A review of the crustal architecture and related pre-salt oil/gas objectives of the eastern Maghreb Atlas and Tell: Need for deep seismic reflection profiling

The Atlas and Tell domains constitute a major segment of the Circum-Mediterranean Alpine fold and thrust belts in the Maghreban part of North Africa. South of the Tell, the Atlas results from a progressive Late Cretaceous to present foreland inversion of former Jurassic to Cretaceous extensional tectonic features inherited from the opening of the Tethys along the northern African margin. In contrast, the Tell is made up of allochthonous Cretaceous to Neogene basinal units detached along a tectonic sole made up of remobilized Triassic salt and tectonic mélanges.