Travertine fissure ridges of Hammam Bou Hadjar, Ain Temouchent, Northwest Algeria: a North African example of a tectonically controlled travertine deposit

Algeria is well endowed with travertine deposits (Naimi et al. 2019). The region of Hammam Bou Hadjar, located between Latitudes 35.23° to 35.46° N and Longitudes 0.85° to 1.09° E in the Northwest of Algeria near Ain Temouchent, is characterized by several still active thermal springs (with temperatures ranging from 35 °C for the Palmier Spring to 72 °C for the “Rocher” hot spring) associated with spectacular fissure-ridge type travertine deposits up to 10-m thick and 600-m long (Fig. 1). They correspond to elongated carbonate bodies with a very remarkable crestal fissure. The length of this ridge is a function of the length of the fractures which gave rise to it, and the height is a function of the number and the flow rate of the thermal springs associated with these fractures (Henchiri et al. 2017)