Opening of the Alboran Sea

Opening of the Alboran Sea-THE Alboran Sea contains two basins deeper than 1,000 m separated by a ridge which we shall cal1 the Alboran marginal fracture (Fig. 1). Seismic reflexion studies and data from the Joides drill site 121, situated exactly on the northern limit of the western basin, show that the deepest sedimentary layers, lying on the substratum, are older than upper Burdigalian (14 m.y.), but-probably younger than lower Aquitanian (23 m.y.)'. But we do not know whether the substratum of the deep basins is young oceanic crust or foundered continental crust. Here we shall assume that the portions of the basins deeper than 1,000 m indeed consist of new surface created by the separation of two rigid plates during the Middle Miocene, and we shall discuss whether the structure is geometrically compatible with such an opening. If such a rigid opening occurred, it should be possible to reconstruct its geometry by identifying the transform faults.. ,