Journal of African Earth Sciences 61 (2011) 94104

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Journal of African Earth Sciences

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Late Triassicearly Jurassic block tilting along EW faults, in southern Tunisia: New
interpretation of the Tebaga of Medenine
Camille Raulin a,, Dominique Frizon de Lamotte a, Samir Bouaziz b, Sami Khomsi c, Nicolas Mouchot d,
Geoffrey Ruiz e, Franois Guillocheau f
a

Gosciences et Environnement Cergy, Universit de Cergy-Pontoise, 5 mail Gay Lussac, 95031 Cergy-Pontoise Cedex, France
Laboratoire Eau-Energie-Environnement, Universit de Sfax, Ecole Nationale dIngnieurs de Sfax, Ad-10-02, BP W, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia
Department of Petroleum Geology and Sedimentology, Faculty of Earth Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jedda, Saudi Arabia
d
Laboratoire de Gologie, Ecole Normale Suprieure, CNRS-URA 8538-1316, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
e
Institut de Gologie et Palontologie, Universit de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Suisse, Switzerland
f
Gosciences-Rennes, UMR 6118, Universit de Rennes 1, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France
b
c

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 2 December 2010
Received in revised form 15 April 2011
Accepted 23 May 2011
Available online 27 May 2011
Keywords:
Tebaga of Medenine
Southern Tunisia
Rifting
Upper Triassic
Lower-Middle Jurassic
East Mediterranean

a b s t r a c t
The Tebaga of Medenine is a puzzling structure situated at the northern edge of the Jeffara plain in southern Tunisia. It presents the unique outcropping marine Permian sequence in Africa as well as spectacular
angular unconformities related to Mesozoic tectono-sedimentary events. Many hypotheses have been
proposed to explain this structure but some questions still remain. We present the result of an integrated
study of the Mesozoic tectonic evolution of the region, based on new eld work and a reassessment of
some subsurface data. We propose a new structural hypothesis in which the Tebaga of Medenine is interpreted as resulting from large scale block tilting, mainly controlled by inherited EW major faults, the
Azizia fault system. These EW faults running along the Jeffara plain may represent inherited structural
features in relation with deep faulting in the Paleozoic substratum. This rifting occurring during late Triassic up to the end of early Jurassic, is nally integrated in the general frame of the East Mediterranean.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Southern Tunisia constitutes the northern edge of the Sahara
platform (Ghadames Basin), a tabular domain made up of Paleozoic
and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks (Fig. 1A and B). It includes the
Jeffara plain in which is exposed a south dipping monocline,
known in the literature as the Tebaga of Medenine. This EW
trending structure is situated close to the town of Medenine, east
of the Dahar plateau (Fig. 2). It intrigues geologists since the beginning of geological and petroleum exploration for three main
reasons:
(1) It constitutes the unique outcrop of marine Permian rocks in
Africa (Berkaloff, 1933; Newell et al. 1976; Khessibi, 1985).
(2) It exhibits a quite important dip (mean value of about
2030), contrasting with the almost tabular environment
of the Sahara platform.
(3) It recorded multiple unconformities and syn-sedimentary
deformations.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 134257364; fax: +33 134257350.
E-mail address: camille.raulin@u-cergy.fr (C. Raulin).
1464-343X/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2011.05.007

Previous geological studies focused either on the signicance of

the Permian basin located at the junction between the Paleozoic
Talemzane and Nefusa Arches (major Paleozoic arches of the
Sahara domain) and the Pelagian Sea (Fig. 1A and B) or on the
structural interpretation of the Tebaga as a large monocline
(Busson, 1972) or as an asymmetric faulted anticline (Mathieu,
1949; Bouaziz, 1995). Concerning the rst aspect, Stampi et al.
(1991, 2001) and Stampi and Borel (2002) use the existence of
a Permian marine basin below the Jeffara plain to defend their idea
of a late Permian rifting/drifting responsible for the opening of the
East Mediterranean basin. The topic of the present paper is not to
discuss directly this hypothesis but to replace the Tebaga of
Medenine in its geodynamic and structural context. This approach,
based on new eld investigations, a reassessment of existing
geological maps (geological maps of Tunisia (Ben Haj Ali et al.,
1985; Bouaziz et al., 1986; Zouari et al., 1987; Bouaziz and Mello,
1990; Bouaziz, 1990a,b, 1991, 1998) and Libya (El Hinnawy and
Cheshitev, 1975; Mann, 1975; Smetana, 1975; Antonovic, 1977;
Novovic, 1977; Zivanovic, 1977), a reassessment of previous works
(Mathieu, 1949; Busson, 1972; Bouaziz, 1995) and well correlations, allow us to revisit the structural signicance of the Tebaga
of Medenine.

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20

10

APULIA
IBERIA

ANATOLIA

SICILY
AFRICA

a
Malt

Pa

ia

gra

be

n Malt
a

it e

PELAGIAN SEA
Gulf
of
Gabes

Ash

-Tr

ipo

rra
ne
an
Rid
g

IONIAN SEA

tart

d
Me

gra
Lin
be n
osa
grabe
n

Sahel

Ionian
abyssal
basin

ent
rpm

North - South
Ax
is

llar

esca

nte

Gulf
of
Hammamet

TUNISIA

lita

nia

gra

ben
Sab

Talemzane Arch

rata

Nefusa Arch

h ba

sin

LIBYA

SIRT BASIN

ia

ng

gr

en

be

ab

ra

GHADAMES BASIN

ALGERIA

ab

Hu

ed

Ag

Fig. 2

30

30

Ma

Sirt-Pelagian system

Paleozoic arch

Sahara platform

Main overthrust

Jeffara plain

Thrust fault

Peri-Atlas basin (flexural basin)

Normal fault

Main grabens

Undifferentiated fault

Ionian oceanic basin

Main Anticline

be

Limit of the Messinian salt

ra

Atlas system

hg

da

ra

Sarir

grabe

am

ay

Tu
en

ab

gr

10

20

B
A S

N B
GHADAMES BASIN

NEFUSA ARCH

PELAGIAN SEA

Studied area
0

-20

M i d - cr u

-40
(km)

e ta
s ta l d

chm

ent

?
Cenozoic
Cretaceous

Mesozoic

50 km

Paleozoic

Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Carboniferous
Devonian
Silurian
Cambro-Ordovician

Proterozoic
(Continental crust)

Fig. 1. A = Map of the Central Mediterranean, locating the Jeffara basin at the junction between the Sahara platform, the Pelagian Sea and the Atlas system. The map is
modied from Jongsma et al. (1985, 1987), Chamot-Rooke et al. (2005), Rusk (2001), Casero and Roure (1994), Finetti (1982), and Burollet (1991). B = General cross-section
from the middle part of the Pelagian sea to the Sahara platform modied from Jongsma et al. (1985), Hallett (2002), Boote et al. (1998), Klett (2001), and Boccaletti and
Manetti (1978), in Frizon de Lamotte et al. (2011).

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C. Raulin et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences 61 (2011) 94104

Fig. 2. Geological map of the Jeffara Basin (Tunisia Libya), adapted from the geological maps of Tunisia (Ben Haj Ali et al., 1985; Bouaziz et al., 1986; Zouari et al., 1987 Bouaziz
and Mello, 1990; Bouaziz, 1990b, 1991, 1998) and Libya (El Hinnawy and Cheshitev, 1975; Mann, 1975; Smetana, 1975; Antonovic, 1977; Novovic, 1977; Zivanovic, 1977). A
and B locates the gure 5s cross-section.

2. Geological setting, previous interpretation

In southern Tunisia, the Dahar plateau is made up of Upper
Albian to Santonian shallow marine carbonate rocks dipping gently
to the south-west and overlain by the sand dunes of the Oriental
Great Erg (Fig. 2). This almost at domain rests unconformably
on the Permian to Lower Cretaceous sediments, which are cropping
out in the Jeffara plain. A complete Triassic to Lower Cretaceous
succession is known in the Tataouine area delimited by the Azizia
north dipping fault system, which crops out mostly in Libya, and
the Zemlet el Ghar south dipping fault (Fig. 2). Another set of fault,
known as the Jeffara fault system, is trending NWSE (Fig. 2)
(Gabtni et al., 2009). This direction played a major role during
the CretaceousPaleocene development of the Sirt Basin (Fig. 1),
which is characterized by a NESW direction of extension
(Jongsma et al., 1985; Klett, 2001). However, the Jeffara fault system is inherited from a long history and acted likely as a transform
direction during the lower Mesozoic (Burollet, 1991; Piqu et al.,
2002; Lazzez et al., 2008).
In the Jeffara plain, the approximately 2000 m thick sedimentary column is composed of (Fig. 3): a Lower and Middle Triassic
continental sandstone overlain by marls interbedded with
carbonates and evaporites of Upper Triassic age. An evaporitic
complex developed during the Liassic, followed by evaporites
increasingly replaced by shallow carbonates during the Middle
Jurassic up to the Oxfordian. Then, a major hiatus and/or

erosional gap separates the Jurassic succession from the siliciclastic deposits of the Continental Intercalaire, which is mainly
Barremian to Albian in the region of interest (Ouaja et al., 2002;
Bodin et al., 2010). Finally the Upper Cretaceous is dominated
by carbonate sedimentation.
From a structural point of view, the regional geological map
suggests the progressive truncation and piching out of the Triassic
to Early Cretaceous rocks toward the EW trending Tebaga of
Medenine, where Permian rocks are dipping southward (Fig. 2).
Busson (1972) interprets this particular geometry as the result of
vertical uplift during the Middle Triassic, prior to the progressive
subsidence and drowning of the Tebaga from late Triassic up to
the end of middle Jurassic. From this point of view, the interpretation of Busson (1972) contrasts with the previous work by Mathieu
(1949) who has suggested that the tilting observed in the Tebaga
was the result of folding related to a compressive tectonic event
predating the deposition of the Bathonian. More recently, Bouaziz
(1995) and Bouaziz et al. (2002), based on geological mapping,
claried the structural conguration of the Tebaga by interpreting
it as an asymmetric anticline with a steep northern limb, which
was subsequently cut out by steep normal faults. These authors dated a late Triassic folding event based on an Upper Carnian unconformity and interpreted the Tebaga as the result of large scale
right-lateral transcurrent movement along EW trends. However
such a Triassic compressive event is difcult to integrate in geodynamic context of southern Tunisia.

C. Raulin et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences 61 (2011) 94104

97

3.1. The progressive unconformity of Upper Triassic to Upper Dogger

rocks onto the southern limb of the Tebaga
The Jeffara plain, bordering the Dahar cliff (Fig. 2), exhibits an
almost complete Middle Triassic to Jurassic sedimentary pile,
which thins and nally truncates toward the Tebaga of Medenine,
where Upper Albian rocks (the so-called Vraconian) rests unconformably onto Permian rocks (Mathieu, 1949) (Fig. 4A). In this
region, a set of angular unconformities has been recognized in
the eld, and attributed to local or regional tectonic events. Two
of them are of particular importance: (1) in the Jebel Rehach, the
Rehach formation (Upper Carnian) rests unconformably onto the
Lower and Middle Triassic sandstones (Robaux and Choubert,
1941), and (2) just southeast of the Tebaga of Medenine, in Jebel
Tajera, Mathieu (1949) identies a spectacular unconformity between the Bathonian pp to Callovian limestone and Lower to Middle Triassic sediments (Fig. 4B). Within rocks older than Upper
Carnian, Bouaziz (1995) evidences a Norian unconformity. By contrast, Lower to Middle Triassic rocks rest conformably onto the
Permian sedimentary succession. Within rocks younger than the
Oxfordian and up to the Late Albian, other unconformities have
been recognized but they are related to younger geodynamic
events (Bodin et al., 2010), out of the scope of the present paper.
So, somewhere between Jebel Rehach and Jebel Tebaga of
Medenine, which are separated by a distance less than 80 km,
the whole Upper TriassicJurassic sedimentary succession (about
1600 m thick) disappears due to its progressive thinning and/or
disruption by syn-sedimentary faults. From the reconstruction proposed by Bouaziz (1995), completed by boreholes data, it appears
that the Lower Jurassic evaporitic complex is mainly conned in
the asymmetric graben bounded by the Azizia and Zemlet el Ghar
fault dening the Tataouine sub-basin (Fig. 5). By contrast, the
Middle Jurassic formation overows the limit of the Tataouine
sub-basin and onlaps the Tebaga of Medenine to the north as well
as the Garian High of Jebel Nefusa to the south-east (Fig. 5). So, at
large scale, the observed geometry is a half-graben bounded on the
south by the EW Azizia fault system. The wedge-like geometry of
the Jurassic units is related to progressive sedimentary inll during
the tilting of the Tebaga panel as a consequence of the normal
faulting along the Azizia fault system. In this context, the Zemlet
el Ghar fault is interpreted as a secondary feature cutting the
Tebaga panel. We propose to call this important feature the Tataouine tilted block (Fig. 5). The EW faults are truncated by NWSE
faults pertaining to the Jeffara system (Fig. 2) (Gabtni et al.,
2009). During the late Triassic-early Jurassic rifting, they could
have acted as transform faults delineating sub-basins exhibiting
some differences in sedimentary inlling.
3.2. Geometry and tectonic-sedimentation relationships along the
northern side of the Tebaga

Fig. 3. Synthetic lithostratigraphic column of the Tataouine sub-basin with the

maximum thickness assumed.

3. Structural analysis of the Tebaga system

We will rst examine the geometrical relationships between
Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic rocks at the scale of the Jeffara plain,
and then we will focus on the northern ank of the Tebaga.

As indicated above, the structural interpretation of the Tebaga is

controversial. The contentious question concerns the signicance
(or even the existence) of a northern limb allowing to interpret it
as a fold. At rst glance, the Tebaga appears as a large monocline
and this is conrmed at larger scale by the borehole TEB01 situated
just north of the Tebaga (Fig. 6), which encountered about 4000 m
of south dipping Upper Permian rocks (Mejri et al., 2006). However, the northern side of the Tebaga exhibits some interesting
structures showing that its geometry cannot result only from the
erosion of a south dipping monocline. Mathieu (1949) has been
the rst to propose the existence of more or less steeply north dipping Permian rocks north of the Tebaga crest, which led to his
interpretation of the Tebaga as a faulted anticline. This interpretation was rejected by Busson (1972), on the basis of general geometrical consideration, taking into account the progressive pinch out

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VRACONIAN

PERMIAN

SE

NW

B
BATHONIAN-OXFORDIAN

LOWER TRIASSIC

Fig. 4. Regional unconformities: (A) Unconformity between the Vraconian and the Permian at the western termination of the Tebaga of Medenine (N33 250 03.800
E10 100 04.800 ). (B) Unconformity between the Bathonian and the Triassic (N33 240 28.600 E10 250 24.600 ).

of the Mesozoic series, but without new precise tectonic study.

Within the Tebaga of Medenine, the key area is Merbah Crouz already discussed by Mathieu (1949) and Bouaziz (1995) (Fig. 6).
In order to present the geometry of this area, we present a 3D view
illustrating the structural relationships between Permian and
Mesozoic rocks (Fig. 7). More precisely, a photographic panorama
exhibits the following elements from southwest to northeast
(Fig. 8): (1) the main south dipping Tebaga panel (Permian rocks),
(2) a fault zone, (3) a north dipping panel made up of brecciated
Permian dolomite, (4) a Middle Jurassic cover made up of marl/
limestone alternation with a beautiful onlap geometry onto the
breccias, and (5) a top cover of Vraconian and younger rocks
equivalent to the ones observed along the Dahar cliff. Mathieu
(1949) did not recognize the sedimentary contact between the

Middle Jurassic and the brecciated Permian rocks (he draw a fault
in between), whereas Bouaziz (1995) has recognized the sedimentary nature of the contact but has interpreted the breccias as a sedimentary formation interbedded within the Middle Jurassic rocks.
The facts established in the eld can be integrated in a new interpretation (Fig. 9) in which the brecciated Permian rocks exposed
along the northern limb of the Tebaga results from fracturation
and faulting in a damaged zone along the normal faults corridors.
The Middle Jurassic sedimentary rocks are lling a drag syncline
developed north of the Tebaga fault zone. In the brecciated Permian dolomite, Bouaziz (1995) analyzed micro-faults within three
sites. All of them show NWSE to EW faults corresponding to
NESW and NS extensional deformation. The same tectonic regime has been found in the Jurassic and Cretaceous formations

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(km)

TATAOUINE TILTED BLOCK

TATAOUINE SUB-BASIN

TEBAGA FAULT

-1

?
?

TALEMZANE ARCH

-2

?
ZEMLET EL GHAR FAULT

-3

AZIZIA FAULT SYSTEM

0

10

20
Paleozoic

30

40

Permian and Lower Triassic

50

60
Middle Triassic

70

80

90

Upper Triassic

100
Liassic

110
Dogger

120
Malm

130

140

Lower Cretaceous

150

160

Upper Cretaceous

170

180

(km)

Projected wells

Fig. 5. General section across the Tataouine sub-basin (see location on Fig.2), built from the geological map of Zouari et al. (1987), and from boreholes and subsurface data.

overlying the Tebaga of Medenine in the Merbah Grouz area (see

below).
The absence of the Lower and Middle Triassic rocks in the
Tebaga area is indicative of erosion on the top of the Tataouine
tilted block, whereas the lack of the Lower Jurassic is likely significant of no-deposition at that time. In our model, the fault anking
the northern crest of the Tebaga has been developed at a late stage

of the larger Tataouine tilted block building and is probably due to

the accommodation of deformation close to the head of the block.
In such a context, it is known that the bending in the hanging wall
of a normal fault can generate minor compressive structures as reverse faults or folds (e.g. Roure et al., 1992). We propose such an
explanation to explain the minor folding observed within the
Permian at Bateun Beni Zid (Mathieu, 1949; Bouaziz, 1995).

Fig. 6. Geological map of the Tebaga of Medenine, modied from Zouari et al. (1987). The background is a composite view from Google Earth (Data SIO, NOAA, US, Navy, NGA,
GEBCO; 2011 Cnes/Spot Image; Image 2011 DigitalGlobe).

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Fig. 7. 3D geological view of the Merbah Grouz key area. This 3D view is a zoom of the Fig. 6.

4. Discussion
Our results allow us to propose a new kinematic and structural
conceptual model for the evolution of the Tataouine tilted block
and to discuss its geodynamic signicance in the frame of the transition between the Sahara platform and the East Mediterranean
domain as well as with the Atlas system.
4.1. Kinematic model for the Tataouine tilted block
In our model (Fig. 10), the Azizia EW fault system plays a major role controlling the south tilting of the Tataouine block as well
as its sedimentary inlling. Block tilting has been mainly active
during the late Triassic and Liassic. By contrast, the geometry of
the Middle Jurassic deposits is rather the one of a sag basin due
to thermal subsidence post-dating the main extensional episode
(Patriat et al., 2003). However, the geometry of the Middle Jurassic
along the northern side of the Tebaga shows that extensional
deformation continued at that time at least along secondary faults
as the one fringing the Tebaga to the north. Different studies in the
foreland of the Atlas system, as in the Chotts basins reconstruction,
outline the role of EW normal faults in the control of basin inlling during the late TriassicJurassic times (e.g. Ben Ferjani et al.,
1990; Soussi, 2002). Otherwise paleo-stress eld reconstructions
at the scale of the Mesozoic platforms in southern Tunisia are in
agreement with NS stretching controlled by EW striking synsedimentary faults controlling grabens and hemigrabens (Bouaziz
et al., 2002).
4.2. The question of the Permian basin predating the Tataouine tilted
block
The Tataouine tilted block developed in a basin lled by more
than 4000 m of Upper Permian sediments (see a synthesis in Mejri

et al. (2006)), and a more or less complete Paleozoic pile. To

explain such a thick Permian sequence, Stampi et al. (2001) proposed the existence of a Late Permian rifting phase preceding the
onset of sea-oor spreading in the East Mediterranean. In the model defended by these authors, the Triassic series are interpreted as
post-rift sequences overstepping the Talemzane Arch (Fig. 1),
which they consider as a Permian rift shoulder. In contrast, our
work documents an active block tilting during the late Triassic
early Jurassic in the Jeffara basin and bordering sectors. In fact,
Permian rifting cannot be really recognized in the Jeffara despite
the existence of syn-sedimentary little normal faults in the Tebaga
(Bouaziz et al., 2002). Together with the Lower and Middle Triassic,
the Permian sequence could represent a post-rift inll relative to
an older rifting phase. However, in any case we show the existence
of a renewed rifting activity during the late Triassic to late Jurassic.
Further work is required to constrain this model.
4.3. Integration in the geodynamic context of the Mediterranean
The Jeffara basin occupies a key position at the transition between the Sahara platform, the Central Mediterranean and the
southern front of the Atlas system (Fig. 1). It is located, close to
the Ionian Basin, which is interpreted as an oceanic remnant of
the southernmost branch of the Neo-Tethys (Chamot-Rooke
et al., 2005) This oceanic or sub-oceanic crust has never been dated, which makes very controversial the age of the oceanic spreading (Stampi et al., 1991; Dercourt et al. 1993; Ricou, 1994;
Robertson et al., 1996; Dercourt et al. 2000; Barrier and Vrielynck,
2008). By reference to the Ionian Basin, the Jeffara represents a
very proximal margin. However, the two basins are separated by
the so-called Pelagian Sea, which recorded a complex evolution
including a huge Cenomanian to Paleocene extensional deformation along NWSE faults (Jongsma et al., 1985; Khomsi et al.,
2009), connected southeastward to the Cretaceous Sirt System

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NE

SW
5
1

2
PERMIAN

APTIAN
LATE HAUTERIVIAN-BARREMIA

UPPER BATHONIAN-CALLOVIAN

20 m

NE

SW

APTIAN
LATE HAUTERIVIAN-BARREMIAN

UPPER BATHONIAN-CALLOVIAN

3
PERMIAN

Brecciated Permian rocks

Onlap of the Upper Bathonian-Callovian level onto

brecciated Permian rocks

5m

Carbonates and sandstones alternation

Fig. 8. The Merbah Grouz key area. Panoramas showing the onlap of the Upper BathonianCallovian level onto brecciated Permian rocks from the Tebaga of Medenine.

Fig. 9. Interpretation of the Merbah Grouz key area (see explanation in the text).

(Fig. 1). The volume of sediments accumulated during this period

in the offshore domain (more than 10 km thick?) superimposed
to the previous rifting tectonic history (Fig. 1) makes quite difcult
to discuss possible relationships between the late Triassicearly
Jurassic extensional deformation observed in the Jeffara and the
subsequent drifting in the Ionian Basin.
In the East Mediterranean, the late Triassicearly Jurassic evolution of the margin seems similar to the one observed in Jeffara and
the relationships with the Herodotus deep basin are not masked by
subsequent complex evolution as in the Central Mediterranean.
Garfunkel (1998) and Keeley (1994) have realized a synthesis dealing with the rifting phases responsible of the Platform reorganisation at that time in the Levant and in the Western Desert

respectively. According to Garfunkel (1998) and Gardosh et al.

(2010), the main rifting occurred in late Triassicearly Jurassic
times at right angle to the Levant margin (i.e. NESW), while in
the Western Desert much of the faulting should be Liassic in age
and EW trending (Keeley, 1994) (Fig. 11). In fact, no deep water
basin has been recorded in these regions before the early Jurassic
(Garfunkel and Derin, 1984). So the late Triassicearly Jurassic
can be considered as a major step in the development of the
Central and East Mediterranean.
On the other hand, extensional deformation is recorded at that
time, in the Chane des Chotts (Hlaiem, 1999; Soussi, 2002;
Frizon de Lamotte et al., 2009), immediately north of the Jeffara
basin (Fig. 2), as well as in the whole Atlas system of northern

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Fig. 10. Conceptual kinematic model of the Tataouine tilted block showing the late development of the Tebaga of Medenine as a secondary tilted block.

C. Raulin et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences 61 (2011) 94104

103

Fig. 11. Paleotectonic map of the South-Tethys margin for Callovian times. The map is modied after Guiraud et al. (2005), Barrier and Vrielynck (2008), Ricou (1994), Keeley
(1994), Gardosh et al. (2010), Frizon de Lamotte et al. (2011).

Africa (e.g. Frizon de Lamotte et al., 2000, 2009; Soussi, 2002;

Bracne and Frizon de Lamotte, 2002; Khomsi et al., 2009), which
is inherited from a rim basin bounding the margin of the Alpine
Tethys (Fig. 11). So the Jeffara basin can be considered as the common proximal margin of both Neo-Tethys and Alpine Tethys
(Fig. 11).
5. Conclusion
This work allows us to propose a new tectonic model for the
Tebaga of Medenine. In this model, the Tebaga is interpreted as
the emerging part of a large tilted block, the Tataouine tilted block
controlled by the EW Azizia fault system. The extensional deformation responsible for the formation of the Tataouine tilted block
is recorded by syn-rift inlling of late Triassic to early Jurassic age
in the Tataouine sub-basin, the Tebaga itself being probably
emerged at that time (Fig. 10). During the middle Jurassic, which
is likely dominated by thermal subsidence, the extensional deformation continued as shown by the development of the northTebaga fault, which is sealed by BathonianCallovian sediments
conserved in a top-fault drag syncline (Fig. 7). In such a context,
the NWSE Jeffara fault system (Fig. 2) may have acted as normal-transcurrent faults intersecting obliquely and shifting the former syn-rift basins. This may explain the rapid change in the
Triassic thickness from each side of the fault system as presented
in many previous works (Bouaziz, 1995; Gabtni et al., 2009). Such
a tectonic scenario appears nally quite close to the one proposed
in the East Mediterranean as well as in the Atlas system.
Acknowledgments
This paper beneted from discussions with many colleagues: C.
Blanpied (TOTAL, Paris), J.L. Rubino (TOTAL, Pau), R. Bibonne
(TOTAL, Pau), S. Hadouth (TOTAL, Pau), A. Virgone (TOTAL, Pau),
P. Duringer (University of Strasbourg), J. Pelletier (TOTAL, Pau)
and M. Schuster (University of Strasbourg). We thank F. Roure
and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful review. C. Raulin
acknowledges UCP for PhD Scholarship. N. Mouchot acknowledges
TOTAL for a PostDoc position. This paper is a contribution of the
ANR TOPOAFRICA. It is also a contribution of Groupe Recherche

Industrie Marge Sud-Tethys, a research agreement between

TOTAL on the one hand and lEcole Normale Suprieure (ENS),
lUniversit Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (UPMC) and lUniversit de Cergy-Pontoise (UCP) on the other hand.
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