TECTONO-STRATIGRAPHIC REVISION OF THE AIT KANDOULA FORMATION (MIDDLE MIOCENE-PLIOCENE), WESTERN OUARZAZATE BASIN (SOUTHERN MOROCCO)

This paper reports the results of a stratigraphic revision of the Ait Kandoula Formation exposed in the western Ouarzazate Basin (Middle Miocene-Lower Pliocene, Southern Morocco). This formation is part of the upper Eocene-Quaternary continental Imerhane Group considered to record the main stage in the building of the Central High Atlas (CHA) under a regime of tectonic inversion of Mesozoic rifted basins. The development of this chain during the late Cenozoic generated a south-verging structural front and the related Ait Kandoula and Ait Seddrat sub-basins facing the wider Ouarzazate foreland basin. The revision of the Ait Kandoula Formation, occurring in both the Ouarzazate Basin and Ait Kandoula sub-basin, was carried out through new field observations, remote sensing and exploiting the distribution and the biochronologic range of fossil micro- and macro-vertebrate associations available from previous studies. In the western Ouarzazate Basin four stratigraphic-depositional sub-units (AK1-4) were distinguished in this formation, attesting to the development of a fluvio-lacustrine setting. This was strongly influenced by the syn-depositional deformation of the growing southern front of the CHA and by the episodic activity of shear zones oriented transversally to this front. The chronostratigraphic constraint provided by the mammal assemblages and by their magnetostratigraphic calibration, suggests a five-stage scenario for the tectono-sedimentary development of this actively deforming front and its related foreland and satellite depocentres between the Middle Miocene and the Early Pliocene. In the proposed reconstruction, the interplay of front-parallel thrust faults and front-transverse shear zones controlled the fluvial supply to the Ouarzazate Basin and later on the activation of the Ait Kandoula sub-basin.&nbsp

The Social Transmission of Attractiveness Stereotypes: An Investigation of Parental Expectations of Children\u27s Behavior

Eighty-six children from the Utah State University Child Development Laboratories and Hillcrest Elementary School and their parents participated in the study. The study focused on the use of attractiveness stereotyping used by children across four age groups. The study also analyzed the social transmission of attractiveness stereotypes from parents to their children. The study included two parts: 1) a play-preference measure, and 2) a social attribution measure. The stimuli were sketches of twelve children, six toys and six girls. The sketches of children included attractive, unattractive, mesomorphic, endomorphic, handicapped and nonhandicapped children. In the study we found that parents and children use attractiveness stereotypes. Further, parents and children utilized a beauty-is-good assumption when evaluating the children\u27s personalities and social tendencies from the sketches. Finally, we found that parents in this study expected their children to use a similar physical attractiveness hypothesis in their Social judgement

ACTIVE FAULTS: ANALYSIS, PROCESSES AND MONITORING

The aim of the workshop, sponsored by the European Community, the Italian C.N.R. “Centro di Studio di Geologia dell´Appennino e delle Catene Perimediterranee” and the University of Camerino, is that of providing a forum for specialists in order to discuss the different aspects of the analysis and monitoring of active faults. The in-door session of the workshop will be followed by a two-day field trip in Central and Southern Italy where active fault zone in earthquake-prone areas are nicely exposed and where preliminary data, acquired through detailed seismic investigations and by means of a 3-D monitoring system, are already available

Seismotectonics of the 1755 Meknes earthquake (Morocco)

The November 1st, 1755 Lisbon earthquake has been largely studied, its source constrained to be a 200 long structure, its magnitude estimated around 8.7, and the stress regime argued as a NNW-SSE directed compression. Less well knoll is the Meknes earthquake, occurred a few days later in Morocco and considered the effect of a strong aftershock in Portugal. It had destructive effects in the Meknes region, along the E-W trending Rides Prérifaines, the main frontal thrust of the Rif. Historical data indicate an E-W elongation of the epicentral macroseismic area, where we surveyed the major recent faults. Historical descriptions of the earthquake indicate ground ruptures in two areas of the Rides Prérifaines. Field work and air photo interpretation allowed us to relate these ruptures with the local thrust front, so that they may be assumed to correspond to coseismic surface faulting of the Meknes earthquakePublishedCamerino, Italy2T. Deformazione crostale attiv

Monitoring of recent activity in Italy

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Gelogical map of the Monte Amiata region (Southern Tuscany, Italy). 1:50.000 scale.

This paper and the associated 1:50,000 geological map are devoted to describe the geological features of the Monte Amiata region. The tectono-stratigraphic setting of Monte Amiata region includes, from bottom to top, 1) the pre-Neogene stack of tectonic units, made up of Tuscan, Sub-Ligurian and Ligurian Tectonic Units, 2) the Neogene sedimentary deposits and 3) the Plei -stocene Radicofani and Monte Amiata volcanoes. The pre-Neogene stack of tectonic units includes, from bottom to top, the Tuscan Nappe, belonging to the Tuscan Domain, and Canetolo Tectonic Unit, belonging to the Sub-Ligurian Domain. These tectonic units, regarded as representative of the thinned continental margin of the Adria plate, are topped by the Santa Fiora and Ophiolitic Tectonic Units, interpreted as remnants of the Ligure-Piemontese oceanic basin and its transition to the Adria continental margin. All the tectonic units of the pre-Neogene stack have been affected by folds and thrusts originated during the convergence related to the Europe-Africa motion during the Middle Eocene-Early Miocene. Subsequently, these tectonic units were affected by a widespread reduction of thickness of their successions due to low-angle normal faulting related to the Middle Miocene extensional tectonics. The Neogene sedimentary deposits unconformably overlie the pre-Neogene stack of tectonic units. They consist of Upper Miocene to Pliocene continental and marine sediments, filling the Cinigiano-Baccinello, Velona, and Siena-Radicofani basins, adopting an informal hierarchy of different stratigraphic units where the first order units are synthems. The Pleistocene Radicofani and Monte Amiata volcanoes are made up by high-K basaltic andesitic to shoshonitic volcanic rocks and by trachydacitic to trachytic and olivine-latitic volcanic rocks, respectively. The geological mapping has provided evidences of a complex tectonic setting resulting from a long-lived history shifting from Cretaceous to Early Miocene compressive events to Middle Miocene extensional tectonics and Late Miocene-Pleistocene contractional and extensional events during which the Pleistocene magmatic activity occurred. In this regard, the Monte Amiata region can be regarded as a key area where the final result of a 200 Ma long geological history of the Northern Apennines is exposed