El Margen Atlántico Ibérico al W de Galicia. Evolución en régimen extensional y sedimentación. (Resultados preliminares del Leg. 103, Ocean Drilling Program.)

Abstract

Leg 101 of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) was devoted discovering the tectonic and sedimentary evolution of the Atlantic Margin of the lberian Peninsula. A transect of five sites, with a total of 14 drill-holes was undertaken to the South of the Galicia Bank on the seaward edge of the margin. The data obtained revealed a complex history of subsidence and rifting preceding the initiation of sea floor spreading between Newfoundland and Iberia. The main findings include: 1) The Upper Jurassic-Lowermost Cretaceous shallow-water carbonate platform are the first Messozoic deposits at the margin. The «basement seismic reflector» is made-up of these carbonates. 2) The platform drowning, tilting of fault blocks and rapid subsidence preceded the spreading by as much as 25 million years. 3) A ridge of serpentiniced peridotites is located near the boundary between the oceanic and continental crusts. 4) The seismic reflector «S» does not, as widely believed represent a ductile-brinle boundary within the continental crust but is instead a reflector at the base of the synrift sediments.