Deep-rooted “thick skinned” model for the High Atlas Mountains (Morocco). Implications for the seismic Eurasia-Africa plate boundary region

Abstract

Previous crustal models of the High Atlas suppose the existence of a mid-crustal detachment where all the surface thrusts merged and below which the lower crust was continuous. However, both seismic refraction data and gravity modeling detected a jump in crustal thickness between the High Atlas and the northern plains. Here we show that this rapid and vertical jump in the depth of Moho discontinuity suggests that a thrust fault may penetrate the lower crust and offset the Moho (deep-rooted “thick skinned” model). The distribution of Neogene and Quaternary volcanisms along and at the northern part of the High Atlas lineament can be related to the beginning of a partial continental subduction of the West African plate to the north underneath Moroccan microplate. Allowing from the complex problem of the plate boundary in the western zone of the Mediterranean, we propose to interpret the South-Atlasic fault zone as the actual northwestern boundary of the stable part of the African plate rather than the Azores-Gibraltar fault currently used.