Detrital zircon U–Pb ages in the Rif Belt (northern Morocco): Paleogeographic implications
Description
This dataset include detrital zircon U-Pb zircon age distributions in Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks from the External Rif and Maghrebian Flysch Complex (Rif belt, Morocco) to test if they from part of the north-western African paleomargin, or if they are related to the Alpine Allochtonous Internal terranes. The data set show ages in the text, tables, and figures. The ages are quoted as 206Pb/238U dates for zircons younger than 1500 Ma and as 207Pb/206Pb dates for zircons older than 1500 Ma. Figures include the U–Pb concordia and the youngest zircon population plots for the studied samples. Zircons were separated using standard heavy-liquid and magnetic techniques in the Department of Geodynamics of the University of Granada. Grains were handpicked and mounted in epoxy, polished, cleaned and gold coated for cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging on a Mira3 FESEM instrument at the John de Laeter Centre (JdLC), Curtin University, Perth, Australia. LA-ICP-MS data collection was performed at the GeoHistory Facility, JdLC, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.