The Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Rifting

Abstract

During the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, Iberia experienced extensional and transtensional stresses leading to a complex rifting time interval. Africa–America–Europe relative motions determined the definition of the Iberian plate boundaries and the generation of rifted sedimentary basins and sub-basins along its continental margins and in the plate interior. Complex extensional and salt tectonics controlled the eometry and subsidence of those basins, filled mainly by clastic sediments derived from emerged Variscan massifs and by marine carbonates. The chapter considers the North Iberian Continental Margin, including the Basque-Cantabrian and the Pyrenean basin, the South Iberian Continental Margin, and the Iberian Basin Rift System, including South-Iberian, Central-Iberian, Cameros, Maestrazgo/ Maestrat, and Garraf Basins.