Using low-temperature thermochronology on apatite and zircon crystals, we show that the western Reguibat Shield, located in the northern part of the West African Craton, experienced significant cooling and heating events between Jurassic and present times. The obtained apatite fission track ages range between 49 and 102 Ma with mean track lengths varying between 11.6 and 13.3 μm and Dpar values between 1.69 and 3.08 μm. Zircon fission track analysis yielded two ages of 159 and 118 Ma. Apatite (U–Th)/He uncorrected single-grain ages range between 76 and 95 Ma. Thermal inverse modelling indicates that the Reguibat Shield was exhumed during the Early Cretaceous, Late Cretaceous, Palaeocene–Eocene and Quaternary. These exhumation events were coeval with regional tectonic and geodynamic events, and were probably driven by a combined effect of plate tectonics and mantle dynamics.

Very preterm infants, < 32 weeks gestation, are at high risk for brain injury. Cognitive deficits are often diagnosed at a later stage, since there are no available predictive biomarkers in the neonatal period. The maturation of specific white matter (WM) brain structures is considered a promising early-stage biomarker. With Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) tractography, an in vivo and non-invasive evaluation of these anatomical structures is possible. We developed an automatic tractography segmentation pipeline, which allows for maturation assessment of the different segmented WM structures. Our segmentation pipeline is atlas-based, specifically designed for premature neonates at term equivalent age. In order to better make use of global information from tractography, all processing is done in the fiber domain. Segmented fiber bundles are further automatically quantified with respect to volume and anisotropy. Of the 24 automatically segmented neonatal tractographies, only three contained more than 30% mislabeled fibers. Results show no dependency to WM pathology. By automatically segmenting WM, we reduced the user-dependency and bias characteristic of manual methods. This study assesses the structure of the neonatal brain based on an automatic WM segmentation in the fiber domain method using DTI tractography data.

The Anti-Atlas belt of Morocco extends ENE–WSW, over more than 600 km, from the Atlantic margin in the west to the interior of the African plate in the east. It exhibits Precambrian rocks outcropping as basement inliers and surrounded by marine Ediacaran–Cambrian sequences around the axis of the mountain range. The belt, which has for a long time been interpreted as of Variscan age, is now revealed to have experienced major vertical movements through Mesozoic and Cenozoic times. Thereby, the Anti-Atlas domain appears to be affected by two episodes of exhumation separated by an episode of subsidence. The initial episode occurred in the Late Triassic and led to the exhumation of 7.5–10.5 km of crustal rocks by the end of the Middle Jurassic (ca. 160–150 Ma). The following phase resulted in 1–3 km of basement subsidence and occurred during the Late Jurassic and most of the Early Cretaceous. The basement rocks were then slowly brought to the surface after experiencing 2–3.5 km of exhumation throughout the Late Cretaceous and the Cenozoic. The timing of these episodes of exhumation and subsidence coincides with major tectonic and thermal events in relation with the evolution of the Atlantic and Tethys Oceans, indicating that the effects of their rifting and drifting extended beyond their presumed margins.