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Variscan Suture Zone and Suspect Terranes in the NW Iberian Massif: Allochthonous Complexes of the Galicia-Trás os Montes Zone (NW Iberia)

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The Geology of Iberia: A Geodynamic Approach

Part of the book series: Regional Geology Reviews ((RGR))

Abstract

The NW Iberian Allochthon represents the suture of a peri-Gondwanan, Paleozoic ocean formed around the Cambro-Ordovician boundary but having registered renewed spreading during the Lower Devonian. The ocean separated a piece of continental crust detached from NW Gondwana from the northern and northwestern parts of present Africa. The separation was a consequence of slab roll-back of a wide, subducting oceanic lithosphere around 500 Ma. Early Variscan plate convergence closed the oceanic domain involving three subduction events between 400–365 Ma, and building an accretionary prism formed by the detached continental fragment, the new oceanic lithosphere and the external margin of Gondwana. The change of regime from subductive to collisional occurred at the Devonian-Carboniferous transition and was responsible for the emplacement of the Allochthon above the Central Iberian Autochthon.

Coordinator: J. R. Martínez Catalán.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Salamanca, 37008, Salamanca, Spain

    J. R. Martínez Catalán, J. Gómez Barreiro, A. López-Carmona & J. M. Benítez-Pérez

  2. Faculty of Science, Instituto Dom Luiz, University of Lisbon, Campo Grande, Edifício C8, Piso 3, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal

    Í. Dias da Silva

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, New University of Lisbon, Campus de Caparica, Quinta da Torre, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal

    M. Chichorro

  4. Departamento de Petrología y Geoquímica, Instituto de Geociencias (UCM, CSIC), Universidad Complutense, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    P. Castiñeiras, J. Abati, P. Andonaegui & J. Fernández-Suárez

  5. Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Ríos Rosas 23, 28003, Madrid, Spain

    P. González Cuadra

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Martínez Catalán, J.R. et al. (2019). Variscan Suture Zone and Suspect Terranes in the NW Iberian Massif: Allochthonous Complexes of the Galicia-Trás os Montes Zone (NW Iberia). In: Quesada, C., Oliveira, J. (eds) The Geology of Iberia: A Geodynamic Approach. Regional Geology Reviews. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10519-8_4

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