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Glauberite is the most common mineral in the ancient sodium sulphate deposits in the Mediterranean region, although its origin, primary or diagenetic, continues to be a matter of debate. A number of glauberite deposits of Oligocene-Miocene age in Spain display facies characteristics of sedimentologic significance, in particular those in which a glauberite-halite association is predominant. In this context, a log study of four boreholes in the Zaragoza Gypsum Formation (Lower Miocene, Ebro Basin, NE Spain) was carried out. Two glauberite-halite lithofacies associations, A and B, are distinguished: association (A) is composed of bedded cloudy halite and minor amounts of massive and clastic glauberite; association (B) is made up of laminated to thin-bedded, clear macrocrystalline, massive, clastic and contorted lithofacies of glauberite, and small amounts of bedded cloudy halite. Transparent glauberite cemented by clear halite as well as normal-graded and reverse-graded glauberite textures are common. This type of transparent glauberite is interpreted as a primary, subaqueous precipitate. Gypsum, thenardite or mirabilite are absent in the two associations. The depositional environment is interpreted as a shallow perennial saline lake system, in which chloride brines (association A) and sulphate-(chloride) brines (association B) are developed. The geochemical study of halite crystals (bromine contents and fluid inclusion compositions) demonstrates that conditions for co-precipitation of halite and glauberite, or for precipitation of Na-sulphates (mirabilite, thenardite) were never fulfilled in the saline lake system. Primary gypsum (G) refers to the deduced original mineral association. The presence at present of secondary gypsum in all the formations is omitted. 444 J. M. Salvany et al.

The Guadiamar river flows from the southern Iberian Massif to the Guadalquivir foreland basin, SW Spain. Its drainage basin displays asymmetries in the stream network, the arrangement of alluvial terraces and the configuration of the trunk river valley. The stream network asymmetry was studied using morphometric measures of transverse topographic symmetry, asymmetry factor and drainage basin shape. The alluvial terraces were studied through the lithologic logs of more than a hundred boreholes and field mapping. The morphometric methods demonstrate a regional tectonic tilting toward the SSE, causing both the migration of the Guadiamar river toward the east and the migration of the Guadiamar tributaries toward the southwest. As a consequence of the Guadiamar river migration, an asymmetric valley developed, with a steep eastern margin caused by river dissection, and a gentle western margin where the main alluvial deposits are found. The ages obtained using the 14 C analysis of samples from several alluvial deposits show that the river migration, and thus tilting, has occurred during the Holocene as well as earlier in the Quaternary. This interpretation revises the Guadiamar longitudinal fault assumed by previous studies.

This paper presents new litho, chrono and magnetostratigraphic data from cores of 23 exploratory boreholes drilled in the Abalario and marshlands areas of the lower Guadalquivir basin (the western sector of the Guadalquivir foreland basin, SW of Spain). The lithologic logs of these boreholes identify four main sedimentary formations, namely: Almonte Sands and Gravels, Lebrija Clays and Gravels, Marismas Clays and Abalario Sands, respectively interpreted as proximal-alluvial, distal-alluvial, alluvial-estuarine and aeolian. From radiocarbon and magnetostratigraphic data, these formations were dated as Late Pliocene to Holocene. In the marshlands area, three main sedimentary sequences are present: a Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene sequence of the Almonte and Lebrija (lower unit) formations, a Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene sequence of the Lebrija (upper unit) and Marismas formations, and a middle Holocene to present-day sequence of the upper Marismas Formation. The three sequences began as a rapid alluvial progradation on a previously eroded surface, and a subsequent alluvial retrogradation. In the third sequence, shallow estuarine and marsh sediments accumulated on top of the alluvial sediments. The aeolian sands of the Abalario topographic high developed coeval to alluvial and estuarine sedimentation after the first alluvial progradation, and continuously until the present. Correlation with the surrounding areas show that the sequences are the result of the forebulge uplift of the northern margin of the basin (Sierra Morena) and the adjacent Neogene oldest sediments of their northern fringe, both form the main source area of the study formations. This uplift occurred simultaneous to the flexural subsidence (SSE tilting) of the southern part of the basin, where sedimentary aggradation dominated.

The eastern sector of the epicontinental Iberian platform underwent restriction after the sedimentation of the lower Muschelkalk carbonates (Middle Triassic) under extensional regime. This resulted in the accumulation of the marine evaporites and the alluvial siliciclastics of the middle Muschelkalk facies in the Triassic Catalan basin, which varied between 100 and 120 m in thickness. This facies consists of three lithostratigraphic units sedimented at basin scale (Lower, Middle and Upper), each of which includes a distinct evaporite unit. In the Lower Unit, the evaporitic sedimentation started as a transgressive sulfate lagoon (Paüls Gypsum unit). During the Middle Unit time, a regressive evaporitic mudflat, made up of a mosaic of shallow gypsum salinas surrounded by anhydrite sabkhas (Arbolí Gypsum unit) developed; in the northeastern half of the basin, an alluvial plain was formed by siliciclastics (Guanta Sandstone unit) of a west and northwest provenance (Lleida High). During the Upper Unit time, a new transgressive sulfate lagoon occupied the southern half of the basin (Camposines Gypsum), whereas an evaporitic mudflat of red-to-variegated mudstones, marls, and lacustrine carbonates developed in the northern half. Cyclic sedimentation was mainly recorded in the evaporitic mudflat-alluvial plain complex of the Middle Unit. The sulfur isotopic values of gypsum in the three evaporite units show a decrease in δ 34 S with time and also a clear distinction from the values of the Keuper facies in the basin. A division of the lithostratigraphic succession into two third-order depositional sequences is proposed. The middle Muschelkalk succession in the Catalan basin is compared with the equivalent one in the subsurface of the adjacent Triassic Maestrat basin, which was filled with >600 m of marine evaporites.

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