Physical Volcanology, Geochemistry and Basin Evolution of the Ediacaran Volcano-sedimentary Succession in the Bas Draâ inlier (Ouarzazate Supergroup, Western Anti-Atlas, Morocco)

New geologic mapping, lithofacies and granulometric analysis, and geochemistry from the volcano-sedimentary successions of the central part of the Bas Draâ inlier, Western Anti-Atlas, constrain the Ediacaran Ouarzazate Supergroup evolution during the post-collisional stage of the Pan-African orogeny. Volcanosedimentary facies analysis is the key aspect of the present contribution. We distinguished sixteen terrestrial volcanosedimentary lithofacies in the Bas Draâ succession (BDS), which reaches a total thickness of 2000 m. BDS evolution can be grouped into four units (Aouinet Aït Oussa I to IV, AO I-AO IV). The earliest volcanic activity produced rhyolitic ignimbrite sheets (AO I), which had been considered as lava flows by previous workers, and which were presumably related to caldera system(s). During AO II, a complex of high-silica andesitic and rhyolitic lavas formed, punctuated by the explosive eruption of a high-temperature silica-rich magma leading to the formation of parataxitic ignimbrite. AO III consists of basalt and andesite lava fields and small explosive, in parts phreatomagmatic volcanic vents. It is dissected by fluvial systems depositing external non-volcanic and local volcanic debris. BDS evolution terminated with the formation of a large SiO2-rich lava dome complex (AO IV), accompanied by small basalt effusive event. Volcanosedimentary facies analysis infers that the BDS evolved in a continental extensional setting developing in a low topography under humid paleoclimatic conditions. Alteration textures are dominated by a piemontite-calcite-albite-quartz (+ iron oxides) assemblage.