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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1996; v. 105; p. 101-109;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1996.105.01.09
© 1996 Geological Society of London

Western Mediterranean

Consequences of post-collisional deformation on the reconstruction of the East Pyrenees

P. Keller1 & U. Gehring2

1 Departamento de Geofísica y Meteorología, Universidad Complutense, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain
2 Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Post-collisional structures are generally ignored in tectonic reconstructions of the Pyrenees. The South Pyrenean thrust belt is characterized by different tectonic rotations about vertical axes. A new statistical analysis of palaeomagnetic data shows that the observed rotations are homogeneous within discrete zones which only partly coincide with the tectonic units of the thrust belt. The combination of the palaeomagnetic information with structural and sedimentological data demonstrates that the actual structure of the southeastern Pyrenees is due to interference of Palaeogene (collisional) and Neogene (post-collisional) deformations. Accounting for this structural interference leads to significantly less shortening than calculated by earlier reconstructions of the southeastern Pyrenees. This example clearly shows that the small contribution made by post-collisional tectonics to the overall deformation can strongly influence the structure of orogenic belts.