D. Martínez Poyatos

The structure of a major suture zone in the SW Iberian Massif: the Ossa-Morena/Central Iberian contact

Abstract We have investigated the stratigraphy, structure and metamorphism of the boundary between the Ossa Morena Zone (OMZ) and the Central Iberian Zone (CIZ), two significant continental portions of the Variscan Iberian Massif. The OMZ/CIZ contact is marked by a strongly deformed and metamorphosed NW–SE trending narrow band, namely, the Central Unit, in which partially retrogressed eclogites are included. During the Middle-Late Devonian the CIZ overthrust the OMZ, and in the footwall km-scale recumbent folds and thrusts developed with decoupling and underplating of the lower crust. At the same time, in the hanging wall there took place intense though localized back-folding and back-shearing. In the Early Carboniferous a transtensional tectonic regime sank the overthrust block resulting in the exhumation of eclogites. These eclogites probably came from the underthrust OMZ lower crust, and they are at present included in the suture zone (Central Unit) of this continental collision. The extension is responsible for the origin of a basin and bimodal magmatism on the southern border of the CIZ. A late episode of folding and fracturing significantly contributed to the final complex picture of this suture boundary.

Imaging the crustal structure of the Central Iberian Zone (Variscan Belt): The ALCUDIA deep seismic reflection transect

ALCUDIA is a 230 km long, vertical incidence deep seismic reflection transect acquired in spring 2007 across the southern Central Iberian Zone (part of the pre-Mesozoic Gondwana paleocontinent) of the Variscan Orogen of Spain. The carefully designed acquisition parameters resulted in a 20 s TWTT deep, 60–90 fold, high-resolution seismic reflection transect. The processed image shows a weakly reflective upper crust (the scarce reflectivity matching structures identified at surface), a thick, highly reflective and laminated lower crust, and a flat Moho located at 10 s TWTT (30 km depth). The transect can be divided into three segments with different structural styles in the lower crust. In the central segment, the lower crust is imaged by regular, horizontal and parallel reflectors, whereas in the northern and southern segments it displays oblique reflectors interpreted as an important thrust (north) and tectonic wedging involving the mantle (south). The ALCUDIA seismic image shows that in an intracontinental orogenic crust, far from the suture zones, the upper and lower crust may react differently to shortening in different sectors, which is taken as evidence for decoupling. The interpreted structures, as deduced from surface geology and the seismic image, show that deformation was distributed homogeneously in the upper crust, whereas it was concentrated in wedge/thrust structures at specific sectors in the lower crust. The seismic image also shows the location of late Variscan faults in spatial association with the lower crustal thickened areas.

Transpressional collision tectonics and mantle plume dynamics: the Variscides of southwestern Iberia

Abstract In southwestern Iberia, three continental domains (the South Portuguese Zone (SPZ), Ossa-Morena Zone (OMZ) and Central Iberian Zone (CIZ) collided in Devonian-Carboniferous time. The collision was transpressional, with left-lateral kinematics, and was interrupted by extensional tectonics during the earliest Carboniferous, when bimodal magmatism (with associated mineral deposits) and basin development were the dominant orogenic features. Transpression was renewed in Visean time, and persisted until the end of the Carboniferous. The IBERSEIS deep seismic reflection profile helps to define the 3D geometry of transpressional structures: out-of-section displacements concentrate in bands, which bound wedges of upper crust; this crustal wedging strongly modifies the geometry of the sutures between continental blocks. A mid-crustal strongly reflective thick band (the Iberseis Reflective Body, IRB) is interpreted as a huge body of basic rocks. The IRB magma trapped in the middle crust was linked to the Early Carboniferous mantle-derived magmatism that crops out in the SPZ, OMZ and CIZ. Magmatism at the surface and trapped in the crust, high thermal gradients and basin development reflect a thermal anomaly in the underlying mantle, influencing both the thermal and the stress state of the orogen at that time. A mantle plume is inferred to have existed in the Early Carboniferous, the transpressional tectonic regime dominating again after its decay.

La Orogenia Cadomiense y el rifting del Paleozoico Inferior en el Sudoeste de Iberia

La intensidad y la duracion de la Orogenia Cadomiense en el sudoeste de Iberia han sido temas controvertidos. El magmatismo calcoalcalino del Vendiense superior, que se encuentra ampliamente representado en la Zona de Ossa Morena, es el efecto orogenico cadomiense mas significativo. Ademas, en las rocas del Proterozoico superior que afloran en Peraleda del Zaucejo (sur de la Zona Centroiberica) se ha establecido firmemente la existencia de foliacion y metamorfismos tardiprecambricos. En la Zona de Ossa Morena, sin embargo, la deformacion penetrativa de las rocas precambricas parece corresponder casi exclusivamente a pliegues y cabalgamientos de edad varisca. En conjunto, la intensidad de la orogenia cadomiense en el sudoeste de Iberia es, como en el resto del Macizo Iberico, moderada. Los datos geocronologicos existentes aparentan la existencia de un magmatismo initerrumpido desde el Proterozoico superior hasta el Ordovicico; sin embargo, se sugiere que tal continuidad no es real. Del analisis de los datos estratigraficos se deduce que la orogenia cadomiense se habria desarrollado exclusivamente en el Proterozoico terminal, siendo el Cambrico inferior un periodo de transicion entre el ciclo orogenico cadomiense y el ciclo varisco. Desde el Cambrico Inferior alto, se desarrollo en la Zona de Ossa Morena el rifting pre-varisco, cuyo reflejo estratigrafico es la sustitucion de carbonatos de plataforma (Cambrico Inferior) por sedimentos terrigenos y rocas volcanicas. Localmente, el rifting pre-varisco origino una fabrica milonitica y un metamorfismo de grado medio-alto, como el que se observa en Valuengo y en Monesterio. Como consecuencia del rifting cambro-ordovicico, la Zona de Ossa-Moreno debio de ser en el Silurico un fragmento aislado de corteza continental.

The elusive nature of the Rheic Ocean suture in SW Iberia

The Rheic Ocean suture resulted from pre-Carboniferous oceanic subduction followed by Late Devonian-Carboniferous Variscan collision. In SW Iberia, this suture has been classically located along the boundary between the Ossa-Morena and South Portuguese Zones based on the presence of three units: (i) a conspicuous metamafic unit (Beja-Acebuches) that crops out along this boundary and has been interpreted as a pre-Carboniferous Rheic Ocean ophiolite; (ii) a low-grade metasedimentary unit with minor mid-ocean ridge basalt-like lithologies (Pulo do Lobo unit), thought to represent a Rheic Ocean subduction-related accretionary prism; and (iii) the allochthonous Cubito-Moura unit that contains high-pressure and ophiolitic-like rocks. We report new structural and geochronological data that allow us to reinterpret the origin and internal structure of the Beja-Acebuches and the Pulo do Lobo units. Thus, both the Beja-Acebuches protoliths and the Pulo do Lobo metabasalts would have been formed in the context of an intracollisional extensional stage that interrupted the Variscan collision at early Carboniferous time, after the Rheic Ocean consumption, and the first continental collision. Later on, collision was resumed in an oblique left-lateral regime that gave way to coeval frontal (folds and thrusts) and lateral (shear zones and strike-slip faults) structures, with variable pressure-temperature conditions and space distribution along time. As a consequence of the superposition of transtension and complex transpression, the Rheic suture in SW Iberia has an obscure nearly cryptic appearance.

La estructura sísmica de la corteza de la Zona de Ossa Morena y su interpretación geológica

El experimento de sismica de reflexion profunda IBERSEIS ha proporcionado una imagen de la corteza del Orogeno Varisco en el sudoeste de Iberia. Este articulo se centra en la descripcion de la corteza de la Zona de Ossa Morena (OMZ), que esta claramente dividida en una corteza superior, con reflectividad de buzamiento al NE, y una corteza inferior de pobre reflectividad. Las estructuras geologicas cartografiadas en superficie se correlacionan bien con la reflectividad de la corteza superior, y en la imagen sismica se ven enraizar en la corteza media. Esta esta constituida por un cuerpo muy reflectivo, interpretado como una gran intrusion de rocas basicas. La imagen de las suturas que limitan la OMZ muestra el caracter fuertemente transpresivo de la colision orogenica varisca registrada en el sudoeste de Iberia. La Moho actual es plana y, en consecuencia, no se observa la raiz del orogeno.

Regional significance of kilometric-scale north-east vergent recumbent folds associated with east to south-east directed shear on the southern border of the Central Iberian Zone (Hornachos-Oliva region, Variscan belt, Iberian Peninsula)

On the southern border of the Central Iberian Zone there are two sectors with different styles of deformation. To the south-west, in the Hornachos sector, large-scale recumbent folds associated with ductile shearing can be seen. This shearing is characterized by a direction of movement parallel to the fold axes and can be correlated for 150 km along strike. The K-values of the strain ellipsoid range from 0.8 to 2.0. Stretching in the X direction, parallel to the recumbent fold axes, is more than 100%. To the north-east, in the Oliva sector, first-phase folds are upright and the strain intensity is lower than in the Hornachos sector. Metamorphic, geometric and kinematic considerations lead us to conclude that the shearing in the Hornachos sector is better explained as conjugate to a main shear zone along which the southern border of the Central Iberian Zone is moved onto the Ossa-Morena Zone. This main thrust is at present obliterated by a left-lateral extensional shear zone that affects a high pressure exotic unit located between the Central Iberian and the Ossa-Morena Zones. This high pressure unit constitutes a suture of the Variscan belt in the Iberian Peninsula.