“…3-D tomographic imaging of the mantle structure reveals a steeply east-dipping slab under the Strait of Gibraltar with a slab morphology that extends from under the Rif towards the north and then curves eastward under the Betics (e.g., Spakman and Wortel, 2004;Gutscher et al, 2012;Bezada et al, 2013;van Hinsbergen et al, 2014). These works also show a detached slab beneath the Kabylides in northeast Algeria (Spakman and Wortel, 2004;Faccenna et al, 2014;van Hinsbergen et al, 2014), which is interpreted as a part of the Algerian-Tunisian slab separated from the Betic-Rif slab system by STEP faults (Booth-Rea et al, 2018a). The present-day Betic-Rif slab morphology is consistent with the evolution of an initially NW-dipping subduction zone situated southeast of the Balearic Islands in the Oligocene that retreated towards the south and later to the west, after approximately 90 • clockwise rotation, during the Miocene to reach its current position beneath the Strait of Gibraltar (e.g., Royden, 1993;Lonergan and White, 1997;Rosenbaum et al, 2002;Spakman and Wortel, 2004;Chertova et al, 2014a, b;van Hinsbergen et al, 2014).…”