Deep structure of the Betic Cordillera derived from the interpretation of a complete Bouguer anomaly map

Abstract

A complete Bouguer-anomaly map of the Betic Cordillera and surrounding areas has been compiled from 2995 land-gravity observations. The measurements used to construct the map come from previous surveys as well as from a survey carried out specially for this project. A large negative anomaly reaching −145 mGal is centered on the intra-mountain basins of Loja-Granada and Baza-Guadix, and systematically displaced from the region of greatest topographic relief. This gravity low is interpreted as produced by the thickeming of the earth's crust at a principal contact between two domains of continental crust having different origins and geological evolution. Three gravity profiles selected to investigate the deep structure of the crust in the Betic Cordillera are presented and discussed.