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Atlas and Atlantic — Structural Relations

  • Conference paper
Geology of the Northwest African Continental Margin

Abstract

  • The High and Middle Atlas mountains originated from continental rift structures, the history of which lasted from Triassic until Turonian times.

  • The formation of the Atlas Mountains finally was caused by inversion of the earlier rift structure. In the western High Atlas inversion began during the Late Cretaceous and lasted until Tertiary and Quaternary times. Uplift in the central parts of the rising mountain chains was accompanied by downwarping of subsequent marginal basins along the southern and northern flanks of the High Atlas.

  • Vertical movements, starting with subsidence and followed by uplift, dominated the structural evolution of the Atlas mobile belts, which belong entirely to the African plate.

  • The Atlas Rift at first formed an integral part of the Triassic North Atlantic rift system, along which Pangea began to break up. This means that during the initial stages the Atlantic furrow and the Atlas Rift were equal structures. Later on the main Atlantic rift developed to an oceanic structure, whereas the Atlas Rift failed to do so.

Intracratonic mountain building processes and ocean genesis may occasionally have the same origin. Our results on the evolution of the High Atlas imply that vertical movements should not be neglected in future discussions on global tectonics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geologisches Institut, Universität Bonn, Nussallee 8, D-5300, Bonn l, Germany

    Johannes Stets & Paul Wurster

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  1. Johannes Stets
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  2. Paul Wurster
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Stilleweg 2, 3000, Hannover 51, Germany

    Ulrich von Rad  & Karl Hinz  & 

  2. Geologisch-Paläontologisches Institut der Universität, Olshausenstraße 40/60, 2300, Kiel, Germany

    Michael Sarnthein  & Eugen Seibold  & 

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Stets, J., Wurster, P. (1982). Atlas and Atlantic — Structural Relations. In: von Rad, U., Hinz, K., Sarnthein, M., Seibold, E. (eds) Geology of the Northwest African Continental Margin. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68409-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68409-8_5

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-68411-1

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