Mesozoic rotation of Iberia: Subduction in the Pyrenees?

Abstract

Following on paleomagnetic studies in the sixties showing ~ 35° counterclockwise rotation of Iberia during the Mesozoic, two classes of scenarios have been proposed for the motion history of Iberia which are currently competing. One class infers convergence in the Pyrenees in response to a scissor-type opening of the Bay of Biscay, described by a pole of rotation for Iberia with respect to Europe located within the Bay. The other class of scenarios assumes extensional or transtensional motions in the Pyrenees, compatible with opening of the Bay of Biscay described by a pole of rotation located in northern France. Although plate-kinematic studies over the last decade increasingly support the scissor-type model, geological studies in the Pyrenees have accumulated arguments in favour of an extensional or transtensional regime in the Pyrenean realm.

We perform a detailed plate-kinematic analysis of the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous motion history of Iberia and surrounding plates with respect to Europe. A total of six sea-floor reconstructions in combination with paleomagnetic studies onland allow to recognize four distinct stages. (1) Early rifting and ultraslow spreading since the Kimmeridgean led to the development of an oceanic Neotethys domain north of Iberia. (2) This was followed by ~ 35° CCW rotation of Iberia during the Aptian, kinematically linked to progressive opening of the Bay of Biscay. (3) Motions in the Bay became stagnant during the Albian till Santonian, followed by the latest stages of spreading in the Bay, and (4) onset of largely Tertiary continental collision between Iberia and Europe eventually leading to the present day structure of the belt.

Our analysis confirms the results of previous studies indicating that extensional or transtensional motions in the Pyrenean realm during opening of the Bay of Biscay and concurrent rotation of Iberia are incompatible with plate-kinematic reconstructions based on sea-floor anomalies. This invites a reappraisal of the geological data. Convergence in the Pyrenean realm during opening of the Bay and rotation of Iberia was accommodated by up to 300 km of subduction of mantle-dominated ocean floor exhumed during the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous. The stagnant stage in the progressive opening of the Bay indicates that convergence in the Pyrenean realm virtually came to a halt during the Albian. We hypothesize that the lithosphere previously subducted during Aptian convergence became gravitationally unstable, leading to asthenospheric upwelling and consequent magmatism and high temperature metamorphism in the overlying European margin now exposed in the North Pyrenean Zone. Aside from these magmatic and thermal effects, an enhanced gravitational potential energy of the remaining lithosphere column underlain by shallow asthenosphere may have led to a stress state allowing belt-parallel extensional deformation. Such a detachment scenario, inspired by plate-kinematic results, may provide an alternative to explain many of the geological data commonly quoted to infer a transtensional or extensional tectonic regime in the Pyrenees during the rotation of Iberia