P. Schmoldt, PhD - MTNet - DIAS

7. Geology of the Iberian Peninsula
Fig. 7.10.: a) Structural map of the Betic Cordillera with black dots denoting the location of MT recording sites and black lines
indicating the location of transects shown in this figure. A-A’, B-B’, C-C’) vertical slices of the 3D model crossing the CB2 body.
Therein, white dots show hypocentre locations within a 8 km margin of the respective profile, recorded since 1900. Dashed lines
indicate the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) inferred from the resistivity distribution, and labels D1, D2, and D3 refer to
features in the 3D model. From Rosell et al. [2010].
to the south [Lopez-Gomez et al., 2002] (Fig. 7.14). The basin was again separated from
the northern regions of the Iberian Basin (forming the Ebro and Duero Basins) during
Palaeogene Alpine convergence between Europe and Africa due to the resulting uplift of
the Iberian and Catalonian Coastal Ranges [Aurell et al., 2002; Lopez-Gomez et al., 2002;
Martin-Chivelet et al., 2002]. Thereafter, the Tajo Basin became the locus of Tertiary
sedimentation, establishing it as an intracratonic depocentre [Alonso-Zarza et al., 2002;
Gutierrez-Elorza et al., 2002]. It underwent little or no alpine deformation, but later
became subdivided due to the Pliocene uplift of the Altomira Range (Sierra de Altomira in
Spanish literature), a branch of the Iberian Range. The resulting subbasins are the Madrid
Basin and the much smaller Loranca Basin (also referred to as Intermediate Depression
or western sector of the Júcar Basin) to the north, and the Manchega Plain to the south
[de Vicente et al., 1996; Alonso-Zarza et al., 2002; Andeweg, 2002; Gibbons and Moreno,
2002a; Gutierrez-Elorza et al., 2002] (Fig. 7.12).
The Loranca Basin has been characterised as foreland basin produced by a westwardmoving
Iberian fold–thrust belt, possessing a 1 – 1.4 km thick layer of Eocene to Quaternary
sediments containing primarily sandstone, gravel, mudstones, limestone, gypsum,
and lacustrine carbonates [Gomez et al., 1996; Torres et al., 1997; Andeweg, 2002]. The
basin experienced a folding phase during the early Miocene, presumably due to the on-
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