The Geology of Iberia: A Geodynamic Approach

Abstract

The Pyrenean Orogenic system formed by the contractional deformation of the North Iberian margin from late Santonian to Middle Miocene times as a result of the collision between the Iberian and European plates. The Iberian lithosphere subducted underneath the European one. The structural style of the Pyrenees has been mainly controlled by the reactivation of the segmented rift system that formed at Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous times connecting the Atlantic with the Alpine Tethys along the Bay of Biscay and Pyrenean domains, as well as by the distribution of the Triassic salt. Preserved syntectonic sediments in the adjacent foreland basins and piggy-back basins combined with thermochronological data allow constraining the evolution of the orogen.