The crustal structure of the Cantabrian Mountains revealed by new magnetotelluric soundings

Abstract

The upper crustal structure of the central Cantabrian Mountains consists of a block of Variscan basement uplifted over the Duero basin as a consequence of a southward displacement along a major thrust during the convergence between Europe and Iberia in the Eocene-Oligocene (Alpine orogeny). We present the results of the 3-D modeling of thirteen new magnetotelluric sites, five of them being completed by long period data, over a 100 km-long, N-S oriented profile across the central Cantabrian Mountains and the Duero basin. Dimensionality analyses indicated a dominant E-W direction but with influence of 3-D structures at long periods and locally in the Cantabrian Mountains. Accordingly, we performed a 3-D joint inversion of the full impedance tensor and the geomagnetic transfer function following a sequential inversion workflow. The inverse model presents similarities with existing lithospheric models. In the southern part of the area, the conductive sediments of the Duero basin over a high resistive and homogeneous Iberian lithosphere are well delineated. Towards the north, beneath the Cantabrian Mountains, the model reveals a heterogeneous and conductive lithosphere, in which various elongated and dipping conductors in the upper and middle crust are associated with major Alpine thrusts, one being the frontal thrust of the Cantabrian Mountains over the Duero basin. At deeper depths (between 20 and 35 km depth), the Iberian crust appears as subducting to the north beneath a conductive zone interpreted as the hydrated mantle wedge of the north-Iberian continental margin.