Diachronism in the late Neoproterozoic–Cambrian arc-rift transition of North Gondwana: a comparison of Morocco and the Iberian Ossa-Morena Zone

Abstract

In the northwestern border of the West African craton (North Gondwana), a transition from late Neoproterozoic subduction/collision to Cambrian rift processes was recorded in the Anti-Atlas (Morocco) and in the Ossa-Morena Zone (Iberia). Cambrian rifting affected both Pan-African and Cadomian basements in a stepwise and diachronous way. Subsequently, both areas evolved into a syn-rift margin episodically punctuated by uplift and tilting that precluded Furongian sedimentation. A comparison of sedimentary, volcanic and geodynamic evolution is made in the late Neoproterozoic (Pan-African and Cadomian) belts and Cambrian rifts trying to solve the apparent diachronous (SW–NE-trending) propagation of an early Palaeozoic rifting regime that finally led to the opening of the Rheic Ocean.