Submarine Debris Flow Deposits in an Extensional Setting--Upper Devonian of Western Morocco

Abstract

ABSTRACT A series of uppermost Devonian-Tournaisian submarine debris flows in the northwestern Meseta of Morocco near Rabat were triggered by abrupt, robust faulting, accumulating in downthrown blocks and adjacent to their upthrown sources. These flows possess features such as a rigid plug and snout predicted by the rheological models proposed by Johnson (1965, 1970). They are adjacent to and probably generated turbidity deposits. The occurrence of the debris flow deposits at the close of the Devonian marks the initiation of the only major Paleozoic orogenesis in Morocco: the Hercynian Orogeny.