Crust-mantle accommodation of Africa-Eurasia convergence in the NW-Moroccan margin

Recent studies carried out in NW-Africa indicate prominent variations of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) depth. The studies combine gravity, geoid, surface heat flow, elevation and seismic data along a profile running from the Tagus Abyssal Plain to the Sahara Platform and crossing the Gorringe Bank, the NW Moroccan Margin and the Atlas Mountains. The resulting mantle density anomalies show a prominent lithospheric mantle thickening beneath the margin (LAB >200 km-depth) followed by thinning beneath the Atlas Mountains (LAB ~90 km-depth). A combination of mantle underthrusting due to oblique convergence together with a viscous dripping fed by lateral mantle dragging can explain the imaged lithospheric structure. The model is consistent with a strong decoupled crustal-mantle mechanical response to the Africa-Eurasia convergence and results in positive/negative dynamic topography in regions with thickened/thinned crust. In this work we go a step further analysing, by means of dynamic numerical simulations, the viscous dragging and the Rayleigh-Taylor-like process. Our goal is to understand the initial lithospheric mantle structure suitable to produce the inferred dynamic process. In addition, we study the key factors controlling the deformation of the lithospheric mantle when submitted to convergence. Using the numerical framework Underworld to carry out the simulations we found the key factors controlling the process. Chief among these factors are lithospheric/mantle viscosity ratio and initial mantle and crustal structure. Nevertheless, the process is not very sensitive to the usual power law parameters for mantle rocks (activation energy and volume, power law exponent, etc.), indicating the importance of the rheology of the upper half of the lithosphere, where the power law is not active. These results allow us to speculate on the past and future evolution of the NW-Moroccan margin which could show the appropriated conditions for subduction initiation.