Crustal structure and riftogenesis of the Valencia Trough (north‐western Mediterranean Sea)

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The Valencia Trough is a rift formed during the late Oligocene – early Miocene opening of the western Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, we focus on the crustal structure and on the deep structure of the basin which is hard to delineate because of the widespread volcanism that conceals part of the basement. This work is the result of the study of a dense network of seismic profiling surveys and exploratory wells made in the region. The structure of the deep basement reveals the importance of transfer fracture zones which represent steps in the deepening of the basin. The thinning of the crust follows the basement deepening and we find the same partitioning of structural blocks at the crustal level. Transfer faults also represent limits in the thinning of the crust and each compartment thus delineated has a different thinning and different extensional ratios. Such a discrepancy between the thinning of the upper crust and the thinning of the lower crust may be common in many other rift zones, but is seldom as well imaged as in this study of the Valencia Trough. The transfer zones are related to extensional processes but a simple shear opening is envisaged to explain the discrepancies between thinning and extension and the asymmetry of the margins. The more efficient thinning in the lower crust can be explained by a thermal anomaly in accordance with the recent evolution of the trough. The steady thinning of the margins is discussed in terms of a marginal basin in a compressional context.