Heterogeneous extension and the role of transfer faults in the development of the southeastern Betic basins (SE Spain)

Abstract

Large strike-slip faults in the eastern Betics are interpreted to have developed in a transcurrent setting in response to 4–6 mm/yr of Africa-Iberia NW-SE convergence. However, here we show that some of these faults are transfer faults accommodating heterogeneous late Miocene extension. The North Cabrera dextral fault and other E-W to NE-SW strike-slip faults in the Sorbas basin were transfer faults produced under SW-NE extension. These faults together with related normal faults form the main boundaries of two sedimentary depocenters active between the Serravallian and the Tortonian. The older North Cabrera depocenter extended between the Serravallian and the early Tortonian (approximately 13.8 to 9 Ma), while the younger Gacia depocenter formed in response to late Tortonian extension (approximately 9 to 7.5 Ma). The latter formed to the west of the North Cabrera depocenter by a listric fan of normal faults with SW directed transport that are linked by dextral and sinistral transfer fault segments. These faults root on a low-angle detachment cutting into the exhumed high-pressure Nevado-Filabride complex rocks at ~0.8 km depth. The present work reveals that (1) this extension was partially coeval with and kinematically linked to sinistral displacement along the Carboneras fault farther south in the Nijar basin; (2) this westward directed extension produced elongated core complexes and tilted blocks to the north of the Carboneras fault and magmatic accretion upon thinned continental crust to the south, probably in response to slab tearing or detachment and associated edge delamination of the Iberian continental lithospheric mantle beneath the Betics.