Foreword to the special issue 'Geological Evolution of the Ediacaran and Cambrian in the High Atlas and Anti-Atlas Ranges, Morocco'

摘要

The High Atlas and Anti-Atlas Ranges crosscut the northwestern stretch of Africa extending about 2500 km through Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Their arid landscapes offer some of the best and most important areas within Gondwana to study Neoprotero-zoic and Cambrian stratigraphic, palaeontological and geodynamic events. Among other significant features of their Neoproterozoic-Cambrian evolution are the Pan-African Orogeny and the subsequent onset of the Atlas Rift. Their stratigraphic framework has been much improved during the last decades due to detailed radio-metric dating of the Ediacaran Ouarzazate volcanosedimentary Supergroup, chemostratigraphic control of the shelly fossil-free Adoudou and Lie-de-vin formations (Terreneuvian in age), broad development of the latest Ediacaran-Cambrian Epoch 2 Great Atlasian Reef Complex (a 400 km-long barrier reef) and Cambrian Epoch 2-3, trilobite-based diversity peaks.