Abstract
Determination of palaeomagnetic declinations can help quantify differential rotations of structural units about a vertical axis and can therefore constrain kinematic models. A palaeomagnetic study (105 sites) has been carried out on Jurassic to Eocene lithologies from the structural units in the Pyrenees which constitute the south-central cover thrust sheets (Böixols, Montsec and Sierras Marginales units) and also from the Cadi and Pedraforca units further east. They developed mainly by piggy-back thrusting sequence between Upper Cretaceous and Oligocene time.
Clockwise rotations ranging from 20° to 45° have been detected at sites associated with dextral oblique thrust ramps whereas those sites related to sinistral oblique thrust ramps exhibit anticlock-wise rotation. Furthermore there is palaeomagnetic evidence for non-rotational thrusting in the central area of the Bóixols and Montsec thrust sheets allowing straightforward balancing of structural cross-sections. This means that balancing of 2-D sections in these South-Pyrenean Central Units along the line of the ECORS seismic profile is permissible. Such an arrangement of the rotational components implies a greater total displacement in the central area where no substantial rotation occurred, while rotations along oblique ramps at the edges of the sheets might have occurred as a result of friction during thrust motion since the thrust transport direction (N-S) is not perpendicular with that of the oblique thrust plane.
Rotation of footwall pre- and syntectonic sediments during development of hangingwall imbricate thrust stacks is also reported from the Oliana anticline in the eastern margin of the Montsec thrust sheet. In addition, differential anticlockwise rotation of structural units within the Pedraforca area piggy-back thrust pile related to the piling up of the units are also evaluated.
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© 1992 K.R. McClay
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Dinarès, J., McClelland, E., Santanach, P. (1992). Contrasting rotations within thrust sheets and kinematics of thrust tectonics as derived from palaeomagnetic data: an example from the Southern Pyrenees. In: McClay, K.R. (eds) Thrust Tectonics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3066-0_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3066-0_24
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