Abstract Late Palaeozoic sediments in central Morocco and the High Atlas Mountains document the development of this area during the formation of the Mauretanide part of the Hercynian orogeny. Continental basins formed during the Stephanian and Permian. Although scattered in time, they provide valuable bioGéographical and climatic information for the Mauretanides as a link between the Variscides in the east, the Appalachians in the west and the Karoo in the south. New blattid insects in the Souss Basin enable correlation to Early Stephanian B. Furthermore, we document the oldest African tetrapod tracks ( Batrachichnus, Dromopus ). Litho- and biofacies indicate seasonally wet and dry phases. Wet red beds of the Khenifra Basin have produced tetrapod bones and the tracks Limnopus, Batrachichnus and Dromopus . Macrofloras give a transitional Autunian/Saxonian age. This fits well into the Artinskian wet phase. Similar facies pattern in the Tiddas Basin are correlated by tetrapod tracks as transitional Artinskian to Kungurian. Advanced tetrapod tracks of Synaptichnium and Rhynchosauroides were discovered in the Ikakern Formation of the Argana Basin, dated by pareiasaur remains as Wuchiapingian. Red beds of similar type are known in Europe, for example, from the Late Permian of the Lodève Basin. They originated during the Wuchiapingian wet phase.

Abstract The Agadir basin is situated off the Moroccan Atlantic coast and the Canary Islands. It comprises some 80,000 sq km of shelf and deep water acreage, and has been explored by 16 wells, all drilled on the shelf margin. The deep water basin remains undrilled at present. In 1998, Shell acquired 2,000 km of 2D seismic in the Agadir deep water basin, where previous exploration had revealed the presence of a mobile salt substratum in an area characterised by the presence of a world-class source rock (the Albian -Turonian Tarfaya Shale). On the Jurassic carbonate and Cretaceous clastic shelf, significant oil shows had been discovered during the seventies. Key results of the 1998 to 2000 Agadir Basin exploration are: The basin is highly structured, due to interaction of the Atlas compression with passive margin extension and halokinesis. This structuring creates a large number of potential traps. An Atlas-sourced fluvial system delivers Tertiary turbidites to the basin. Late Cretaceous and Palaeocene sandstones appear to be derived from the Moroccan Meseta. A Jurassic to Cretaceous delivery system from a more southerly source is expected to shed older turbidites into the Agadir basin. Erosional scours originating on the platform confirm that the Cretaceous shelf sands have been transported into the basin. Reservoir quality is a possible concern in an area where carbonate rocks abound in the source area. The main objective in the northern part of the Agadir basin is a Late Cretaceous to Paleogene reservoir play, which ties back to shelf and fluvial sandstones outcropping onshore in the Souss valley and predates the formation of the High Atlas range. Secondary objectives occur in the Neogene and in the Lower Cretaceous to Jurassic intervals. Geochemical modelling supported by the shows in platform wells and the abundance of oil slicks suggests that an active oil charge system is working in the basin. The world-class Tarfaya Shale is likely to be mature over large areas. Older source rocks are likely to further contribute to oil (and gas) charge. They comprise Oxfordian and Liassic shales, but also more speculative Westphalian coals and Silurian shales. Halokinesis is active over the entire area, but increasing in intensity and becoming progressively younger towards the northern part of the Agadir permit, where compressional activity has focused. Locally therefore trap integrity and/or charge timing may form an issue for truncation plays against piercing salt domes. Other play types in the Agadir basin consist of anticlinal closures over deep-seated salt swells, fault-related structures and stratigraphic traps.

Abstract An insect zonation with a time resolution of 1.5–2 Ma for Late Pennsylvanian to Early Permian (Kasimovian to Artinskian) non-marine deposits is presented. The zonation is based on the directed morphogenetic evolution of colour pattern in the forewings of the blattid (cockroach) family Spiloblattinidae. This evolution is observed in lineages of succeeding species of three genera. All three genera are widely distributed in the palaeo-equatorial zone from Europe to North America, that is, in the Euramerican biota province. Increasing reports of spiloblattinid zone species in condont-bearing, interfingered marine/continental strata of North American Appalachian, Mid-Continent and West Texas basins could be the key to direct biostratigraphical correlations of pure continental profiles, as are present in the most parts of the Hercynides, to the global marine scale.

Abstract An interval of episodic carbonate productivity, lithostratigraphically recognized as the ‘Calcaires inférieurs’ (upper member of the Adoudou Formation), took place across the Neoproterozoic–Cambrian transition onlapping the western Saghro inlier, Morocco. Sedimentation of the ‘Calcaires inférieurs’ was highly variable: in relatively stable substrates, a peritidal-dominated mixed platform is recorded where deposition was primarily controlled by autocyclic processes and accommodation space availability, whereas, in unstable substrates, the tectonic activity associated with the inherited block-faulting basement led to deposition of complex slide sheets composed of penecontemporaneous isoclinal folds and disrupted strata. The uppermost part of the ‘Calcaires inférieurs’ displays a negative δ 13 C shift reaching values of −6.5‰. This shift may represent the δ 13 C excursion to −6‰ that marks the Neoproterozoic–Cambrian boundary in the western Anti-Atlas. Two volcanic episodes bracketed the carbonate productivity. They consist of lower basaltic flows and an upper rhyolitic ignimbrite, with a SiO 2 gap between 52 and 74 wt%. The basic rocks resemble those of tholeiitic magmas in continental rifts. The felsic rocks show high light to heavy rare earth element abundances and negative Nb, Ta, P and Ti anomalies, and were probably generated as a result of either fractional crystallization coupled with relative crustal contamination, or from a different magmatic source. The lower basic flows of tholeiitic affinity predated and geochemically differ from the alkaline magmatism of the Alougoum volcanic complex (Boho jbel) that surrounds the neighbouring Bou-Azzer inlier.