Systematics of detrital zircon U–Pb ages from Cambrian–Lower Devonian rocks of northern Morocco with implications for the northern Gondwanan passive margin Accotto, Cristina Martínez Poyatos, David Jesús Azor Pérez, Antonio Jabaloy Sánchez, Antonio NW African Variscides Moroccan mesetas West African craton Northern Gondwanan margin Provenance study Cambrian rifting This study was found by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain through the project PANGEATOR (CGL2015-71692) and the Pre-Doctoral scholarship BES-2016-078168. We are indebted to Mike Hall and Brad McDonald for their assistance and technical support on sample preparation and the LA-ICPMS, respectively. The CL imaging was carried out on the Curtin University's Microscopy & Microanalysis Facility, whose instrumentation has been partially funded by the University, State and Commonwealth Governments, and the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Facility at the University of Edinburgh. Analysis in the SHRIMP and GeoHistory Facilities, JdLC, Curtin University were enabled by AuScope (auscope.org.au) and the Australian Government via the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) and an Australian Geophysical Observing System grant provided to AuScope Pty Ltd. by the AQ44 Australian Education Investment Fund program, respectively. The NPII multi-collector was obtained via funding from the Australian Research Council LIEF program (LE150100013). The SIMS analyses were performed at the NERC Ion Microprobe Facility of the University of Edinburgh (UK). Comments from two anonymous reviewers and editorial handling by Prof. Victoria Pease are acknowledged. Funding for open access charge: YUniversidad de Granada / CBUA. The systematic acquisition of U–Pb geochronological data from detrital zircon grains has become an essential tool in tectonic studies focused on reconstructing the pre–Variscan geography of the northern Gondwanan passive margin. New detrital zircon ages for 16 samples from the Cambrian–Lower Devonian succession of the Moroccan Mesetas (northern Morocco) are reported here. The results, combined with previously published data, reassert the strong West African Craton affinity of the Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, characterized by dominant Cadomian/Pan–African (c. 850–540 Ma) and Eburnean (c. 2.2–1.9 Ga) detrital zircon populations and a minor Leonian/Liberian (c. 2.5 Ga) population. Primary sources of these zircon grains are well established as the West African Craton located just to the south, but also in the Precambrian basement that locally crops out in the Moroccan Mesetas themselves. During the Cambrian–Early Ordovician, erosion preferentially dismantled Cadomian (c. 590–540 Ma) arc–derived rocks of the Gondwanan continental margin, while later, the slightly older Pan–African (c. 650–600 Ma) basement became the main sediment source. In the studied samples, irregularly present minor detrital zircon populations suggest additional sediment provenance from secondary sources such as: (i) remote northeastern African cratons (e.g., Saharan Metacraton and/or Arabian–Nubian Shield) that likely could have provided the c. 1.1–0.9 Ga and, possibly, the c. 1.9–1.7 Ga zircon grains, and (ii) rift–related Cambrian–Early Ordovician volcanic centers in the Moroccan Mesetas that supplied heterogeneously distributed – although locally dominant in small areas – sedimentary detritus before rift abortion and burial underneath the overlying passive margin sedimentary succession. 2021-10-28T06:57:55Z 2021-10-28T06:57:55Z 2021-09-09 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Cristina Accotto... [et al.]. Systematics of detrital zircon U–Pb ages from Cambrian–Lower Devonian rocks of northern Morocco with implications for the northern Gondwanan passive margin, Precambrian Research, Volume 365, 2021, 106366, ISSN 0301-9268, [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2021.106366] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/71147 10.1016/j.precamres.2021.106366 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 España Elsevier