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Atlantic-Type Passive Margin Structural Style of the Cretaceous Basin in Northern Tunisia: Paleoslope Reconstruction and Regional Tectonics

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the configuration of northern Tunisia’s basin during the Cretaceous on the basis of abundant slump folds and frequent synsedimentary faults. The slump folds are studied to determine the slumps transport vergence on the synsedimentary submarine paleoslope. The local and regional stress field is used to characterize the syn-sedimentary deformation. During Valanginian–Aptian times, the basin is characterized by southward submarine slope. From Albian to Santonian times, the slump folds analysis provides NNW- to NW-ward sloping topography. The fault kinematic analysis reveals regional NW- to NNW-trending Cretaceous tectonic extension. Locally, NE- to N-trending extension is characterized. Perturbation of paleoslope orientation is locally observed probably related to salt tectonics hyperactive during Aptian–Albian. The constructed regional cross-section shows a tilted block geometry governed by major basement faults associated to other intra-basin growth faults. The basin shows ±5° seaward facing submarine paleoslope. In addition, some structures are probably dominated by raft tectonics. All these features are fairly consistent with the conclusion that the basin is very similar to the present-day Atlantic-type passive margins.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Authors are indebted to Prof. N. H. Woodcock (University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom), Prof. I. G. Alsop (University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom) and Dr. L. J. Strachan (University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand) for great helpful discussions about the methodology, transport determination techniques and interpretation of slump folds. The Stereonet 9 software, written by R. Allmendinger (Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States) was used. We are grateful to Frank Thomas (Aix Marseille University, Marseille, France) for providing constructive help that substantially improved the structure of this paper.

Authors are grateful to anonymous Reviewer and reviewer Prof. Yu. L. Rebetsky (Shmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, Moscow, Russia) for useful comments.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (CERTE, Geo-resources Laboratory funding) and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs grant through French Embassy in Tunisia (CMCU program).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geo-Resources Laboratory, Water Research and Technologies Center Borj-Cedria and Carthage University, Faculty of Sciences of Bizerte, 7021, Bizerte, Tunisia

    Ch. Naji, Z. Amri & A. Masrouhi

  2. King Abdul-Aziz University, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Department of Structural Geology and Remote Sensing, P.O. Box 80206, 21589, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    A. Masrouhi

  3. Aix Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, CEREGE, BP80, AIX en Provence, 13545, CEDEX 04, France

    O. Bellier

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  1. Ch. Naji
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  2. Z. Amri
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Correspondence to Ch. Naji.

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Naji, C., Amri, Z., Masrouhi, A. et al. Atlantic-Type Passive Margin Structural Style of the Cretaceous Basin in Northern Tunisia: Paleoslope Reconstruction and Regional Tectonics. Geotecton. 56, 85–106 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016852122010034

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