THE GEOLOGISTS' ASSOCIATION TOUR TO MOROCCO, APRIL 2018

 

LIMESTONE ABOVE THE KEM KEM

 

THE AKRABOU FORMATION

 

 

Asfla is located on the High Atlas thrust belt. Consequently, most of the strata here is gently or intensely folded depending on proximity to the main thrusts. In the satellite image above the yellow line indicates the vertebrate-bearing Asfla Member of the Akrabou Formation.

 

 

 

Stratigraphic logs through the Aufous and Akrabou formations at Goulmima and Tadirhoust (near Asfla). The Aufous Formation is mostly non marine and marks a transition from the fluvial Kem Kem beds into the marine carbonate platform strata of the Akrabou Formation. From Ettchfini and Andreu, (2004).

 

The Akrabou Formation rest conformably on a series of mudstones with evaporates, which lies on top

of a series of fluvial sandstones. This red bed sequence correlates with the Kem Kem beds of the

area to the south.

 

 

 

Well-bedded limestones, marls, chalks and nodule beds with vertebrates of the

Akrabou Formation are exposed in stream sections to the south of Asjla.

 

 

 

 

Above. Fossil mine in the Akrabou Formation. This horizontal adit extends for approximately 60

metres. Miners here exploit a laminated mar/stone rich in carbonate-nodules containing vertebrates

and ammonites preserved in three dimensions.

 

 

Stratigraphic column, discontinuities and microfacies and ranges of fossils near Tadirhoust.

After Ettchfini and Andreu, 2004.

 

 

 

Figure 10. Expanded log for the 'Asfla Member' (my name for the fossil Lagerstatte) of the Akrabou

Formation. Plesiosaurs toward the top, ammonites in the base (according to the fossil diggers).

 

 

A Turonian age is attributed to the Akrabou Formation on account of the presence of the ammonite Mammites nodosus and several other indicator species (see below). Its occurrence coincides with the maximum flooding of the carbonate platform in the classic Cenomanian­ Turonian marine transgression.

Introduction

Arrival

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

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