Recent Tectonic Structures in a Transect of the Central Betic Cordillera
نویسندگان
چکیده
The Betic Cordillera has undergone recent Alpine deformations related to the EurasianAfrican plate interaction boundary. Most of the present-day relief has been built up since Tortonian times, and is related to the development of folds and faults that are overprinted on older deformations, and some of the faults may be considered as out-of-sequence. The combination of geophysical and geological data makes it possible to determine the main features of the recent tectonic structures, or those recently active, in its central transect. The main fault is a crustal detachment that separates a footwall constituted by the Iberian Massif and a hanging wall formed by the rocks of the Betic Cordillera. While the footwall is practically undeformed, the hanging wall has been folded and faulted. The folds are mainly E-W to NESW and have larger sizes and higher related relieves towards the South. The reverse faults are mainly concentrated in the northern mountain front. However, normal faults affect the southern part of the Cordillera and are associated with the development of large asymmetrical basins such as the Granada Depression. In this setting, the slip along the crustal detachment is variable and should increase southwards. The model of the recent tectonics in the central transect of the Cordillera is compatible with the presence of an active subduction in the Alboran Sea, and contrasts notably with the setting of the eastern Betic Cordillera, mainly deformed by transcurrent faults.
منابع مشابه
Late Miocene – Pleistocene tectono - sedimentary evolution and subsidence history of the central Betic Cordillera ( Spain ) : a case study in the Guadix intramontane basin
متن کامل
Levelling Profiles and a GPS Network to Monitor the Active Folding and Faulting Deformation in the Campo de Dalias (Betic Cordillera, Southeastern Spain)
The Campo de Dalias is an area with relevant seismicity associated to the active tectonic deformations of the southern boundary of the Betic Cordillera. A non-permanent GPS network was installed to monitor, for the first time, the fault- and fold-related activity. In addition, two high precision levelling profiles were measured twice over a one-year period across the Balanegra Fault, one of the...
متن کاملTectonically driven landscape development within the eastern Alpujarran Corridor, Betic Cordillera, SE Spain (Almerı́a)
The Betic Cordillera is a topographic manifestation of Miocene to recent collision between the African and the European plates. Mountain ranges in the Internal Zone of the Betic Cordillera are exhumed massifs of metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, and are surrounded by low-lying sedimentary basins. The Neogene history of mountain range uplift and basin formation in the Betics is well studied, bu...
متن کاملCrustal thickness beneath the Andes and Sierras Pampeanas at 30 S inferred from Pn apparent phase velocities
[1] We obtained a 2D crustal model beneath central Chile and western Argentina using apparent Pn phase velocities recorded along an EW trending transect at 30 S. This model is characterized by a thick (65 km) crustal root beneath the High Cordillera, a 60 km thick crust beneath the Precordillera, and a gradual shallowing of Moho depths beneath the Sierras Pampeanas from 55 km in the west to 40 ...
متن کاملNeogene tectonic evolution of the Gibraltar Arc: New paleomagnetic constrains from the Betic chain
New paleomagnetic results from Neogene sedimentary sequences from the Betic chain (Spain) are here presented. Sedimentary basins located in different areas were selected in order to obtain paleomagnetic data from structural domains that experienced different tectonic evolution during the Neogene. Whereas no rotations have been evidenced in the Late Tortonian sediments in the Guadalquivir forela...
متن کامل