Relationships among North Africans: The general view is that Eurasians mostly descend from a single group of humans that dispersed outside of sub-Saharan Africa around 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. Present-day North Africans share a majority of their ancestry with present-day Near Easterners, but not with sub-Saharan Africans. To investigate this conundrum, Van de Loosdrecht et al. sequenced high-quality DNA obtained from bone samples of seven individuals from Taforalt in eastern Morocco dating from the Later Stone Age, about 15,000 years ago. The Taforalt individuals were found to be most closely related to populations from the Near East (Natufians), with a third of their ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. No evidence was found for introgression with western Europeans, despite attribution to the Iberomaurusian culture. None of the present-day or ancient Holocene African groups are a good proxy for the sub-Saharan genetic component. Science , this issue p. 548

The Middle Atlas Volcanic Field (MAVF) covers an area of 1500 km², with a total erupted volume of solid products (e.g., Dense Rock Equivalent or DRE) estimated to be more than 80 km³. The MAVF comprises 87 monogenetic basaltic volcanoes of Tertiary-Quaternary age as scoria cones (71%) and maars (29%). These monogenetic basaltic volcanoes have various morphologies (e.g., circular, semi-elliptic, elliptic in map views). They can be isolated or form clustered monogenetic complexes. They are largely grouped in the Middle Atlas, in an intraplate geotectonic context forming two distinct major alignments (N160–170° and N40–50°), each closely associated with regional structural elements. By the best estimates, the preserved bulk pyroclastic products do not exceed 0.7 km³, and they show large textural and componentry diversity (e.g., bedded/unbedded, coarse/fine, dense/scoriaceous fallout and pyroclastic density current deposit, etc.). Lava flows also demonstrate great variety of preserved surface textures, including pāhoehoe, ‘a’ā, and clastogenic types. Morphostructural features of lava flows linked to lava flow dynamics have also been recognized, and the presence of hornitos, columnar jointed basaltic flow units, lava tubes, tumuli, and clastogenic lava flows have been recognized and mapped. Some half-sectioned dykes expose interior parts of magmatic shallow feeding pipes. The current morphology of the volcanoes of the MAVF reflects various syn- and post-eruptive processes, including (1) erosional features due to weathering, (2) gravitational instability during and after volcanic activity, (3) vegetation impact, and (4) successive burial of lava flows. The documented volcanic features of this typical monogenetic volcanic field form the core of the region’s geoheritage elements and are considered to be unique in the new African geoheritage context. Hence, they will likely form the basis of future geotourism, geoeducation, and geoconservation ventures.

This study aims to investigate the groundwater vulnerability concerning potentially toxic elements in the vicinity of the abandoned iron mine of Ouixane (Morocco). A modified DRASTIC method (DRSTI) is proposed with satisfactory results. High vulnerability zones represent 40% of the study area, while medium and low vulnerability represent, respectively, 42% and 18% of the study area. These results have been validated by groundwater geochemical analyses of potentially toxic elements carried out in the framework of previous studies in the same area. Thus, the superposition of the waste rock and tailings map with the vulnerability map showed that the latter is located in areas of high to medium vulnerability and therefore constitutes the main cause of the deterioration of the geochemical quality of groundwater. Otherwise, the vulnerability method showed that the main parameters that significantly affect the vulnerability are: the depth of water (D), net recharge (R), and the unsaturated zone (I), while the other parameters do not significantly affect the model used and do not have much influence on the results of the vulnerability assessment. The method used allowed us to locate the most vulnerable areas to potentially metallic toxic elements pollution resulting from the abandoned iron mine of Ouixane, and it constitutes a tool for decision support and for developing effective action plans to mitigate and monitor the effects of the transfer of potentially toxic elements pollution to groundwater.

Neogene-Quaternary volcanism in Northwest Africa outlines a NE-SW intraplate volcanic corridor stretching from the Anti-Atlas through the Atlas system to the Rif and western Algeria. Volcanic activity records a transition from Miocene calc-alkaline to shoshonitic eruptive products associated with the Alboran domain, toward widespread Plio-Quaternary alkaline sodic magmatism. This evolution is linked to lithospheric thinning along the Moroccan Hot Line, where asthenospheric upwelling is enhanced by slab rollback, delamination, and edge-driven convection at the West African craton boundary. The main volcanic provinces (Anti-Atlas, Middle Atlas, Central Morocco, Saka-Guilliz, Eastern Rif, and Oujda Mount-Oranie) display diverse volcanic architectures, from stratovolcanoes and dome complexes to monogenetic fields and lava plateaus. Magmas are dominated by basanites, nephelinites, and alkaline basalts, locally evolving into trachytes and phonolites through fractional crystallization and limited crustal assimilation, and commonly showing Ocean Island Basalt; Hight-μ mantle component, characterized by a high 238U/204U (OIB/HIMU) signatures and mantle xenoliths. Fault-controlled ascent emphasizes the importance of inherited structures, while regionally elevated geothermal gradients highlight persistent thermal anomalies. Together, these features document progressive mantle-lithosphere interaction and establish a unified framework for the tectono-magmatic evolution of Northwest Africa since the Miocene.