PALEOMAGNETIC EVIDENCE FOR NON-INTERBEDDI NG OF THE TRIASSIC EVAPORITES WITHIN THE ALBIAN STRATA IN EASTERN MAGHREB

In northwestern Tunisia, a paleomagnetic study was carried out on Albi an levels, objects of controversy. They are considered to be either ov erturned strata on the limb of diapirs, or in their upright position a s the floor of a salt glacier. After correction for the apparent dip, the polarity of the primary magnetization is always reversed, and the magnetization directions are relatively scattered. The Earth's magneti c field was always of normal polarity during the Albian, so that these levels are overturned. The scattering of the magnetization direction points out moreover that the tilting occurred around axes of various o rientations. All these observations show that the evaporitic bodies we re emplaced in diapirs, and that the notion of a salt glacier interbed ded within the Albian sediments has to be given up. (C) Academie des s ciences/Elsevier, Paris.