OffshoreMaroc

Morocco Offshore

On this tentative geological interpretation, the salt layer deposited at the bottom of the Atlantic-Type divergent margin, i.e., after the breakup of the Gondwana lithosphere, which separates the rift-type basins (developed during the lengthening of the Gondwana lithosphere, that predates and announces the breakdown of the lithosphere) is presented not only as autochthonous salt (in its normal stratigraphic position), but as allochthonous salt. Th salt ramps between the autochthonous and allochthonous salt are easy recognized as well as several secondary (vertical) salt welds.

Above a substratum, which top can correspond to the breakup unconformity (bounding rift-type basins or basement rocks)the Atlantic-type divergent margin is here well represented by the two stratigraphic phases: (i) The transgressive phase characterized by a retrogradational geometry, which highlights the successive marine ingression (relative sea level rises) and (ii) The regressive phase characterized by a progradational geometry, which bottom corresponds to a downlap surface with a significant hiatus (geological time interval, which at a given location on a stratigraphic surface, is not represented by strata or represented by a condensed section characterized by a very low sedimentation rate, between 1/10 mm per 1,000 years).