Abstract

Outcrop, borehole, seismic, paleontologic and paleomagnetic data have been combined in order to define the geometric evolution of the eastern and central Pyrenean fold-and-thrust belt and its adjacent foreland basin during Eocene and Oligocene times. Restoration of balanced sections within a concise temporal framework forms the basis for more reliable and detailed palinspastic reconstructions than previously attained for this part of the Pyrenean orogeny.

Introduction

The eastern and central part of the southern Pyrenees and related foreland Ebro basin display an unusually well-preserved geological record of the tectonic evolution of the chain. Numerous aspects of the compressional history of the south-eastern and southcentral Pyrenees have been recently delineated and provided an initial basis for detailed reconstructions of the kinematic development of the range. Within the adjacent foreland and piggyback basins, extensive paleomagnetostratigraphic sections provide good age control for the syntectonic sediments of the foreland basins.

The goal of this chapter is the construction of palinspastic maps ranging in age from the Early Eocene to the Early Oligocene showing the tectonic evolution of the eastern and central southern Pyrenees. These maps are constrained by both structural and temporal data sets. Two balanced and restored cross-sections extending from the undeformed foreland strata to the inner part of the chain provide the main structural framework. The cross-sections are constructed using geological surface information and the available subsurface data, including seismic lines, oil-well data and potash-well data.