Turbidite channel-levée transitions: insights from the Tachrift system (Complex 6, Taza-Guercif Basin, NE Morocco)

Chiara Zuffetti¹, Fabrizio Felletti¹ & Mattia Marini^1
1Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra "A. Desio", Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Corresponding author e-mail: chiara.zuffetti@unimi.it

This contribution reports on the outcrop of one (Complex 6, hereafter) of multiple turbidite channel-levée complexes making the Tachrift system (Late Tortonian- early Messinian), beautifully exposed in NE Morocco as part of the clastic fill of the Taza-Guercif Basin. Geological mapping was integrated with facies analysis on 46 logs and physical stratigraphic correlations. Complex 6 consists of three sandstone-rich units labelled A, B, and C that progressively increase in grain-size and are laterally stacked in a SE-ward shifting fashion. Particularly, channel- fills and correlative levées of Units B and C have contrasting architectural styles which likely reflect changes in flow parameters (e.g., grain size, volume, density stratification etc.), channel sinuosity, and morphodynamics. Owing to magnificent 3D exposures, the ongoing study of Complex 6 outcrops will provide sedimentological characterization of channel-fills and correlative levée deposits, insights into evolution of their parent channel from inception trough abandonment, and sub-seismic lithological calibration of subsurface analogues.

turbidite channel fill, levée, lateral accretion package, Tachrift system, Taza-Guercif basin.