Terra Nova, 24, 505–512, 2012 Abstract The subducted North Maghrebian passive margin was exhumed in the Tortonian (11–7 Ma) by an upper‐crustal brittle‐ductile extensional detachment and brittle low‐angle normal faults in a continental subduction transform setting. The Temsamane detachment in the eastern Rif is defined by a ductile shear zone approximately 100‐m thick with a low‐angle ramp geometry that cuts down into the Temsamane fold‐nappe stack. The shear zone shows south‐westward kinematics and separates lower‐greenschist (≈400 °C) metapelites of the Temsamane units below from the anchizone and diagenetic rocks (<300–200 °C) of the Ketama‐Aknoul units above. To the east, the detachment becomes brittle, branching into a listric‐fan that cuts through 10–6 Ma sediments and volcanoclastics in the Tres Forcas cape. Both the North Maghrebian and the South Iberian subducted passive margins were exhumed in the Betic and Rif branches of the Gibraltar arc by SW‐directed brittle‐ductile detachments during the late Miocene in an oblique collisional setting.

The transition between antigorite‐serpentinite and chlorite‐harzburgite at Cerro del Almirez (Betic Cordillera, Southern Spain) exceptionally marks in the field the front of antigorite breakdown at high pressure (~16–19 kbar) and temperature (~650°C) in a paleosubducted serpentinite. These ultramafic lithologies enclose three types of metarodingite boudins of variable size surrounded by metasomatic reaction rims. Type 1 Grandite‐metarodingite (garnet+chlorite+diopside+titanite±magnetite±ilmenite) mainly crops out in the antigorite‐serpentinite domain and has three generations of garnet. Grossular‐rich Grt‐1 formed during rodingitization at the seafloor (<2 kbar, ~150–325°C, ~FMQ buffer). During subduction, the alternating growth of Grt‐2b (richer in andradite and pyralspite components than Grt‐1) and Grt‐3 (very rich in andradite component) reflects the change from internally buffered metamorphic conditions (>10 kbar, ~350–650°C, ~FMQ buffer) to influx events of oxidizing fluids (fO2 ~HM buffer) released by brucite breakdown in the host antigorite‐serpentinite. Type 2 Epidote‐metarodingite (epidote+diopside+titanite±garnet) derives from Type 1 and is the most abundant metarodingite type enclosed in dehydrated chlorite‐harzburgite. Type 2 formed by increasing μSiO2 (from −884 to −860 kJ/mol) and decreasing μCaO (from −708 to −725 kJ/mol) triggered by the flux of high amounts of oxidizing fluids during the high‐P antigorite breakdown in serpentinite. The growth of Grt‐4, with low‐grandite and high‐pyralspite components, in Type 2 metarodingite accounts for progressive reequilibration of garnet with changing intensive variables. Type 3 Pyralspite‐metarodingite (garnet+epidote+amphibole+chlorite±diopside+rutile) crops out in the chlorite‐harzburgite domain and formed at peak metamorphic conditions (16–19 kbar, 660–684°C) from Type 2 metarodingite. This transformation caused the growth of a last generation of pyralspite‐rich garnet (Grt‐5) and the recrystallization of diopside into tremolitic amphibole at decreasing fO2 and μCaO (from −726 to −735 kJ/mol) and increasing μMgO (from −630 to −626 kJ/mol) due to chemical mixing between the metarodingite and the reaction rims. The different bulk Fe3+/FeTotal ratios of antigorite‐serpentinite and chlorite‐harzburgite, and of the three metarodingite types, reflect the highly heterogeneous oxidation state of the subducting slab and likely point to the transfer of localized oxidized reservoirs, such as metarodingites, into the deep mantle.

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Detrital zircon U-Pb age distributions in Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks from the External Rif and Maghrebian Flysch Complex (including the so-called Mauretanian internal flysch units) are very similar, strongly suggesting that the External Rif and the entire Maghrebian Flysch Complex were part of the same NW African paleomargin.

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