Oligocene to early Miocene tectono-sedimentary history of the Alicante region (SE Spain): implications for Western Mediterranean evolution

The Alicante region, situated at the intersection of major Western Mediterranean structural units, is unique in possessing a complete marine Oligocene to early Miocene record of both platform and slope deposits. Detailed analysis of three selected platform areas in the north of the region, each showing a different tectono-sedimentary history, and comparison with coeval slope deposits in the south of the region shows that: (a) during the Rupelian to early Chattian the region formed part of the Iberian microplate and can be considered the south-eastern continuation of the NW-SE-trending Iberian Chain (folding phase between 36 and 33 Ma, updoming event at 31–29 Ma, both induced by Pyrenean collision); (b) during the late Chattian to Aquitanian it was linked to the extensional, SW-NE-orientated Valencia Trough forming part of its western margin (rifting phases at 28 and 25 Ma); (c) from the Aquitanian-Burdigalian boundary (20 Ma) onward, the region underwent NW-directed compression due to Betic collision (folding phases at 20 and 17 Ma); (d) a foreland basin formed in the late Burdigalian (18–17 Ma), continuous from the Betic Cordilleras over the Alicante region to the Balearics; (e) a purely compressive regime was superseded by strike-slip tectonics at the Langhian—Serravallian boundary. The previously formulated hypotheses of coeval compression and extension with inferred hypothetical strike-slip or other faults in or near the Alicante region is rejected on the basis that compress ional and extensional tectonics are separated in time in the Alicante region.