First inventory and assessment of the Geoheritage of Zagora province from the project Bani Geopark (South-Eastern Morocco)

Abstract

© 2020 The Geologists' Association Zagora Province in south eastern Morocco is characterised by its desert environment as well as its culture, people, biodiversity and geology inherited from the Anti-Atlas chain. But the value of this geodiversity is not widely recognised. Ordovician and Quaternary deposits are the most dominant outcrops in the province. Within the former, the Fezouata Shales constitute an information source for palaeontologists about the marine life explosion at the beginning of the Ordovician Period. Taking into account this important scientific value, the fossiliferous Fezouata Formation presents a global geoheritage with a geo-educational potential. In addition, the Ordovician and the Quaternary deposits in Zagora Province provide a rich geodiversity of scientific, educational and tourism interests. In order to protect and to promote this geoheritage, an inventory of geosites and geodiversity sites is being established, which should serve as a database helping the regional authorities to properly manage the geoheritage within the framework of the future aspiring Bani Geopark. In the present paper an assessment of the geosites’ scientific value was established using a quantitative methodology in order to obtain numerical scores. Adding the quantitative assessment of the degradation degree has resulted in the fossiliferous geosites from Fezouata Formation being selected as the most vulnerable areas in need of geoconservation programmes and protection strategies.