Maximum extent of ice sheets in Morocco during the Late Ordovician glaciation

New field data demonstrate that during the Late Ordovician (Hirnantian) glaciation, an ice sheet expanding northwestwards over the Anti-Atlas range reached into the southern Meseta of northern Morocco. Its growth to a glacial maximum position resulted in extensive subglacial erosion and deformation including the development of soft-sediment striated surfaces and streamlined subglacial bedforms preserved between the High Atlas of Marrakech and Rehamna. These features imply that this ice mass extended >200 km further than previously thought, and increase its size by at least ca. 190, 000 km2 (comparable in area to the UK). Correlation between a measured section in the High Atlas of Marrakech and that of the southern Meseta identifies sedimentary evolution within an ice-contact system common to both. These findings imply that the West African Craton and northern Morocco were in full glaciological communication during the latest Ordovician. Palaeogeographic reconstruction shows that beyond the ice sheet, south and southeastward palaeoslopes persisted on the shelf. A palaeohigh beyond the main ice sheet was a major source for sand, feeding delta systems that grew along the shelf as far as the shelf break. This palaeohigh probably formed as a result of rift shoulder uplift and supported a satellite ice mass. In the eastern Meseta, a thick (350 m) underflow-dominated deep-marine fan was fed both from this shelf delta system and from glaciogenic debris derived fromthe main ice sheet. The occurrence of this unexpected deep-marine area in northern Morocco implies that continued northward advance of the ice sheet was hampered by a dramatic break in bathymetry. Two depositional units are recognised across the Meseta, containing four distinct sedimentary cycles, each recognised as a glacioeustatic response to the waxing and waning of ice masses elsewhere in West Gondwana

Integrating machine scheduling and transportation resource allocation in a job shop: a simulation approach

In scheduling problems with fixed routing, usually the transportation of jobs among the machines is not considered (i.e., the transportation time between two stages is negligible, and the number of transportation resources is unlimited). However, in real contexts, this assumption can be unrealistic, especially when human supervision is needed for transportation, and hence not considering transportation can lead to low quality scheduling solutions. This paper considers a job shop in which transportation resources are limited and free to move among all the machines (no fixed routes). The aim is the integration of machine scheduling and transportation resource allocation, i.e., to decide for each machine the job sequence, and for each free transportation resource the routing. Due to the complexity of the problem, a Discrete Event Simulation approach is used to compare different scheduling and transportation resource allocation policies through scenario analysis

The impact of the end-Ordovician glaciation on sediment routing systems: A case study from the Meseta (northern Morocco)

Assessment of sediment redistribution by end-Ordovician ice sheets is crucial for the reconstruction of Lower Paleozoic source-to-sink patterns. Focusing on the ice-distal, deepwater Tazekka depocenter (Moroccan Meseta), we performed a provenance study that combined whole-rock geochemistry, petrography and insights from high-resolution detrital zircon ages. The results show that the glacigenic sediments are compositionally — mineralogically and geochemically — more mature than preglacial strata. This observation points to a preferential cannibalization of the “great Lower Paleozoic quartz-rich sandstone sheet”, with a limited input of first-cycle, far-travelled clastic sediments. Differentiation of glacial units is not straightforward, yet the glaciation acme istypified by a highly mature sedimentary source and an age spectrum lacking Mesoproterozoic zircon grains, both features strongly indicating derivation from the Cambrian–Lower Ordovician cover of the Tuareg Shield. More regional sources are expressed during the earlier glaciation stages, during which lowstand remobilizations unrelated to subglacial erosion are also suspected. Subordinate but notable late Tonian (∼0.8 Ga) and latest Stenian to early Tonian (∼1 Ga) zircon populations are also evidenced inMorocco, which may have implications for future paleogeographic reconstructions