Palaeostresses identified in the Meso-Cenozoic cover of northeastern Morocco. Relationship with the opening of the Atlantic ocean and the kinematics of the African and European plates.

The detailed study of the fracturation and the identification of palaeostre sses, determined by inversion of fault slip data (with striated planes) in the Meso-Cenozoic formations (Upper Triassic to Present time) in northeaste rn Morocco, allows identification of six events of main deformations. the f irst one begins in the Upper triassic and is also present throughout the me sozoic; it is interpreted as a phase of extensional event, relayed by sever al stages of subsidence, in connection with the opening of the Atlantic Oce an. The other five events successively occur from Eocene to Present, previo us to the installation of the Rif overthrusts, synchronous, then later than it. Their palaeostress directions are compared to the other North African zones and to the convergent evolution of African and European plates. (C) 2 000 Academie des sciences/ Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS .