The early Pliocene Tirinesse basin (SW of Oued Laou, Rif, Morocco): proposal of a formation model

The Tirinesse basin, filled mainly by lower Pliocene marine sediments, is a small tectonic graben bounded by two NE-SW normal faults, with the eastern one surpassing 500 m in throw. These faults proved to belong to a much longer system of faults that transversally cut the entire Rifian Internal Zone. The subsidence of this basin was controlled by a jointed scissor movement of the two faults, which rotation axis coincided with the basin itself. This explains the important thickness of its sedimentary infilling, mainly occurred during the Zanclean.