Deformation and Structure

Abstract

The Variscan deformation in the Iberian Massif is related to the large-scale plate tectonic scenario that drove to the destruction of the Rheic and other intervening oceans, to finally form the Pangea Supercontinent. The Northern Iberian Massif structure consists in an East-vergent orogenic wedge developed at the footwall of a rootless oceanic suture. The collisional architecture of this wedge has been strongly modified by extensional tectonics in the hinterland and orocline formation affecting the whole domain. The Southwestern Iberian Massif transect contains two orogenic sutures cropping out at both boundaries of the OMZ and shows a general transpressive character of the whole collisional evolution, as well as an Early Carboniferous transtensional/extensional stage that gave way to flysch sedimentation, voluminous bimodal magmatism and oblique left-lateral extensional shearing.