ALBERT

Description: The basement of the Vera and Huercal Overa basins (southeastem Betics) is fonned by rocks ofthe Alboran Crustal Domain; a terrain which collided with the South-Iberian and Maghrebian continentalmargins in the Lower Miocene, resulting in the fonnation of the Gibraltar Are mountain chain. The Alpuja1Tide complex which occupies an intermediate structural position within the Alboran Domain, above the Nevado-Filabride and below the Malaguide complexes, includes at least three tectonic units in the southeastern Betics. From bottom to top in the slTuctural sequence, these units are Almagro, Almanzora and Variegato. The metapelitic rocks of these units show significative differences in their tectonic fabrics and in their P-T metamorphic paths. The lower Almagro unit underwent low-P/low-T metamorphism (300 oc and 3-4 kbar) and its metapelites are slates with no differentiated metamorphic fabric, which show two sets of spaced axial-plane cleavages. The intennediate Almanzora unit has two differentiated metamorphic fabrics. The oldest foliation (S,) preserved in quartz-rich domains of a crenulation cleavage (S ce) grew during high-P/low-T metamorphism (between 300 °C/12 kbar and 350 oC/6 kbar). The Scc cleavage deyeloped after an isobaric heating to 475 oc at 5 kbar and registers an initial isothennal decompression to 475 oc at 3 kbar followed by cooling to 300 oc at 2 kbar. A brittle spaced cleavage axial plane to N-vergent asymmetric folM cuts the S ce fabtic. At the top ofthe Alpujarride tectonic pile the Variegato unit, includes up to tlu·ee imbrications formed from top to bottom by gamet schists, fine"grained schists and Triassic carbonates. The main Scc foliation in the gamet schists grew during a nearly isothennal decompression between 500 oc at 8 kbar and 525 oc at 2 kbar. In the Variegato dark schists, the spaced crenulation cleavage associated to Nvergent folds is defined by muscovite and chlorite lepidoblasts and is overprinted by the growth of andalousite porphyroblasts. This assemblage equilibrated at 450-460 oc at 2 kbar. The Variegato fine-grained schists include a high-P/low-T Mg-carpholite-bearing assemblage, within pre-Scc quartz veins equilibrated at 8-10 kbar and approximately 400 °C. Furthermore, a chlorite + phengite + quartz assemblage defining the se relic foliation in lenticular domains of the scc cleavage shows local equilibria at 11 to 9 kbar at 400 °C. The superposition ofthese units was related with N-directed compressional brittle-ductile shear zones and associated N-vergent asymmetric folds, which were active at a late stage of the metamorphic evolution after coaxial ductile flattening of the Variegato and Almanzora units. The thrust pile that resulted from this late compressional event was later thinned by two consecutive brittle extensional systems with northward and southwestward tectonic transport. Final! y, these metamorphic rocks were exhumed to the surface in the core of E-W oriented anticlinal ridges, which developed during the Upper Neogene and the Quaternary. Folding and strike-slip faulting of the Miocene Alboran basin produced the present basin and range morphology of the southeastern Betics, which is characterised by the formation of isolated sedimentary basins in the synclines.

Description: We have analysed the thermobarometric equilibrium conditions reached during local equilibria among phengite + chlorite + quartz + water ± chloritoid ± garnet assemblages found in metapelites of the Ragua unit, the structurally-lowest tectonic unit outcropping in the Betics hinterland (southern Spain). Porphyroblast- deformation relationships show that lenticular domains preserved within the main foliation in the metapelites grew during a HP/LT prograde metamorphic event with thermal conditions of 320-450 °C and 12-14 kbar pressure. Hence, the Ragua unit subducted in a continental accretionary-wedge context, undergoing a tectonic evolution parallel to the one followed by the two other overlying Nevado-Filabride units.

Description: Multichannel seismic reflection images across the transition between the east Alborán and the Algero-Balearic basins show how crustal thickness decreases from about 5 s two-way traveltime (TWTT, ∼15 km thick) in the west (east Alborán basin) to ∼2 s TWTT typical of oceanic crust (∼6 km thick) in the east (Algero-Balearic basin). We have differentiated three different crustal domains in this transition, mainly on the basis of crustal thickness and seismic signature. Boundaries between the three crustal domains are transitional and lack evidence for major faults. Tilted blocks related to extension are very scarce and all sampled basement outcrops are volcanic, suggesting a strong relationship between magmatism and crustal structure. Stratigraphic correlation of lithoseismic units with sedimentary units of southeastern Betic basins indicates that sediments onlap igneous basement approximately at 12 Ma in the eastern area and at 8 Ma in the western area. Linking seismic crustal structure with magmatic geochemical evidence suggests that the three differentiated crustal domains may represent, from west to east, thin continental crust modified by arc magmatism, magmatic-arc crust, and oceanic crust. Middle to late Miocene arc and oceanic crust formation in the east Alborán and Algero-Balearic basins, respectively, occurred during westward migration of the Gibraltar accretionary wedge and shortening in the Betic-Rif foreland basins. Arc magmatism and associated backarc oceanic crust formation were related to early to middle Miocene subduction and rollback of the Flysch Trough oceanic basement. Subduction of this narrow slab beneath the Alborán basin was coeval with collision of the Alborán domain with the Iberian and African passive margins and subsequent subcontinental-lithosphere edge delamination along the Betic-Rif margins.