Publication: The Late Palaeozoic-Early Mesozoic from the Catalan Pyrenees (Spain): 60 Myr of environmental evolution in the frame of the western peri-Tethyan palaeogeography
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Publication Date
2015-11
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Elsevier
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Abstract
The Eastern Catalan Pyrenees form the southernmost segment of the Pyrenean Axial Zone. They experienced complex multistage process as the result of both the Variscan and the Pyrenean orogenic cycles. After the Late Palaeozoic, several small extensional sub-basins were filled by continental successions as a response to the changing tectonic setting within the frame of the Southwestern Europe. This stratigraphic record, perfectly exposed in the studied Eastern Pyrenean areas, preserves the signatures of the Late Palaeozoic Pangea break-up during the progressive dismantling of the Variscan chain, up to the Triassic diffused extension. Despite structural network being severely affected by Cenozoic reworking, the stratigraphic framework can be unravelled by the detailed sedimentological and stratigraphical analysis of the well-exposed sequences.
In short, this paper addresses facies patterns and architectural elements of Late Carboniferous-Permian-Triassic continental sections studied in the Catalan Pyrenees and aims to use these signatures for correlation not only at a regional scale but also within the broader picture of the southwestern Europe. Our stratigraphical reconstruction clearly demonstrates that the thick studied succession consists of fluvial-lacustrine basal units affected by intense volcanic activity and overlaying predominantly fluvial fining upwards units. For each unit several lithofacies, architectural elements and bounding surfaces of different order have been identified and their lateral and vertical staking characterized. Deposition and erosion processes are controlled by alternating periods of tectonic activity producing different stages of high and low subsidence, the uplift of the sub-basin margins and subsequent extended erosive events marked by angular unconformities. On the strength of the major rank bounding surfaces analysis, the studied sedimentary packages have been grouped into different tectono-stratigraphic units and then correlated; they have been contextualized within the latest palaeogeographic reconstructions of the studied sector, contributing to detail the role of the study area within the frame of the S European palaeogeography.