Ocean-continent boundary in the Iberia Abyssal Plain from multichannel seismic data

Abstract

The Ocean-Continent Boundary of the West Iberia margin is marked by a basement ridge trending N-S. Four segments of this ridge are recognized, each of them being progressively offset westward from 40°N to 43°N. Because the setting and seismic character of the ridge in the Iberia Abyssal Plain are similar to those of the Galicia margin ridge, which is made of serpentinized peridotite, we think that the southern segments of the ridge are also made of the same mantle material. The segmentation of the ridge suggests that the northward propagation of the continental break-up during the North Atlantic opening in Early Cretaceous times was discontinuous, each segment possibly corresponding to a propagation step. East of the ridge, the basement of the whole Iberia Abyssal Plain consists of highly thinned continental crust locally resting on a seismic reflector that resembles the S reflector previously recognized off Galicia. By analogy with the Galicia margin, we propose that the tilted crustal blocks lay on serpentinized peridotite derived from the upper mantle, the S reflector corresponding to the contact between crustal rocks and serpentinite.