Cenozoic tectonics on the Galicia margin, northwest Spain

Abstract

Neogene tectonic activity (Betic Orogeny) along the southern plate boundary of Iberia, as it converged with Africa and the Alboran Plate was inserted between them, propagated along Iberia's west side as far north as Galicia, northwest Spain. As the activity propagated northward, it reactivated structures formed during the Paleozoic (Hercynian), the Early Cretaceous opening of the northern North Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay, and the Paleogene Pyrenean Orogeny when Iberia collided with Eurasia. Recent earthquakes indicate that this tectonism is still active today as far north as northwest Spain.