Post-Hercynian plate reorganization in the Tethys and Arctic – North Atlantic domains

Plate reorganization: a cause of rapid late Neogene subsidence and sedimentation around the North Atlantic?

“…The inferred palaeo-stress was found to be largely consistent with independent data sets on the kinematic (Klitgord & Schouten 1986) and tectonic evolution (Letouzey 1986;Ziegler & Van Hoorn 1989) of the northern Atlantic, with a tensional stress field during Mesozoic times followed by a compressional stress field during the Tertiary where the magnitude increases with age.…”

Stratigraphical and palaeogeographical significance of the continental sedimentary transition across the Permian–Triassic boundary in Spain

“…Despite these problems, several interesting recent Late Pennian palaeogeographic reconstructions including the Iberian Plate have appeared in the literature (see Ziegler, 1988Ziegler, , 1990Ziegler, , 1993Ziegler and Stampfli, 2001 ;Stampfli and Borel, 2002;Stampfli et aI., 2001 ;Ford and Golonka, 2003 ;Ronov et aI., 1984, among others). These reconstructions are mainly comprised of regionalor global-scale maps based on palaeogeographical summaries.…”

“…5 shows a scheme of the palaeogeographical reconstruction of Iberia and its relationship with the western Tethys area, indicating the main zones of sedimentation, elevated areas and those covered by the sea. The general interpretation of the western Tethys in this figure is based on Ziegler and Stampfli (2001), Ziegler (1988), Stampfli and Borel (2002) and Ford and Golonka (2003). Some of the basins of Iberia were the result of reactivation of ancient Hercynian faults (Arthaud and Matte, 1977;Alvaro et aI., 1979;Ziegler, 1988;Arche and L6pez-G6mez, 1996), representing the initial phase of post-Variscan plate reorganization.…”

“…After minor faulting induced by transtensional defonnation during Stephanian-Autunian times, Iberia, as well as part of NW Africa, fonned a coherent positive area while major grabens that had already started to form during the deposition of the Rotliegendes occupied the area from Poland to the Black Sea. The seas of the End Permian advanced westward along the axes of these pre-existing rift systems, while basins in Iberia were filled by thick, red beds sequences of continental origin (Sopefia et al., 1988;Van Wees et aI., 1998;Arche and L6pez-Gomez, 1999 (Arche and L6pez-G6mez, 1996). Different isolated small highs arose along the elevated flanks of the main troughs.…”

“…highly idealized continental geometries (Hay et aI., 1990), atmospheric genernl circulation and oceanic circulation models (Kutzbach et aI., 1990), energy balance climate models (Crow1ey et aI., 1989), models based on analogies with the present-day (parrish, 1982) or general circulation simulations. Among other variables, these models include patterns of surface temperature, precipitation and evaporation balance and sea-level pressure parameters and have provided data on the role of continental configumtion as a climateforcing factor (Barron and Facett, 1995 A simple view of the latitudinal location and the topography of the Iberian Plate shown in the different global palaeogeographical maps for the Late Permian-PTB times (see for example Ziegler, 1988;Ziegler and Stampfli, 2001;Stampfli and Bore!, 2002) clearly allows us to infer a few basic palaeoclimatie characteristics for this western Tethysian area. The Iberian Plate was part of the Central Pangean Mountain Range, made up of the Appalachian-Mauretanide-Variscan orogenic belts that fonned as a result of the diachronous collision between Laurasia and Gondwana (Scotese and Lanford, 1995).…”