| Institution: | 1. Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain;2. Departamento de Petrología y Geoquímica and Instituto de Geología Económica (CSIC), Universidad Complutense, 28040 Madrid, Spain;3. Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Oviedo, 33005 Oviedo, Spain;4. Área de Geodinámica Externa, Universidad de León, 24007 León, Spain;5. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Azafranal, 48, 37001 Salamanca, Spain;6. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, La Calera, 1, 28760 Tres Cantos, Spain;7. Department of Mineralogy, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK;8. Department of Geosciences, Abington College, Pennsylvania State University, Abington, PA 19001, USA |
| Abstract: | Ophiolites of different Paleozoic ages occur in North-West (NW) Iberia in a rootless suture representing the remnants of the Rheic Ocean. Associated allochthonous terranes in the hanging- and foot-walls of the suture derive from the former margins, whereas the relative autochthon corresponds to the Paleozoic passive margin of northern Gondwana. The Paleozoic tectonic evolution of this part of the circum-Atlantic region is deduced from the stratigraphical, petrological, structural and metamorphic evolution of the different units and their ages. The tectonic reconstruction covers from Cambro-Ordovician continental rifting and the opening of the Rheic Ocean to its Middle to Upper Devonian closure. Then, the Variscan Laurussia–Gondwana convergence and collision is briefly described, from its onset to the late stages of collapse associated with the demise of the orogenic roots. |
