Subduction and tectonics on the continental margin off northern Spain

Abstract

Seismic reflection profiles and numerous pre-Neogene samples obtained from the continental margin off northern Spain provide a means to reconstruct its Mesozoic and Cenozoic evolution. During the Mesozoic, this evolution can be compared to that of the passive margins of the western Iberian peninsula and France (rifting during the Late Jurassic, transgression and deposition of “black shales” during the Early Cretaceous). These series have been tectonically deformed and emerged, together with their basement, during the latest Cretaceous and Eocene when the oceanic lithosphere from the Bay of Biscay underwent a limited (southward) subduction. Then the margin of northern Spain was again submerged during the late Paleogene and Neogene.