EAB to the west. This research contributes to a better understanding of the geodynamics in the northwest Moroccan Atlantic margin, thereby providing valuable insights for ongoing efforts in oil and gas exploration. Furthermore, it indicates the continued activity of the Agadir fault, which would exhibit a sinistral wrench movement, thus posing a threat to the city of Agadir and its inhabitants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from the Cambrian to Ordovician in Morocco is known to be characterized by a frequent Furongian hiatus, restricted extension of the Tremadocian marine deposits, and frequent unconformities at the base of the transgressive upper Floian deposits. In the present work, we first highlight the occurrence of Fe- and mica-rich, red silty/sandy formations in the Central and Eastern High Atlas between the Middle Cambrian and Upper Floian sequences. In the Tislyt type-locality, a synsedimentary hemigraben structure is defined, within which the red beds show frequent slump folds, debris flows and internal unconformities. The correlation with several coeval series of the Meseta domain allows us to define a shallow marine, ferruginous clastic Atlas-Meseta Red Beds (AMRB) basin during the Tremadocian-early Floian. The AMRB basin extended between the Meseta coastal block and the Anti-Atlas domain, being limited by the fault zones that became the West Meseta shear zone and the South Meseta fault, respectively, in the Variscan orogen. The AMRB basin compares with the coeval rifted basins of the central Iberian and Armorican massifs. The red beds were likely sourced from the east, from both the Precambrian basement and Early Ordovician magmatic rocks, contrary to the Ordovician deposits of the Sahara platform sourced from the south. Subsidence of the AMRB and central Iberian-Armorican basins of the NW-Gondwana border aborted during the Floian, whereas the opening of the Rheic ocean went on more to the west.

The Imiter silver mine in the Eastern Anti-Atlas metallogenic province, Eastern Morocco, is a world-class silver ore deposit. This region has potential for undiscovered silver mineralisation and deserves a detailed remote-sensing study. In this study, Crosta, band ratios and mixture-tuned matched-filtering (MTMF) methods were applied to ASTER remote-sensing data. Argillic, phyllic and propylitic alteration zones were identified using specialised band ratios and Crosta techniques. Sub-pixel abundances of goethite, haematite, limonite, muscovite/illite, chlorite/epidote, jarosite and kaolinite/alunite were detected using MTMF algorithm. Accordingly, several alteration zones were identified and delimited in the central, northern, southern and northeastern parts of the study region, which can be considered as high prospective zones. GPS survey, analysis of thin and polish sections, XRD and geochemical survey verified the alteration zones and sulphide mineralisation in high prospective zones. This approach can be applied in other parts of the Eastern Anti-Atlas metallogenic province to explore hydrothermal ore deposits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]