The overall aim of the project was to quantify the growth of the Atlas, a mountain chain in a region that is characterized by spatially and temporally uniform, large-scale, plate tectonic forces due to the convergence between Europe and Africa. The choice of the study area was such that tectonism is regionally the single most significant varying parameter. The results of our study have permitted to shed light on the most recent and the long-term evolution of the Atlas system in Western Morocco through the production of a very extensive database of U-Th/He thermochronological ages on apatite (85-45°C) and zircon (200-160°C). The methodological approach was novel, combining quantitative analyses in isotope geochemistry, geomorphology, tectonics and sedimentology to decipher with precision what is/are the process(es) responsible for shaping of the Earth's surface in northern Africa. Our results have local but also large-scale geodynamic implications, allowing Pangea break-up, rift inversion, recent uplift, lithospheric thinning, structural inheritance to be quantified and detailed for the first time in northern Africa.