Geological and landscape particularities of Issafen-style chevron pattern in Tata region (Anti-Atlas, South Morocco)

Abstract

The Tata region in southern Morocco is characterized by a great landscape diversity aesthetically outstanding and eloquent whose chevrons known as Issafen style (in reference to the name of a village in the region). The latter exhibits particular morpho-structural characters that illustrate the relationship between morphology and geological structure. They are shaped in the eastern short limb of a large syncline of north-south axial direction overturned to the west. The N-S slope of this eastern limb containing chevrons of hectometric to kilometric scale corresponds to a straightened limb with heterogeneous parasitic folds (training folds) that evolve laterally and vertically from the simple flexure to an open fold. It is sculpted by the processes of erosion giving rise to first-order and second-order chevrons, controlled both by the lithological nature of the geological formations and by the direction of the transverse joints especially with respect to the axis of the synclinal fold. The radius of curvature of chevrons evolves vertically by becoming more and more open downward, controlled by the variations of the dip of a large limb with folds and flexures. In this work, we will present the specific morpho-structural characters of the Issafen-style chevron pattern, presenting a tourist and scientific interest, by trying to make an analytical reading of this type of relief to explain its morphogenetic aspects by a simplified scientific mediation. In passing, we will remind their tourist assets and their importance in the development of the local territory.