Contribution of Analogue Modelling for the Understanding of the Saharan Atlas Structure

B18 CONTRIBUTION OF ANALOGUE MODELING FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE SAHARAN ATLAS STRUCTURE Abstract 1 The Saharan Atlas (Algeria) is an intracratonic mountain belt which developed at the southern margin of Tethys. It is 650 km long and varies in width from 90 to 140 km. Topographic elevations reach 2 000 m. It forms part of the Atlas orogenic system which occurs in North Africa from Morocco to Tunisia. During the Mesozoic up to 10 000 m of mixed continental and marine sediments were deposited unconformably above the Palaeozoic basement. This basement contains NE-SW and NW-SE Variscan fabrics and older