The Geology of Iberia – A Geodynamic Approach, Volume 2 The Variscan Cycle

About this book

Taking a new global approach, this unique book provides an updated review of the geology of Iberia and its continental margins from a geodynamic perspective. Owing to its location close to successive plate margins, Iberia has played a pivotal role in the geodynamic evolution of the Gondwanan, Rheic, Pangea, Tethys s.l. and Eurasian plates over the last 600 Ma of Earth's history. The geological record starts with the amalgamation of Gondwana in the Neoproterozoic succeeded by the rifting and spreading of the Rheic ocean; its demise, which led to the amalgamation of Pangea in the late Paleozoic; the rifting and spreading of several arms of the Neotethys ocean in the Mesozoic Era and their ongoing closure, which was responsible for the Alpine orogeny. The significant advances in the last 20 years have attracted international research interest in the geology of the Iberian Peninsula.

This volume presents the most comprehensive, careful and updated description of the Variscan cycle in Iberia. This volume focuses in the different geological events since the Cambrian-Early Ordovician rift until the late Variscan orocline formations including magmatic and metamorphic evolution.

Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. The Cambrian-Early Ordovician rift stage in the Gondwanan units of the Iberian Massif
Chapter 3. Early Ordovician-Devonian passive margin stage in the Gondwanan units of the Iberian Massif
Chapter 4. Variscan suture zone and suspect terranes in the NW Iberian Massif: Allochthonous complexes of the Galicia-Tras os Montes Zone
Chapter 5. SW Iberia Variscan suture zone: Oceanic affinity units
Chapter 6. South Portuguese Zone: a continental affinity exotic unit
Chapter 7. The Finisterra-Leon-Mid German Cristalline Rise Domains; proposal of a new terrane in the Variscan Chain
Chapter 8. Paleozoic basement of the Pyrenees
Chapter 9. Paleozoic basement of the Betic Cordillera
Chapter 10. Variscan orogeny: Deformation and structure
Chapter 11. Variscan syn-orogenic basins
Chapter 12. Variscan metamorphism
Chapter 13. Variscan magmatism
Chapter 14. Late/post-Variscan orocline formation

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Biography

Cecilio Quesada's professional career was based at Instituto Geologico Minero de Espana (Spanish Geological Survey), until he retired from there in 2013. He is currently an Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Geological Sciences, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, where he also served temporarily as an Associate Professor. As a "survey person", his research interests, past and present, include geological mapping, regional geology, tectonics and geochronology, mainly focused on the Variscan orogen in its global context. He has participated in ten IGCP projects since 1979, and is currently involved in Project 648: Supercontinent cycles & Global Geodynamics.

José Tomás Oliveira holds a Ph.D. and Agregacao (Portuguese postdoctoral degree). He is a geologist and is currently collaborating at Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Geologia, former Geological Survey of Portugal, where he acted also as Head of the Geology and Mineral Resources departments. As a survey geologist, his main activities have focused on regional geological mapping in Portugal and Mozambique, with a particular interest in stratigraphy, clastic sedimentology and basin analysis. He has been an Invited Professor at universities in Portugal and Angola, author and editor of several geological maps, and was co-editor of the recently published Geological Map of Portugal and Spain, 2015, scale 1:1,000,000.