Title: TErrestrial And Marginal System in a hot world. The continental and marginal-marine Cenomanian environments of the Southern Morocco between climate extreme and regional tectonics (TEAMS)

Scientific Person in Charge: Anna Breda | Programme: PRIN 2022 - DM 104/22

Total Contribution € 67.662,00 | Project Duration: 24 months

In the warm Mesozoic Earth, the Cenomanian-Turonian stages recorded a period of extreme environmental conditions on both lands and oceans. Hyperthermic climate alternated with at least one brief cold event, accounting for a dramatic scenario of global climate change. In addition, this period was characterized by intense reorganization of the continental plates, with oceans expansion and huge production of crust. The Cenomanian-Turonian rock record provides a unique opportunity to study how the Earth System worked under the stress of different global processes providing keys to understand the present and the future transformations of our planet.

Southern Morocco, with its superb geology, offers an excellent work area and the perfect testing site for applying TEAMS' multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of widely exposed terrestrial and marginal-marine sediments accumulated during the Cenomanian. The proposed research, through the integration of Stratigraphy, Sedimentology, Structural Geology, Paleopedology, Paleobiology and Geochemistry, aims at: 1) reconstructing the continental and marginal marine depositional settings developed during the Cenomanian between the present Central High Atlas and the Anti Atlas mountain ranges; 2) assessing how global signals such as hyperthermic climates affected these settings and the related ecosystems; 3) assessing the role of local crustal deformation, reflecting a wider geodynamic scenario, in driving the sedimentary patterns and influencing the environmental conditions.