The Tachrift Project: sedimentary architecture of turbidite channel- levée deposits (Tachrift Turbidite System, Taza-Guercif Basin, Tortonian, NE Morocco)

Turbidite channel-levée complexes have been the focus of extensive research from a number of modern and ancient deep-water turbidite systems over more than fifty years. Although high-resolution 3D seismic studies have recently yielded unprecedented imaging of these deposits, the internal facies complexity of a channel-levée complex remains elusive. To fill this gap, extensive well-exposed outcrops are particularly important, as they provide information on fine-scale facies heterogeneity. This contribution reports on the ongoing ‘Tachrift’ Project, which aims to explore 9 superimposed channel-levée complexes belonging to the Tachrift turbidite system (late Tortonian- early Messinian) of the Taza–Guercif Basin (NE Morocco). Arid climate and deep incision by ephemeral streams make for world-class, extensive, unexplored outcrops spread over an area of ~ 16 km2. Preliminary results provide valuable insights into facies and geometry of channel-fills and correlative levées over a ~150 m-thick and ~4 km wide transect largely oblique to palaeoflow, which may contribute to improving existing models of turbidite channel belt sedimentary heterogeneity and stratigraphic evolution, applied to understand the composition of subsurface analogues.