End Cretaceous to recent polyphased compressive tectonics along the “Môle Constantinois” and foreland (NE Algeria)

The “Môle Constantinois” units and their forelands are part of the Alpine Belt of northeastern Algeria. From the North to the South they correspond to the following three tectonic domains: (i) the “Môle Constantinois” thrust unit; (ii) the Pre-Atlas domain corresponding to the folded and/or sliced belt and the Pre-Atlas corridor slightly affected by tectonics; and southwards, (iii) the folded and faulted autochthonous foreland represented mainly by the Aurès massif. This Belt is the result of a series of short-lived compressional deformations that we summarize in this paper and which occurred successively during the end Cretaceous, the Early-Late Eocene, around the Aquitanian–Burdigalian transition, during the Tortonian, and during the Early Pleistocene. Structural, stratigraphic and micro-tectonic arguments have been used to describe this polyphased event during a compressional tectonic history throughout the different domains.These tectonic events can also be identified in the neighbouring areas of the Maghrebides Alpine Belt and correspond to the major stages of inversion of the African Tethyan margin. However this tectonics is not homogeneous throughout the entire Maghrebides Belt, as paleo-stress fields and age of major deformations may vary from a region to another.