Deformation related to Miocene westward translation in the core of the Betic zone Implications on the tectonic interpretation of the Betic orogen (Spain)

Abstract

The Cenozoic westward motion of the Betic-Rif internal zone (“Alboran block”) between Iberia and Africa is constrained by paleogeographic considerations and by wrench faulting which affects both sides of the external zones. However, in the Alboran domain itself there was so far no evidence of significant internal deformation related to this westward displacement which was consequently consider as an en bloc” motion. Our work, in Eastern Andalucia, demonstrates that the main tectonic units building up the Betic zone should be regarded as large-scale tectonic sheets with a typical duplex style. The direction of the tectonic transport is to the West. At meso-scale, the major structures exhibit a combination of hindward and foreward dipping imbricates on the respective east and west sides of antiformal stacks or “rigid cores”. On a broader scale, the same geometric framework appears on both east and west sides of the Sierra Nevada window which we interpret as a tectonic culmination on the hangingwall of a Subbetic décollement zone. The development of this tectonics, in retrogressive metamorphic conditions, postdates the ductile deformation of the internal complexes. The morpho-tectonic relationships between the culmination of the metamorphic cores and the Neogene basins give a way to date the westward motion of the “Alboran System of Nappes” of the middle and upper Miocene.