Eastern Pyrenees and related foreland basins: pre-, syn- and post-collisional crustal-scale cross-sections

Vergés, Jaume; Millán, H.; Roca, Eduard; Muñoz, Josep Antón; Marzo, M.; Cirés, Jordi; Bezemer, T. den; Zoetemeijer, R.; Cloetingh, S.A.P.L.

doi:10.1016/0264-8172(95)98854-x

Cited by 228 publications

(185 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…However, while in the western part of the eastern Pyrenees an underthrust crustal root has been inferred (Vergés et al, 1995), by analogy with the ECORSPyrenees section of the central Pyrenees, this root is not detected closer to the Mediterranean coast , probably due to the effect of the superimposed Oligocene to Neogene extension related to the opening of the western Mediterranean basin.…”

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 97%

Crustal structure and evolution of the Pyrenean-Cantabrian belt: A review and new interpretations from recent concepts and data

et al. 2018

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International audienceThis paper provides a synthesis of current data and interpretations on the crustal structure of the Pyrenean-Cantabrian orogenic belt, and presents new tectonic models for representative transects. The Pyrenean orogeny lasted from Santonian (~84 Ma) to early Miocene times (~20 Ma), and consisted of a spatial and temporal succession of oceanic crust/exhumed mantle subduction, rift inversion and continental collision processes at the Iberia-Eurasia plate boundary. A good coverage by active-source (vertical-incidence and wide-angle reflection) and passive-source (receiver functions) seismic studies, coupled with surface data have led to a reasonable knowledge of the present-day crustal architecture of the Pyrenean-Cantabrian belt, although questions remain. Seismic imaging reveals a persistent structure, from the central Pyrenees to the central Cantabrian Mountains, consisting of a wedge of Eurasian lithosphere indented into the thicker Iberian plate, whose lower crust is detached and plunges northwards into the mantle. For the Pyrenees, a new scheme of relationships between the southern upper crustal thrust sheets and the Axial Zone is here proposed. For the Cantabrian belt, the depth reached by the N-dipping Iberian crust and the structure of the margin are also revised.The common occurrence of lherzolite bodies in the northern Pyrenees and the seismic velocity and potential field record of the Bay of Biscay indicate that the precursor of the Pyrenees was a hyperextended and strongly segmented rift system, where narrow domains of exhumed mantle separated the thinned Iberian and Eurasian continental margins since the Albian-Cenomanian. The exhumed mantle in the Pyrenean rift was largely covered by a Mesozoic sedimentary lid that had locally glided along detachments in Triassic evaporites. Continental margin collision in the Pyrenees was preceded by subduction of the exhumed mantle, accompanied by the pop-up thrust expulsion of the off-scraped sedimentary lid above. To the west, oceanic subduction of the Bay of Biscay under the North Iberian margin is supported by an upper plate thrust wedge, gravity and magnetic anomalies, and 3D inclined sub-crustal reflections. However, discrepancies remain for the location of continent-ocean transitions in the Bay of Biscay and for the extent of oceanic subduction. The plate-kinematic evolution during the Mesozoic, which involves issues as the timing and total amount of opening, as well as the role of strike-slip drift, is also under debate, discrepancies arising from first-order interpretations of the adjacent oceanic magnetic anomaly record

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Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 97%

Crustal structure and evolution of the Pyrenean-Cantabrian belt: A review and new interpretations from recent concepts and data

et al. 2018

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“…2), which developed in Late Cretaceous to Cenozoic age due to the subduction of the Iberian Plate underneath the Eurasian one Roure et al, 1989;Muñoz, 1992;Vergés et al, 1995Vergés et al, , 2002Pulgar et al, 1996;Teixell, 1998;Gallastegui, 2000;Pedreira et al, 2007). To the east, in the Pyrenean domain, the far-travelled frontal structures of the south-verging portion of the orogen are characterised by a thin-skin style of deformation (e.g.…”

Section: The Crustal-scale Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Srivastava et al, 2000;Rosenbaum et al, 2002;Sibuet et al, 2004) predicts about 600 km of Mesozoic extension and a similar value of shortening in the eastern portion of the Pyrenean orogen. These values are incompatible with the amount of shortening in that area, which ranges from 80 km (Teixell, 1998) to 120 km (Vergés et al, 1995), up to a maximum of about 160 km in the central portion of the Pyrenees (Muñoz, 1992;Beaumont et al, 2000). Differences in the cumulative amount of shortening reduce when considering only the postSantonian seafloor magnetic anomalies (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…1a) (e.g. Choukroune et al, 1989;Roure et al, 1989;Muñoz, 1992;Pulgar et al, 1996;Teixell, 1998;Gallastegui, 2000;Vergés et al, 1995Vergés et al, , 2002Pedreira et al, 2007;Jammes et al, 2009). To the east, the Pyrenean arm of the Mesozoic Bay of Biscay-Pyrenean rift system has been sandwiched between the subducting Iberian Plate and the overriding Eurasian one (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plate kinematics in the Cantabrian domain of the Pyrenean orogen

Tavani

2012

Solid Earth

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The Cantabrian domain represents the western portion of the Pyrenean orogen, in the area where the Iberian continental lithosphere was subducted toward the north underneath the transitional to oceanic lithosphere of the Bay of Biscay. There, the about 100 km of orogenic convergence have been mostly accommodated in the northern portion of the orogen (i.e. the retro wedge) developed in the Bay of Biscay abyssal plain, while only crustal-scale folding with limited internal deformation occurred in the Cantabrian southern wedge (pro-wedge). Integrated meso- and macrostructural analyses and a reappraisal of available information from the transitional area between the Pyrenean and Cantabrian domains are presented in this work, allowing to set geometric and kinematic constraints on the entire Meso-Cenozoic history of the northern portion of the Iberian Plate, including subduction initiation and evolution in the western portion of the Pyrenean orogen. <br><br> The structural record of the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous deformation stage, which was associated with rifting and seafloor spreading in the Bay of Biscay, indicates a ridge perpendicular (NNE-SSW oriented) extension, with no evidence of relevant strike-slip components during rifting. A Cenozoic NNW-SSE oriented shortening stage followed, related to the limited (about 100 km) north-directed subduction of the Iberian continental lithosphere underneath the transitional to oceanic lithosphere of the Bay of Biscay. Subduction led to the formation of the poorly-developed Cantabrian pro-wedge, which is laterally juxtaposed to the well-developed Pyrenean pro-wedge to the east. During this convergence stage, the structural framework in the Cantabrian pro-wedge, and particularly along its transition with the Pyrenean wedge to the east, was severely complicated by the reactivation of Paleozoic and Mesozoic inherited structures. <br><br> Data presented in this work fully support the development of the Cantabrian Mountains as related to indentation and consequent thickening of the Bay of Biscay transitional lower crust during north-directed subduction of Iberian continental lithosphere. In essence, the Cantabrian pro-wedge is a lithospheric south-verging fault-propagation anticline developing above the subduction plane. The structural record in the area indicates that a lithospheric fault-propagation folding stage was predated, during the very early stages of orogenic shortening, by the development of a lithospheric-scale open syncline overlying the nucleation point of lithosphere sinking. Such a syncline is today partially preserved and represents one of the few natural examples of subduction initiation

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“…The central part of the orogen involves only continental crust subject to a moderate amount of contraction. The unusually good preservation of the synorogenic deposits allows us to constrain the evolution of the shortening rates since the early stages of the collision and make reasonable estimates of the deformational geometry of the orogen through intermediate stages [Mu•oz, 1992;Verges et al, 1995]. These constraints, in turn, require that acceptable geodynamical models reproduce the reconstructed temporal evolution and not just the final configuration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors controlling the Alpine evolution of the central Pyrenees inferred from a comparison of observations and geodynamical models

Beaumont¹,

Muñoz²,

Hamilton³

et al. 2000

J. Geophys. Res.

303

339

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Abstract. Geodynamical numerical modeling has been combined with crustal structural restoration of the central Pyrenees in order to gain insight into fundamental processes that control the evolution of collisional orogens. Models are based on deformation of the crust by stresses transmitted upward from kinematic basal boundary conditions corresponding to the subduction of part of the lithosphere. The influence of inherited crustal heterogeneities, denudation, subcrustal loads, and crustal mechanical properties, consistent with wellconstrained crustal partial restored cross sections of the central Pyrenees, is investigated by progressively incorporating them into model experiments. The primary result inferred from the modeling is that the asymmetry of the central Pyrenees double-wedge, seen as strain partitioning and in the morphological evolution, is a consequence of the asymmetric distribution of inherited crustal heterogeneity. The tectonic style of the central Pyrenees is the result of the inversion of the Early Cretaceous extensional fault system, during the early stages of the collision, and the reactivation of Hercynian heterogeneities during the late stages. Most of the upper crustal mass that entered the orogen during the calculated 165 km of convergence was accommodated by an increase of upper crustal cross sectional area or lost by denudation. To explain the upper crustal mass partitioning, as well as the geometry of the foreland basins and the preservation of synorogenic deposits in piggyback basins, a subduction load has to be applied to the models. Lower crust and mantle lithosphere were consumed by the mantle.

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Eastern Pyrenees and related foreland basins: pre-, syn- and post-collisional crustal-scale cross-sections

Cited by 228 publications

References 33 publications

Crustal structure and evolution of the Pyrenean-Cantabrian belt: A review and new interpretations from recent concepts and data

Crustal structure and evolution of the Pyrenean-Cantabrian belt: A review and new interpretations from recent concepts and data

Plate kinematics in the Cantabrian domain of the Pyrenean orogen

Factors controlling the Alpine evolution of the central Pyrenees inferred from a comparison of observations and geodynamical models

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