The Beni Bousera marbles, record of a Triassic-Early Jurassic hyperextended margin in the Alpujarrides-Sebtides units (Rif belt, Morocco)

The timing and process of exhumation of the subcontinental peridotites of the Gibraltar Arc (Ronda, Beni Bousera) have been discussed extensively over the last decades. In this work, we contribute to this debate through the first mapping, structural and petrological analyses, and SHRIMP U-Th-Pb dating of high-grade marbles that crop out around the Beni Bousera antiform of the Alpujarrides-Sebtides units of northern Rif (Morocco). These marbles, here termed the Beni Bousera marbles (BBMs), instead of being intercalations in the granulitic envelope (kinzigites) of the Beni Bousera peridotites, as previously described, form minor, dismembered units within a similar to 30 to 300 m thick mylonitic contact between the kinzigites and the overlying gneisses of the Filali Unit (Filali-Beni Bousera Shear Zone, FBBSZ). They display silicate-rich dolomitic marbles, sandy-conglomeratic calcareous marbles and thinly bedded marble with interleaved biotite-rich schists. An unconformable contact, either of stratigraphic or tectonic origin, with the underlying kinzigites, is observed locally. Pebbles or detrital grains include K-feldspar, quartz, almandine garnet and zircon. Peak mineral assemblages consist of forsterite, Mg-Al-spinel, geikielite (MgTiO3), phlogopite and accessory zirconolite, baddeleyite and srilankite in dolomite marble, as well as K-feldspar, scapolite, diopside, titanite and accessory graphite and zircon in calcite marble. These assemblages characterize peak HT-LP metamorphic conditions close to 700-750 degrees C, <= 4.5 kbar. The FBBSZ includes minor ductile thrusts that determine kinzigite horses or slivers carried NW-ward over the marbles. Within the latter, NNE-trending folds are conspicuous. Brittle, northward-dipping normal faults crosscut the FBBSZ ductile structures. Detrital cores of zircon from the BBMs yield two U-Th-Pb age clusters of similar to 270 Ma and similar to 340 Ma, whereas their rims yield similar to 21 Ma ages. Correlations with comparable settings in other West Mediterranean Alpine belts are discussed. The BBMs compare with the Triassic carbonates deposited over the crustal units of the Alpujarrides-Sebtides. The assumed Triassic protoliths may have been deposited onto the kinzigites or carried as extensional allochthons over a detachment in the Early Jurassic during the incipient formation of the Alboran Domain continental margin. Thus, it is concluded that the Beni Bousera mantle rocks were exhumed to a shallow depth during early rifting events responsible for the birth of the Maghrebian Tethys.

Automated summary

This study provides new insights on the exhumation of subcontinental peridotites in the Gibraltar Arc through mapping, structural and petrological analyses, and SHRIMP U-Th-Pb dating of high-grade marbles in northern Rif, Morocco. The Beni Bousera marbles (BBMs) are found to form dismembered units within mylonitic contacts between kinzigites and gneisses, displaying peak HT-LP metamorphic conditions and U-Th-Pb age clusters of 270 Ma and 340 Ma. This study highlights correlations with other Alpine belts in the West Mediterranean region and suggests a link between the exhumation of Beni Bousera mantle rocks and the early rifting events of the Maghrebian Tethys.