[12] The after-effects of the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event are also very present in the marginal marine strata of the Tafraout Group, with the Toksine Section recording a dramatic collapse on the scale of the Tethys of the neritic carbonate system.

[8] Local tectonic activity, mainly due to seismic events in the Tethyan region, influenced the formation, causing erosion of older Paleozoic layers.

[23] Informally know as "Marnes chocolat" in the Azilal region, and represents a continental to marginal marine unit made up of red-brown marls, silts (microsandstones) and conglomerates with centimetric quartz dragees.

[24] It ends with supratidal deposits made of coarse sandstone gradually changing to red Marls with "fluer" structures and locally to paleosols with fluvial decametric channeling lenses.

[24] On the south-southwest edge of the basin towards west of Azilal (Jbel Til-Jbel Amersiaz basin and part of the M'Goun syncline), Guettioua, Demnate, Telouet, Toundoute & Marrakesh, under the Bajocian limestones or directly under the Bajocian?-Bathonian Guettioua Formation, develops a thick a red detrital section in which pelites, sandstones and conglomerates with centimeter-sized quartz balls alternate and breccias (locally called " Wazzant Formation") with non dissolved Liassic limestone elements.

[7] The Tafraout Group was formed on the Moroccan Carbonate Platform during a sea-level rise in the Early Toarcian, linked to the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event, at a palaeolatitude between 19°-20°N, around the same latitude as modern Mauritania or Cuba, situated between ancient geological regions like the West Moroccan Arch, the Anti-Atlas and the Sahara craton, developed after a major sea regression, with red clays and conglomerates filling small basins in the Atlas region.

[28][29] Two main stages mark the area's evolution: during the Lower Toarcian, deposition patterns from the earlier Pliensbachian continued, followed by terrigenous materials filling the basins and stopping temporally the carbonate production.

This terrestrial lithology is mostly found in the small basins in tearing in the Atlas of Telouet, Toundoute, Afourer and Azilal, having the Demnat Accident as the major structural element in this last sector.

[24] On the Amezraï Formation basin the fauna is composed by brachiopods such as Soaresirhynchia bouchardi, S. babtisrensis and Pseudogibbirhynchia jurensis that corroborate the Earliest Toarcian age for it and adjacent layers.

[8] The Tafraout Group covers most of the W High Atlas, surrounded by highlands that probably hosted dry cool (10.6 °C) to humid climate (12.30 °C), with a succession rain tundra to wet forest environments, as proven by samples from coeval layers in the External Rif Chain.

[31] The Continental/Tidal Flat Azilal Formation was deposited in coastal environments influenced by rivers, tidal flats, and paralic settings, rwith reworked material and in Toundoute unique interbedded Explosive eruption-type volcanic material, generally constituting more than half of the detrital components, showing clear carbonate recrystallization, suggesting that these fragments were still at high temperature during deposition and, therefore, contemporaneous with the sedimentation, probably as a result of early activity in the local South-Atlasic Fault.

[29][24] The flow of the fluvial-washed sediments take place in a E-NE direction, being moved to the layers of the "Amezräi", Tagoudite & Tafraout Formations, as well are found on fluviatile channels inside the own rocks of this unit.

[33] Sedimentary features include raindrop impacts and ripple marks indicating channel/floodplain type fluvial system, with sand-filled channels abundant in plant roots (mostly located in fine limestone, probably from the channel margins), along with evidence of ephemeral Palustrine (Sabkhas, Chotts) episodes in the form of carbonate bodies (Caliche or Calcrete levels), intercalated with conglomerate under an arid environment, as marks the development of gypsum, particularly in areas like Azilal, Toundoute and Telouet.

[34] Specifically, the Anti-Atlas shows processes of tectonic uplift, overburden erosion, which, combined with the concentration of coarse siliciclastic material in the western part of the central High Atlas (absent in the east), suggest that this area was the source of the altered Lower Toarcian sediments, allowing the tracing of the fluvial channels.

[3][29] In the Early Toarcian Beni Mellal, the Amezraï minbasin or the Dadès area evolved first as an carbonate environment within the Tafraout Formation, with diverse marine fauna, including coral reefs and Plicatostylidae bivalves.

[3] The first member of the "Tafraout Platform" (="Amezraï") consists of sandstones, red marls, and oolitic carbonate sand bars, interpreted as deposits in a transitional subtidal to supratidal environment.

However, alternating grey and green marls with hemipelagic and ammonite-bearing sequences on the hanging wall suggest open marine conditions and distal turbidites, similar to the lowermost Agoudim 1 Formation.

[8] The third member was deposited within the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event and is characterized by a monotonous organism spectrum, pointing to restrictive living conditions, and its little thickness in Assif Tafraout indicates a high subsidence rate, estimated at 0.4 mm/year.

Finally, the fourth member records the return of the carbonate factory in the Middle Toarcian-Aalenian, with a thickness of 680 meters in the Assif Tafraout profile, is dominated by corals, bivalves, and echinoderms, reflecting deposition on a continuously deepening platform where subsidence outpaced sedimentation.

Inclined layers, fine conglomerates, and plant remains in the lower part indicate a nearby supply area, while the depositional environment ranges from supratidal to subtidal, recording microlagoons between coral patch reefs marked by the presence of micrite.

[8] The Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE) locally intensified Tropical storms, destroying older carbonate platforms and increasing siliciclastic deposits, which contributed to the formation of the Tafrout environment.

[30][36] Additionally, after the T-OAE, ecosystems in areas like Jebel Toksine began to recover with new carbonate activity and diverse marine life, including bivalves and other reef organisms.

[37] Diapir movement shaped the surrounding rock layers, while local sedimentation reflects changes in climate, including wetter periods linked to increased erosion.

Sharp geological boundaries mark the closure of salt walls during diapir growth, and ancient environments here resembled modern shallow waters like the Red Sea.

[46] Beds with large accumulations of unidentified Ostracod valves on an endemic thin level of green marl are found at the Beni-Mellal area (Adoumaz & Col de Ghnim outcrops).

[8] Multiple echinoderm remains, including Crinoid articulated and fragmentary specimens and indeterminate echinoid fragments, are know from several localities, usually associated with large coral bioherms or sea trangressions.

[87] At the top of the Azilal Formation at the Idemrane geosite, unidentified pieces of wood fossils of variable sizes were recovered (largest over 20 cm in length) showing traces of iron oxides.

[13] Phytoclasts, spores, pollen and Tasmanites algae indicate that the palaeoenvironment of the lower Toarcian Amellago area was likely proximal continental shelf with a high terrestrial input, and notorious influence of brackish water in the depositional environment.