TECTONICS AND SEDIMENTATION IN THE TAZA-GUERCIF BASIN, NORTHERN MOROCCO: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE NEOGENE EVOLUTION OF THE RIF-MIDDLE ATLAS OROGENIC SYSTEM

The Neogene-Quaternary Taza-Guercif Basin, northern Morocco, is one of a number of remnants of the hasinul "South Rifean Corridor" which connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea during the Miocene. The basin has a hybrid structure because its development was influenced both by the Riforogenic belt to the north and NW and the Middle Atlas Shear Zone to the SW. Strati graphic and structural studies have been carried out in the basin. The recognition of major unconformities, the distribution in time and space of sedimentary fades, and the areal distritlution of deformation structures at various scales have been integrated to reconstruct the tectono-sedimentary evolution of the basin beginning in the the Tortonian (late Miocene). This evolution is related to outward, migration of the Rif deformation front and to tectonic activityʹ in the Middle Atlas Shear Zone. This study highlights {he role played by the Middle Atlas Shear Zone as afirst-order element in the evolution of the Rif belt and of the Moroccan Me seta in relation to the African Plate.