Paleoproterozoic intrusive and sedimentary rocks of the Sidi Ifni Inlier (Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco) and their correlatives in West Africa–Amazonia

Two undeformed peraluminous intrusions and the overlying sedimentary rocks of the Taghdout–Lkest Group crop out at the deepest structural levels of the Sidi Ifni Inlier in SW Morocco. U–Pb zircon age data from the intrusions yield ages of 2047 ± 13 and 2026 ± 5 Ma, while an approximately unimodal detrital zircon age spectrum with an age peak at c. 2030 Ma was obtained for the Taghdout–Lkest Group. Strong spectral similarities exist between the detrital zircon age patterns observed for the Taghdout–Lkest Group and the lowermost units of other sedimentary basins located elsewhere in West Africa and in formerly contiguous regions of South America. These similarities suggest these now widely separated sedimentary successions represent components of a vast sedimentary basin (Roraima–Taoudéni Basin) that covered West Africa and Amazonia in the Paleoproterozoic. The existence of this basin supports the inclusion of West Africa–Amazonia within Columbia, or another agglomeration of continents during the Paleoproterozoic, while an analysis of possible source areas suggests the basin fill was sourced from now eroded sedimentary rocks that contained abundant c. 2250–1950 Ma zircon. Overlying strata show more complex age patterns that reflect derivation from the interior regions of Rodinia.