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Thrust systems of the Southwest Pyrenees and their control over basin subsidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

J. P. Turner  and
P. L. Hancock
J. P. Turner
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, Department of Geology, Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, U.K.
P. L. Hancock
Affiliation:
University of Bristol, Department of Geology, Wills Memorial Building, Queen's Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, U.K.
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Abstract

There are two thrust systems in the Southwest Pyrenees: a NW-SE trending, thin-skin system exposed in the post-Triassic cover and a larger, thick-skin system of NE-SW thrusts in the Palaeozoic basement. The ‘cover’ thrust system propagated and migrated both southward and westward in response to the non-orthogonal collision of Iberia with Europe during Palaeogene mountain building. The ‘basement’ thrust system is interpreted to be a longer-lived structure, initiated during the extensional tectonic regime in mid Cretaceous time, and inverted during the main episode of Pyrenean collision. A model in which interaction of the two thrust systems controlled the timing and magnitude of thrust-induced, flexural subsidence is presented. The development of the basement thrust system caused regional subsidence along the South Pyrenean foreland margin that was subsequently halted by local uplift associated with the west-migratingcover thrust system.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 127 , Issue 5 , September 1990 , pp. 383 - 392
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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