ABSTRACT

The Jebilet Paleozoic inlier near Marrakech, Morocco, contains a series of Lower Carboniferous outcrops that were previously grouped together as a single flysch formation. Two of these areas display a succession of at least 1100 m of exclusively shallow-marine sediments comprising conglomerates, sandstones, and mudrocks with abundant shell fragments and plant debris. The conglomerates contain exclusively intraformational clasts, and some occur as couplets with sandstone caps interpreted as storm deposits. In the sandstones, flat lamination and low-angle cross-stratification predominate and there are abundant wave-rippled surfaces. These sandstones are interpreted as shoreface and inner-shelf deposits. Mudrocks are less common but in places form thick units with delicately preserved fo sils; a tranquil, probably outer-, shelf environment is envisaged for these thicker mudrocks. The major sediment input was probably via a wave-dominated delta, but there is no evidence for active distributaries in the area described. Although some paleocurrent indicators, such as wave ripples, show a consistent orientation, there is insufficient evidence at present to fix the shoreline orientation. However, important thicknesses of wave-dominated shallow-marine sediments can now be clearly demonstrated in an area that also has thick turbidite successions of equivalent age. The larger scale paleogeographic implications must await further data.