Permo-Triassic Argana Valley Field trip
03 - 04 May 2025
The thematic of this field trip is the examination of the extraordinary Triassic Early Jurassic continental Argana basin rift, in Morocco. Argana Valley is in fact the unique area, in theNorth-western African margin, that offers an exceptionally good outcrops of a continuous and complete section, for the scrutiny and the’ understanding of the first tectonic and sedimentary development of the Central Atlantic Margin.
The valley is located in the western High Atlas, some 100 km southwest of Marrakech and extends 85 km southwards with a maximum width of 25 km. It’s a large rift basin striking approximately North-South, subdivided into 4 sub-basins. It lays unconformably on its Palaeozoic basement hinterland on the East, deeps gently westwards and deepening below the Jurassic and the Cretaceous sediments of the passive margin and records the transition from non marine to marine facies.
Triassic rocks in the valley consist of about 2,500 m of coarse to fine-grained red-brown clastic deposits, subdivided from a litho-stratigraphic and facies stand point into informal formations and members that have been adapted from early geological studies in 60s and70s. However, recent structural, stratigraphic and sedimentological studies have elucidated the complete evolution history of the basin.
Scrutiny of the various formation, from the base to the top, at different locations, show the depositional conditions changed through time and space, and how tectonic reactivations controlled the facies distributions in the sub-basins and the basin as whole, making the Argana Triassic-Lower Jurassic basin the analogue to be used for understanding and modelling of buried continental rift basins.
Itinerary
Date: 03 May 2025 (Day 1)
Starting Point: Kenzi Rose Hotel Marrakech
Departure Time: 9:00AM
Inclusions: Transport / 1 Lunch per day / 1 Dinner / Water and Snacks / Digital Guide Book / 1 Overnight Stay in hotel
Minimum participants: 10
Maximum participants: 56
(To provide a comprehensive field trip experience, we have limited the number of field trip spots. These will be provided on a first come, first serve basis)
Figure 1: Location map of day one field trip itinerary and stops
9:00 AM - Departure from Kenzi Rose Hotel Marrakech
Departure from Kenzi Rose Hotel Marrakech to accommodation
Date: 04 May 2025 (Day 2)
Starting Point: Accommodation
Departure Time: 9:00AM
Figure 2: Location map of day two field trip itinerary and stops
9:00 AM - Return from the hotel (TBC) to Marrakech
Stop 2-1: Accommodation areaEnd of the field trip
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Field Trip Leader: Abdellah Ait Salem (Petro-Geol Consulting)
Abdallah AIT SALEM was born in 1956 in Morocco. He was admitted to The “Ecole National del’Industrie Minérale” (ENIM) of Rabat in Morocco in 1977 and graduated in 1982 as mining geology engineer. He was recruited the same year at the Moroccan national office of petroleum exploration and exploitation “Office National de Recherches et d’Exploitations Pétrolières” (ONAREP), that became later the National Office for Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), from which he retired in 2020.
He also participated, during 12 months to fieldwork with Robertson Research group in 1986-87 and spent 3 months in 1995 as research associate at the department of geology of Rice University in Houston/Texas/USA. He organised several field trips in different areas of Morocco for petroleum companies and on sidelines of conferences.
During the 38 years period span at ONHYM, he worked as surface geologist (1982-1983), he was admitted at the French “Ecole National Supérieur du Pétrole et des Moteur” (ENSPM/IFP School) and graduated in 1985 as Petroleum geologist with engineer degree.
Since then, he worked at ONHYM as junior petroleum explorationist, then senior explorationist in charge of North Offshore Morocco in 1991, Head of department in charge of offshore Morocco in 1996, head of Moroccan basin evaluation division in 2011 till his retirement.
