Field Trip 3

Topic: Relationships between Tectonic Activity and the Sedimentary infilling of the Cenozoic Madrid Basin: The Linking Area between the Spanish Central System and the Iberian Range

Authors: Alfonso Muñoz, José Arribas, Eugenia Arribas, Josefa Herreo and José Ignacio Escavy (University Complutense - Spain)

Field trip leaders: Alfonso Muñoz, Josefa Herreo (University Complutense - Spain)

Date: Friday 05 June 2015, 08:00 - 19:00 hrs.
 

Field trip description

The Tajo Basin is a Cenozoic continental basin that is bounded mainly by thrust faults. The basin geometry and the sedimentary infilling are closely related to the tectonic evolution of the Central System and the Iberian Chain. The well exposed compressive structures along the Central System and Iberian Chain Borders as well as data from deep boreholes, seismic and gravity surveys are used to reconstruct the sedimentary infilling of the Cenozoic Madrid Basin.

Up to eight main depositional sequences and seismic units are recognized from the Paleogene, the latter four of these sedimentary sequences were deposited in a continental environment, under the influence of tectonic activity in the Central System, the Iberian Chain and the Sierra de Altomira. The sedimentary infill shows an overall coarsening-upward trend from upper Cretaceous formations to syn-tectonic conglomerate deposits, followed by a fining-upward sequence and moderate reactivation of some faults during the late Miocene–Pliocene. The syn-tectonic sediments are Oligocene–early Miocene in age. The foredeep is oriented northeast–southwest and shows a sediment thickness of up to 3800 m in areas close to the Central System. Structural and sedimentological analysis, allow to reconstruct a complex evolutionary history with strong changes both in depocenters, as well in the sedimentary environments and sources provenance, in a relatively small extension area.

* Lunch bag will be included