Unravelling the architecture and evolution of the inverted multi-stage North Iberian-Bay of Biscay rift

Abstract

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Investigating the Plate Kinematics of the Bay of Biscay Using Deformable Plate Tectonic Models

“…Considering all models tested, crustal thicknesses calculated by models 4 (Figure 5) and 5 (Figure 6) provided the best crustal-scale match with gravity inversion crustal thickness estimates and these will be discussed in greater detail. (Cadenas et al, 2020). Thus, these discrepancies with the results calculated by model 4 are interpreted to be a result of the assumption that all continental blocks are rigid and unable to experience deformation within deformable models built in GPlates.…”

“…The reconstruction of the southern North Atlantic from Nirrengarten et al (2018) was the first to provide independent poles of rotation for the Landes High and Ebro Block, and the motivation for model 3 was simply to investigate the kinematic role of these continental blocks using a deformable plate modeling approach. Danois High is based upon recent seismic and potential field studies which interpret the Le Danois High as a rift-inherited basement block with a distinct evolution during extensional and compressional stages of deformation experienced along the North Iberian margin (Cadenas et al, 2018(Cadenas et al, , 2020. The geometry of the Le Danois High is the same as that defined in Cadenas et al (2018) and new poles of rotation for the Le Danois High are defined in this study.…”

“…10.1029/2020TC006467 18 of 27 thinning and mantle exhumation is interpreted to initiate during the Aptian due to the emplacement and activity of extensional detachment faults (Cadenas et al, 2020). Comparing the onset of hyperextension suggested by model 5 and borehole constrained seismic interpretations (Cadenas et al, 2020), model 5 predicts significant crustal thinning along the central North Iberian margin to have ceased during the early Aptian (∼125 Ma).…”

“…However, in the central North Iberian margin, borehole constrained seismic interpretations define a period of transtensional deformation accommodated by local crustal thinning within narrow and laterally confined basins, interpreted as pull-apart basins from the Upper Jurassic to Barremian (Cadenas et al, 2020).…”

The Cantabrian Fault at Sea. Low Magnitude Seismicity and Its Significance Within a Stable Setting

“…The wedge increases in extension and depth toward the east (Fernández-Viejo et al, 2012). The compression was halted when the plate boundary migrated to the south in the actual Azores-Gibraltar zone.This fact makes the North Iberian Margin (NIM) one of the best examples where polyphase-multistage rifting and posterior reactivation processes can be investigated, as the later tectonic events did not obliterate completely the earlier extensional structures (Roca et al, 2011;Tugend et al, 2014;Cadenas et al, 2020).…”