Tectono-sedimentary evolution of the peripheral basins of the Alboran Sea in the arc of Gibraltar during the latest Messinian-Pliocene

In the peripheral basins of the Alboran Sea, five stratigraphic units (latest Messinian-Pliocene) separated by discontinuities and representing transgressive–regressive cycles have been recognized. The first unit (LM) is latest Messinian in age and precisely characterizes the Lago-Mare event at the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis, i.e. just before the opening of the Strait of Gibraltar at the beginning of the Pliocene. The three following units (Pl-1, Pl-2 and Pl-3) are Zanclean in age, whereas the last one (Pl-4) is Piacenzian. These four Pliocene units consist of alluvial, deltaic, and littoral deposits in the marginal areas, changing to open marine deposits with planktonic components in the basinal areas, although their extension varies in each basin. Regionally, these units do not necessarily stack in a single stratigraphic succession because of tectonics that controlled their hosting basins. Thus, the LM and Pl-1 units occur only in the Malaga and Estepona-Marbella basins, revealing that the onset of the sedimentation after the Messinian evaporitic stage and the Pliocene transgression was not a single and synchronous event in the western Alboran Sea. Moreover, the Pl-3 and Pl-4 units do not appear in all basins, so that the subsequent continentalization process of these Alboran peripheral areas during the Pliocene was also diachronous.The sedimentary evolution of the peripheral basins was controlled mainly by tectonics. During the latest Messinian-early Pliocene, the sedimentation took place in a context marked by a NNW–SSE compression and ENE–WSW perpendicular tension. The onset of the sedimentation (LM and Pl-1 units) could be linked to preexisting E–W faults that mark part of the borders of the Malaga basin and the Estepona-Marbella sector. During the deposition of the Pl-2 unit, the movements of E–W, NW–SE, and NE–SW normal faults determined a continuous subsidence in several basins, resulting in the accumulation of thick clastic marine sequences (i.e. Malaga, Vélez-Málaga, and Nerja basins in Spain and Tirinesse basin in Morocco). Tectonic activity during the early Zanclean leads to a new paleogeographic configuration of the Alboran peripheral areas. The main features are: (i) continentalization of the Nerja sector in the Betics, Tetouan, and Oued Laou-Tirinesse sectors in the Rif; (ii) on the contrary, a period of intense subsidence started in the coastal sectors between Torremolinos and Manilva, allowing the development of the Pl-3 unit directly on the substratum; and (iii) the Malaga, Vélez-Málaga, and Malalyine basins maintained the marine regime, so their sedimentary infilling recorded the Pl-2–Pl-3 unconformity. Nevertheless, these last basins emerged shortly afterwards, before the end of the early Zanclean (FO of Globorotalia puncticulata), probably in relation to the beginning of the sea-level fall which characterizes the upper part of the TB 3.4 cycle by Haq et al. (1987).During the late Zanclean, sedimentation occurred only in the Betic basins, where NNE–SSW faults – conjugated with NW–SE faults – induced a major subsidence, permitting better development of the Pl-3 unit. On the contrary, NW–SE faults in the sector between Malaga and Nerja, and NE–SW faults in the Tirinesse basin, became practically inactive. Before the end of the Zanclean, the subsidence ceased also in the westernmost Betic basins, thus causing emersion, firstly in the sector between Torremolinos and Manilva and, slightly later, in the San Roque-Algeciras sector. Thus, the whole geodynamic activity conditioned the time–space evolution of the northern edge of the Alboran Sea, which was emerging throughout the Zanclean, successively from the E to the W. A similar E to W continentalization trend can be suggested for the Rifian Pliocene sectors when taking into account the Oued Laou-Tirinesse basins that emerged before the Malalyine one.Moreover, the unit boundaries do not coincide with those of the familiar Exxon coastal aggradational curve, but rather with the local or regional tectonic activity. Consequently, the correlation of the unit boundaries with those of the Pliocene deposits of the eastern Betic basins remains difficult. According to the biostratigraphical data, the Pl-1, Pl-2, and Pl-3 units correspond to the Pliocene-I by Montenat (1990), while the Pl-4 unit may be equivalent to the Pliocene-II.