Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Duarte, João C.
• Rosas, Filipe M.
• Terrinha, Pedro
• Gutscher, Marc-André
• Malavieille, Jacques
• Silva, Sónia
• Matias, Luis

Titel

Thrust–wrench interference tectonics in the Gulf of Cadiz (Africa–Iberia plate boundary in the North-East Atlantic): Insights from analog models

Ist Teil von

• Marine geology, 2011-11, Vol.289 (1), p.135-149

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

ScienceDirect Journals (5 years ago - present)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In the Gulf of Cadiz key segment of the Africa–Iberia plate boundary (North-East Atlantic ocean), three main different modes of tectonic interference between a recently identified wrench system (SWIM) and the Gulf of Cadiz Accretionary Wedge (GCAW) were tested through analog sand-box modeling: a) An active accretionary wedge on top of a pre-existent inactive basement fault; b) An active strike-slip fault cutting a previously formed, inactive, accretionary wedge; and c) Simultaneous activity of both the accretionary wedge and the strike-slip fault. The results we obtained and the comparison with the natural deformation pattern favor a tectonic evolution comprising two main steps: i) the formation of the Gulf of Cadiz Accretionary Wedge on top of inactive, Tethyan-related, basement faults (Middle Miocene to ~ 1.8 Ma); ii) subsequent reactivation of these basement faults with dextral strike-slip motion (~ 1.8 Ma to present) simultaneously with continued tectonic accretion in the GCAW. These results exclude the possibility of ongoing active SWIM wrench system cross-cutting an inactive GCAW structure. Our results also support a new interpretation of the SWIM wrench system as fundamentally resulting from strike-slip reactivation of an old (Tethyan-related) plate boundary. ► We study the Gulf of Cadiz segment of the Africa-Iberia plate boundary. ► Study based on bathymetry and MCS profiles, complemented with analog modeling. ► Tectonic interference between a strike-slip fault and an accretionary wedge. ► Results show that the SWIM faults and Gulf of Cadiz Accretionary Wedge are active. ► The SWIM system may correspond to the reactivation of the Tethyan plate boundary.