Lower Sebtides Neogene exhumationand uplift in Ceuta and Cabo Negro areas(Internal Rif, Northern Morocco) : insightsfrom medium- and low-temperaturethermochronology

International audienceThe Rif Chain (Northern Morocco) belongs, with the Betic Cordillera(Southern Spain), to the western termination of the Alpine belt. Deepestunits of the Rif Internal Zones (i.e. Lower Sebtides) outcrop in three areas, from North to South : Ceuta, Cabo Negro and Beni Bousera.The quick exhumation of these units during the Late Oligocene-EarlyMiocene is related with a crustal thinning and the Alboran Sea rifting.Despite Beni Bousera massif has been well investigated, no data areavailable in Ceuta and Cabo Negro areas. This study aims to constrainthe last steps of cooling and exhumation in the Lower Sebtides usingmedium- and low-temperature thermochronological data. Combinationof Ar-Ar on micas, fission tracks and (U-Th)/He on apatites (respectivelyAFT and AHe) from high-grade rocks allows understanding thermalhistory between 450-350°C and surface temperatures. These datasuggest a similar cooling evolution of the Ceuta and Cabo Negro units.Ages obtained with all these methods are comprised in the same interval,between 22 and 18 Ma. These data record an almost instantaneouscooling (between 50 and 200°C/Ma) associated to final exhumation afterthe Oligo-Miocene thermal event affecting these units at shallowdepths (10 km). Low-temperature data suggest that Ceuta and CaboNegro units cooled at surface temperatures before Beni Bousera ones.Since the end of Burdigalian, the Rif internal zones vertical movementsdid not exceed 1km, even during the Messinian Salinity. AFT and AHeages in the whole Sebtides are also slightly older than these obtainedin their Spanish equivalent (Alpujarrides). The Gibraltar arc is dividedinto several independent crustal blocks separated by major fault zonesperpendicular to the coast that could have induced independent verticalmovements during the entire Neogen