Geochronological constraints on the polycyclic magmatism in the Bou Azzer-El Graara inlier (Central Anti-Atlas Morocco)

Abstract New U–Pb SHRIMP zircon ages from the Bou Azzer-El Graara onlier constrains the Neoproterozoic evolution of the Anti-Atlas during Pan-African orogenesis. Within the Central Anti-Atlas, the Bou Azzer-El Graara inlier exposes a dismembered ophiolite, long considered to mark a late Neoproterozoic suture between the West African Craton in the south, and Neoproterozoic arcs to the north. From north to south, this inlier includes four main geological units: a volcanic-arc, an ophiolite, a metamorphic complex and a continental platform. Several plutons intrude the volcanic-arc, the ophiolite, the metamorphic complex, and post-orogenic volcanic and sedimentary deposits unconformably cover these terranes. The age of the volcanic-arc is reported here for the first time. Analyses of zircon of two rhyolites provide ages of 761 ± 7 Ma and 767 ± 7 Ma. Zircons from two gneisses provide dates of 755 ± 9 Ma and 745 ± 5 Ma. Both dates are considered best estimates of the crystallization ages of their igneous protoliths. Analyses of zircon from two granitic bodies, which crosscut gneisses, provide younger dates of 702 ± 5 Ma and 695 ± 7 Ma. The age of an aplitic body of the ophiolite is reported here for the first time, as 658 ± 8 Ma (SHRIMP U–Pb on zircons). Theses ages suggest the existence of three distinct orogenic events during Cryogenian times: (i) 770–760 Ma Tasriwine-Tichibanine orogeny with rollback of the subducting oceanic plate, leading to the formation of back-arc basins; (ii) 755–695 Ma Iriri-n’Bougmmane orogeny; and (iii) the 660–640 Ma Bou Azzer orogeny involving the formation and the emplacement of the Bou Azer ophiolite. During Ediacaran times, the Bou Azzer-El Graara inlier is characterized with the development of a continental volcanic arc between 630 and 580 Ma (Bou Lbarod Group, 625 ± 8 Ma; Bleida granodiorite, 586 ± 15 Ma), and strike-slip pull-apart basins (Tiddiline Group, 606 ± 4 Ma and 606 ± 5 Ma). These volcanic and sedimentary Lower Ediacaran sequences are deformed before the felsic pyroclastic deposits of the Ouarzazate Group (567 ± 5 Ma and 566 ± 4 Ma). Finally, the Ouarzazate Group is overlain by early Cambrian volcanic deposits of the Jbel Boho Formation (541 ± 6 Ma).