Geodynamics of the Southern Tethyan Margin in Tunisia and Maghrebian domain: new constraints from integrated geophysical
- PDF / 3,275,282 Bytes
- 16 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 4 Downloads / 243 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Geodynamics of the Southern Tethyan Margin in Tunisia and Maghrebian domain: new constraints from integrated geophysical study Hakim Gabtni & Chokri Jallouli & Kevin Lee Mickus & Mohamed Moncef Turki
Received: 5 March 2011 / Accepted: 18 May 2011 / Published online: 3 June 2011 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2011
Abstract The geodynamic evolution of the Southern Tethyan Margin of Tunisia is investigated using geophysical studies. Analysis of gravity and seismic reflection data in the Maghrebian domain and Southern Tunisia reveals the geodynamic role played by the North Saharan Flexure (NSF) in the evolution of the Southern Tethyan Margin. The Saharan Atlas Mountains (Atlasic Basin) and the African Craton (Telemzan High) are separated by the NSF which is a regional-scale feature that may represent a significant basement discontinuity that has controlled the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic evolution of the Tunisian and Maghrebian Tethyan Basin. Keywords Maghrebian domain . Tunisia . Southern Tethyan Margin . North Saharan Flexure . Gravity anomalies . Seismic reflection . Modeling
Introduction A three-dimensional (3D) view of the Maghrebian domain shows a generally decreasing elevation from H. Gabtni (*) Laboratoitre de Géoressources, Centre de Recherches et des Technologies des Eaux (CERTE), B.P. 273, Soliman 8020, Tunisia e-mail: [email protected] C. Jallouli : M. M. Turki Département de Géologie, Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar, 2092 Manar II, Tunisia K. L. Mickus Department of Geosciences, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO 65897, USA
north to south (Fig. 1). This elevation decrease in Eastern Algeria and Southern Tunisia corresponds tectonically to higher elevations in the Saharan Atlas Mountains to the Saharan Atlas foreland region of the Chotts domain, which is an active subsiding area and the Saharan platform. Geologically, the units within the Saharan Atlas system (Figs. 1 and 2) are directly inherited from the Early Mesozoic rifting within both the Central Atlantic and Alpine Tethys regions (Favre et al. 1991). By Upper Cretaceous time, the convergence between the Africa and Eurasia plates resulted in its progressive inversion, which reached a climax by the Middle Eocene (Frizon de Lamotte et al. 2009). The Saharan platform (Fig. 1) is considered a stable domain and consists of a Precambrian basement covered by a thin, relatively undeformed sequence of Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata. The geologic interest of the transition zone between these two structural domains has led geologists to propose multiple names and interpretations of its origin based on orographic, structural, and paleogeographic aspects (Russo and Russo 1934; Laffitte 1939; Castany 1954; Coque 1962; Caire 1971). The most prominent geological feature in Maghrebian domain is the North Saharan Flexure (NSF) which is a continuous structural feature for approximately 2,000 km from Morocco to Tunisia (Fig. 2). There have been multiple investigations of this feature since the end of the ninete
Data Loading...
