Pre-Atlantic geological connections among northwest Africa, Iberia and eastern North America: implications for continental configurations and economic resources
Since its formation 4.56 billion years ago, the configuration of the relative positions of continents and oceans, and the Earth's surface has been constantly changing. This has been responsible for crustal recycling, the generation of metallic and non-metallic ore deposits and resources, and the evolution of life (extensive biotic crises).
Numerous international projects have focused on paleogeographic reconstructions for various periods of geological time, and on the mechanisms that controlled this dynamic evolution of the Earth leading to results with high scientific impact.
This project aims to contribute to these reconstructions by unraveling some of the latest configurations of continents and microcontinents along the present-day circum-northern Atlantic Ocean during the Paleozoic Era (~540 to 250 million years ago). The end of this period was marked by the consumption of the Rheic Ocean and its seaways leading to the formation of the supercontinent Pangea as a result of a series of collisions among Gondwana, Laurussia and some other microcontinents. Before this, in the early and middle Paleozoic, parts of NW Africa may have rifted off from Western Gondwana and accreted to parts of Europe and North America. During the Mesozoic (~180 million years ago), the opening of the central Atlantic Ocean (and Western Tethys sensu-lato) caused the breakup of this supercontinent, heralded by a huge mafic magmatic event that produced the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP). This event was responsible for the biggest biotic and environmental crisis of the Phanerozoic. The Paleozoic evolution of the Earth's crust impacted not only the distribution of lithospheric fragments among eastern North America, SW Europe and NW Africa, but also the types and redistribution of natural resources, atmosphere, hydrosphere, continental and oceanic biota, and levels of oxygen production.
This project will
- generate new field, geochemical and geochronological data from southern Morocco and circum-Atlantic magmatic provinces of latest Paleozoic-Triassic age
- bring together members of a diverse international earth-science community through field forums, to discuss and to evaluate the effects of global-scale magmatism on mass extinctions and biota destruction
- promote scientific training for young scientists (particularly women) in North African countries
The results of this project will have significant implications for the formation and distribution of strategic metallic deposits, such as copper, chromium, platinum-gold and lithium for the agricultural industry. The collective efforts of our project will contribute significantly to the future development of scientific, academic and industrial infrastructure in Northern Africa.
Key information
Duration
2020-2024
IGCP Theme
Geodynamics
Project Leader
Hassan II University of Casablanca, Faculty of Sciences Ben Msik, Department of Geology, Casablanca, Morocco
Highlights
Symposium and Field Trip
May 2022. Halifax and Novia Scotia, Canada.
Team members convened a symposium on the work of IGCP 683, which included 11 oral presentations, five posters and two virtual poster presentations. They participated in a session entitled 鈥淚UGS, Geoparks, and IGCP鈥.
On the field trip around Novia Scotia, 25 geoscientists working in eastern North America, northwestern Africa, and western Europe participated in discussions on the geology, in particular of crustal blocks with northwest African origin that are now dispersed across the three continents. Fragments of at least three of these blocks were the focus of the field trip.
Other areas (Avalonia in southern New Brunswick, the Penobscot Bay Inlier/Ganderia in coastal Maine, and Avalonia in southeastern New England) were highlighted during evening 鈥渧irtual鈥 field trips. These, amongst others, notably to areas covering the Anti-Atlas and Meseta of Morocco, the SW Iberian massif in southern Spain, and Avalonia in Newfoundland, were presented during the IGCP 683 symposium that preceded the field trip and were made available for viewing and download on the IGCP 683 website, together with a guidebook (see below).
All are long-lasting valuable resources to those working on correlations between crustal blocks of eastern North America, northwestern Africa, and western Europe.
Field trip and Annual Meeting
9-14 May 2023. Iberia.
IGCP 683's second field trip was to Iberia, and had a total of 19 participants, including 10 female geologists from Canada, Germany, Morocco, Spain and the USA.
The field trip included visits to the Gredos Mountains, the Cabeza de Araya Batholith and the Badajoz-C贸rdoba Shear Zone.