Recommended Geoheritage Trails in Southern Morocco: A 3 Ga Record Between the Sahara Desert and the Atlantic Ocean

The remote regions of Southern Morocco are rich in outstanding geological landscapes and outcrops not well known to the general public. In this paper, we propose two east-trending geotrails (transverse to the regional trend of the structures) with a total of 19 geosites of particular interest for geotourists as well as for geologists. The southernmost, Dakhla-Awsard geotrail gives the opportunity to observe the oldest rocks (Archaean) of Morocco, belonging to the West African Craton (WAC), and their relatively thin Palaeozoic cover. This trail also presents a section across the Variscan nappes thrust over the craton, which is a unique geological setting in Morocco, but extending widely southward to Mauritania. Finally, the trail includes four geosites in the Cretaceous-Cenozoic deposits of the Coastal Basin, close to the Dakhla sea resort. The northern geotrail starts from El Ouatia (Tan-Tan Plage), another sea resort situated 700 km in the north of Dakhla. This trail illustrates the main geological features of the Tarfaya Atlantic margin basin and provides a cross-section of the Anti-Atlas Variscan folds up to the border of the WAC. Here the External Variscan belt differs from that of the Dakhla transect by the great thickness of the Palaeozoic series and the contrasting styles of tectonic structures (faults and folds versus thrust nappes). The equipment and the promotion of these geotrails will increase the attractiveness of the wild nature of the Saharan regions of Morocco.