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TS6.3 | Western Mediterranean realm: reconstructing paleogeography and evolution of the Iberia-Eurasia-Adria-Africa plate boundary from Variscan to present
EDI
Western Mediterranean realm: reconstructing paleogeography and evolution of the Iberia-Eurasia-Adria-Africa plate boundary from Variscan to present
Convener: Gaia SiravoECSECS | Co-conveners: Riccardo Asti, Nicolas SaspiturryECSECS
In the last decades, the tectonic and kinematic evolution of Western Mediterranean region have been largely debated. One of the main difficulties in proposing consensual reconstructions is the complex patchwork of polysize blocks involved in the Variscan orogeny. The main blocks that experienced differential evolution during the Alpine cycle are Iberia, Adria and the Corsica-Sardinia/AlKaPeCa domains. The Cenozoic geodynamics of the Western Mediterranean and the diffuse Eurasia-Africa boundary hamper easy reconstructions. Deformation induced by relative motions of Iberia and Eurasia have been accommodated along a wide region comprising northwestern Spain to southeastern France, however no consensus on the kinematic of deformation has been reached so far. Additional debates concern the southern Iberia boundary and the evolution of the Corsica-Sardinia and the nowadays dispersed AlKaPeCa blocks. These are interpreted as fragments of the Variscan chain rifted apart from Europe-Iberia during Jurassic Alpine Tethys spreading, drifted southward during Neogene roll-back of (Neo) Tethyan slabs for hundreds of km on top of nappe piles. However, their travel history, original location and participation in to the Iberian plate history are rather speculative. This wide region includes several Permian to Mesozoic rift systems whose architecture were conditioned by crustal-scale shear zones developed in late/post-Variscan times. The polyphase evolution of these basins recorded and is related to the early breakup of Pangea and the opening of both the southern North Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay. Eventually, these basins were subsequently inverted or involved into to the Alpine orogens to accommodate the Africa-Eurasia convergence during Upper Cretaceous to Tertiary times. We welcome contributions dealing with the Permian-to-present kinematic evolution of prominent geologic features (main structures, mountain belts, sedimentary basins) which recorded the past configuration of the Iberia-Eurasia-Adria-Africa plate boundary(s). The aim is to provide firm geological and chronological constraints to unravel the complex evolution of this wide plate boundary. We encourage submission of studies presenting new insights derived from different perspectives, including geology (tectonics, stratigraphy, petrology, geochronology, thermochronology, and geochemistry), geophysics (paleomagnetism, seismicity, seismic imaging/anisotropy, gravity), modelling (numerical and analogue).