The Ediacaran volcanic rocks and associated mafic dykes of the Ouarzazate Group (Anti-Atlas, Morocco): Clinopyroxene composition, whole-rock geochemistry and Sr-Nd isotopes constraints from the Ouzellarh-Siroua salient (Tifnoute valley)

The volcanic rocks of the Tifnoute Valley have positive εNd570 (+1.7 to +5.0), low Sri (<0.7063), and NdTDM model ages ranging from 0.80 to 1.14 Ga, indicating a mostly depleted Neoproterozoic source with limited involvement of the Eburnian lithosphere for the Tifnoute magmas. This depleted source is the young lithospheric mantle for the alkali-calcic series and the asthenosphere for the younger alkalic series. The Tifnoute Valley volcanic rocks emplaced in a Pan-African transtensive post-collisional environment that evolved towards the major rifting event that will give rise to the Rheic ocean, in a similar way to what occurred just after the Variscan orogeny during the Triassic period that evolved to the Tethys ocean opening.