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Abstract

K. R. McClay, 2004, Thrust tectonics and hydrocarbon systems: AAPG Memoir 82, p. 635-646.

Copyright copy2004. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

Superposed Folding Resulting from Inversion of a Synrift Accommodation Zone, Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Weldon Beauchamp

Atlas Exploration and Production Company LLC, Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study would not have been possible without the assistance of ONAREP (Office National de Recherches et d'Exploitations Petrolieres) and the Geological Survey of Morocco. Many thanks to my colleagues at Cornell that helped in this study and in the review of this manuscript. I would also like to thank Tarik Djebbar and C. Elders for their constructive review. Also, I would like to thank ARCO for assistance and expenses in the preparation of this manuscript.

ABSTRACT

The conspicuous offset of the northern margin of the High Atlas Mountains is composed of several large superposed folds, one of which is known as the Ait Attab Syncline. The original northeast-trending syncline (F1) was folded by a second set of fold axes (F2) that trend to the northwest. The superposed folding was generated by one phase of compression, with thrusting of synrift rocks northwestward over a prior accommodation zone formed during rifting. This accommodation zone is expressed in the exposure of synrift rocks, the exposure of Paleozoic strata in the footwall, and a coincident offset of topography. Inversion was accomplished by the transport of synrift strata along reactivated normal faults and newly formed thrusts. The unique pattern of refolding is believed to be characteristic of inversion.

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