--> Abstract: Structural Analogy Between the Inverted Structures of the Moroccan Atlas System and the Syrian Arc Structures of the Eastern Mediterranean, by Gabor Tari and Haddou Jabour; #90124 (2011)

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AAPG ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION
Making the Next Giant Leap in Geosciences
April 10-13, 2011, Houston, Texas, USA

Structural Analogy Between the Inverted Structures of the Moroccan Atlas System and the Syrian Arc Structures of the Eastern Mediterranean

Gabor Tari1; Haddou Jabour2

(1) OMV, Vienna, Austria.

(2) ONHYM, Rabat, Morocco.

Neotectonic inversion and uplift of the Atlas system, as the result of African-Eurasian plate convergence, is well documented in the Essaouira Basin and the western High Atlas, onshore Morocco. However, seismic reflection data acquired in the offshore Essaouira-Safi segment of the Atlantic margin of Morocco show the presence of similar compressional structures in the deepwater area as well.

These prominent structures are best imaged outboard of the widespread salt basin, some 200 km to the west from the coastline, in water depth of 2,000-4,000 m. The anticlines have a general WNW-ESE trend. Whereas the growth history of similar anticlines in the onshore part of the Essaouira Basin are poorly dated due to the erosion of the Tertiary cover, the continuous sedimentation in the deepwater offers the possibility to directly age-date the Tertiary Atlas mountain building episodes. Compressionally reactivated syn-rift normal faults are responsible for these inverted structures which clearly involved the pre-Mesozoic basement.

Structurally analogous inverted features are well documented along the northeastern African-northern Arabian margin (Syrian Arc), mostly onshore. These large-scale, northeast-trending asymmetric folds and associated contractional faults are well-dated and attributed to the “Santonian event” observed in many parts of the African plate. Late Tertiary Syrian Arc style compressional features are also present in the deepwater of the Eastern Mediterranean providing the traps for recent deepwater discoveries in the Levant. Therefore the pronounced similarity between the inverted structures of the Atlas system and those of the Syrian Arc in the Eastern Mediterranean has important implications for hydrocarbon exploration in Morocco.