Géologie de la Sierra de Atapuerca et stratigraphie des remplissages karstiques de Galería et Dolina (Burgos, Espagne)

Abstract

Geology of Sierra de Atapuerca and Stratigraphy of Karst Fillings from Galería and Dolina (Burgos, Spain). The overturned anticlinal of the Sierra de Atapuerca, Iberic oriented NW-SE, represents on the geomorphological point of view, a mont put in place by vertical movements during the Miocene and Pliocene (?). It is a karst system of galeries of 3000 M long, which developped in limestones, dolomites and marls of Upper Cretaceous (Turonian-Santonian). On the south side, an abandoned railway trench allowed to discover a great number of cavities filled with interior cave deposits and others coming from outside. This work analyses the fillings from Galería (TG) and Dolina (TD), with faunas, floras and human remains ( Homo antecessor) of the Middle Pleistocene at Galería and of the Lower Pleistocene at Dolina. In the lithostratigraphical unit of TD6 (780 Ka). The magnetostratigraphic data, the Uranium series/ESR chronologies and other characteristics of the filling indicate that the allochtonous sedimentation (TD3–4) began about 1 million years ago.