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Cenozoic extension in the Western Mediterranean has been related to the dynamics of back-arc domains. Although, in most of its orogenic belts extension propagated into the fore-arc nappe domains. Here we revisit the structure, metamorphism and radiometric ages of the Tunisian Tell, where HP/LT rocks (350°C at 0.8 GPa), were exhumed by the sequential activity of extensional detachments after heating and decompression (410°C¿440°C at 0.6¿0.3 GPa) in a plate convergent setting. Normal faults thinning the Tunisian Tell detached at two different crustal levels. The shallower one cuts down into the Atlas Mesozoic sequence, involving Tellian Triassic evaporites in the hanging-wall forming halokinetic structures in the Mejerda basin late Miocene. The deeper-detachment bounds metamorphic domes formed by marbles and metapsammites from the Atlas domain. Illite crystallinity on Triassic rocks shows epizonal to anchizonal values, at deep and intermediate structural depths of the Tell-Atlas nappe belt, respectively. New U-Pb 49.78 ± 1.28 Ma rutile ages from Tellian metabasites, together with existing phlogopite 23¿17 Ma K-Ar ages in Atlas marbles from the footwall of the deepest detachment, indicate a polymetamorphic evolution. The Tell rocks underthrusted the Kabylian flysch in the early Eocene. Further, early Miocene shortening thrusted the metabasites over lower-grade sediments, producing HP/LT metamorphism and ductile stretching at the base of the Atlas belt. The exhumation of midcrustal roots of Western Mediterranean nappe belts after tectonic shortening is a common feature related to tearing at the edges of the subduction systems and inboard delamination of their subcontinental lithospheric mantle.

The Alboran Basin is located in the westernmost Mediterranean Sea. This basin was formed during the Miocene, and since the late Miocene, has been deformed due to the Iberia – Africa tectonic plates convergence, producing the contractive reorganization of some structures at the basin. Thus, the Alboran Basin is a seismically active area, which hosts the plate boundary between the European and African tectonic plates. This plate boundary has been traditionally considered a wide deformation zone, in which several small faults are accommodating the deformation. Based on a modern set of active seismic data, we were able for the first time to quantify the total slip accommodated by the most prominent tectonic structures of the area, late Miocene - early Pliocene in age. Our results show that the estimated total slip accommodated by the main fault systems may be similar (with error bounds) to the estimated plate convergence value since the Messinian time (~24 km). Thus, slip on that faults may have accommodated most of the Iberian – African plate convergence during the Plio-Quaternary, revealing that the contractive reorganization of the Alboran basin is focused on a few first-order structures that act as lithospheric boundaries, rather than widespread and diffuse along the entire basin. These results have implications not only for kinematic and geodynamic models, but also for seismic and tsunami hazard assessments. Using the most complete dataset until the date, we performed a revision of the geometry and characteristics of the main fault systems offshore. Based on this data, we perform a first appraisal of the seismogenic and tsunamigenic potential of the main fault systems offshore. Our simulations show that the seismogenic and tsunamigenic potential of the offshore structures of the Alboran Basin may be underestimated, and a further characterization of their associated hazard is needed

We study the structure of the Llevant ranges in Mallorca with special emphasis on the Cenozoic extensional evolution of the island, which we integrate in a new geodynamic model for the Westernmost Mediterranean. Mallorca underwent two Cenozoic rifting phases in the Oligocene and Serravallian, before and after the development of its Foreland Thrust Belt (FTB). The first extensional event produced Oligocene semigrabens (≈29–23 Ma) that were inverted during the Early-Middle Miocene (19–14 Ma) WNW-directed FTB development. The second rifting event produced the extensional collapse of the Mallorca FTB during the Serravallian (≈14–11 Ma). This later rifting was polyphasic, with two orthogonal extensional systems, producing first NE-SW, and then NW-SE extension. The Oligocene extension affected a major part of the Western Mediterranean, opening the Liguro-Provençal and other basins after the collapse of the Palaeogene AlKaPeCa orogen, and Mallorca, its former hinterland. Continued plate convergence nucleated a new subduction system in the Early Miocene that initiated along the Ibiza transform, producing the Mallorca WNW-directed FTB and subduction of the South-East Iberian passive margin. This process individualized the Betic-Rif slab and initiated its westward retreat. Serravallian extension occurred at the northern edge of the subduction system coeval to the Algero-Balearic basin opening. Extension initiated toward the SW direction of slab tearing and later rotated to a NW-SE direction, probably in response to flexural and isostatic rebound. Through these processes the Alboran domain archipelago was driven toward the southwest until the Late Miocene, contributing to the present isolation of Mallorca from its Betic hinterland.

In continental settings, seismic failure is generally restricted to crustal depth. Crustal structure is therefore an important proxy to evaluate seismic hazard of continental fault systems. Here we present a seismic velocity model across the Gibraltar Arc System, from the Eurasian Betics Range (South Iberian margin), across offshore East Alboran and Pytheas (African margin) basins, and ending onshore in North Morocco. Our results reveal the nature and configuration of the crust supporting the coexistence of three different crustal domains: the continental crust of the Betics, the continental crust of the Pytheas Basin (south Alboran Basin) and onshore Morocco, and a distinct domain formed of magmatic arc crust under the East Alboran Basin. The magmatic arc under the East Alboran Basin is characterized by a velocity structure containing a relatively high‐velocity lower crust (~7 km/s) bounded at the top and base by reflections. The lateral extension of this crust is mapped integrating a second perpendicular wide‐angle seismic profile along the Eastern Alboran basin, together with basement samples, multibeam bathymetry, and a grid of deep‐penetrating multichannel seismic profiles. The transition between crustal domains is currently unrelated to extensional and magmatic processes that formed the basin. The abrupt transition zones between the different crustal domains support that they are bounded by crustal‐scale active fault systems that reactivate inherited structures. Seismicity in the area is constrained to upper‐middle crust depths, and most earthquakes nucleate outside of the magmatic arc domain

The Alboran Basin is located in the western-most Mediterranean Sea and is surrounded by the Gibraltar-Betic and Rif orogenic arc. Geological evidence suggests that the most important phase of formation started in the early-to-mid-Miocene. Currently two conflicting models are discussed for its formation: One model proposes contractive tectonics producing strike-slip faults and folds with sedimentation occurring in synclinal basins and in regions of subsidiary extension in transtensional fault segments. A second model proposes slab roll back that caused contraction at the front of the arc and coeval overriding plate bending and extension and associated arc magmatism. However, this phase has been partially masked by late Miocene to present contractive structures, caused by the convergence of Africa and Iberia. Two German/Spanish collaborative research projects provided excellent new seismological and seismic data. Onshore/offshore earthquake monitoring received a wealth of local earthquake data to study seismotectonics and yielded the average 1D velocity structure of the Alboran/Betics/Rif domain. In the Alboran Basin most earthquakes occur below 20 km along a diffuse fault zone, crossing the Alboran Sea from the Moroccan to the Spanish coast. Further, earthquakes along the northern portion of the Alboran Ridge show thrust mechanisms and compression roughly normal to the vector of plate convergence between Africa and Iberia. A 250 km long seismic refraction and wide-angle profile was acquired coincident with the existing multi-channel seismic (MCS) ESCI-Alb2 line using the German research vessel Meteor. Shots fired with a 64-litre airgun array were recorded on 24 ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) and ocean-bottom hydrophone (OBH) stations. The profile run roughly along the axis of the basin, circa 65 km off the coast of Morocco, north of the Alboran Ridge. It continues in an ENE direction to end north of the Algeria coast. Using seismic tomography we mapped the crustal an

Multichannel seismic reflection images across the transition between the east Alborán and the Algero-Balearic basins show how crustal thickness decreases from about 5 s two-way traveltime (TWTT, ∼15 km thick) in the west (east Alborán basin) to ∼2 s TWTT typical of oceanic crust (∼6 km thick) in the east (Algero-Balearic basin). We have differentiated three different crustal domains in this transition, mainly on the basis of crustal thickness and seismic signature. Boundaries between the three crustal domains are transitional and lack evidence for major faults. Tilted blocks related to extension are very scarce and all sampled basement outcrops are volcanic, suggesting a strong relationship between magmatism and crustal structure. Stratigraphic correlation of lithoseismic units with sedimentary units of southeastern Betic basins indicates that sediments onlap igneous basement approximately at 12 Ma in the eastern area and at 8 Ma in the western area. Linking seismic crustal structure with magmatic geochemical evidence suggests that the three differentiated crustal domains may represent, from west to east, thin continental crust modified by arc magmatism, magmatic-arc crust, and oceanic crust. Middle to late Miocene arc and oceanic crust formation in the east Alborán and Algero-Balearic basins, respectively, occurred during westward migration of the Gibraltar accretionary wedge and shortening in the Betic-Rif foreland basins. Arc magmatism and associated backarc oceanic crust formation were related to early to middle Miocene subduction and rollback of the Flysch Trough oceanic basement. Subduction of this narrow slab beneath the Alborán basin was coeval with collision of the Alborán domain with the Iberian and African passive margins and subsequent subcontinental-lithosphere edge delamination along the Betic-Rif margins.

Thermobarometry using mica-chlorite local equilibria and structural analysis of three tectonic units of the Alpujarride complex in the southeastern Betics indicate that rocks that underwent low-pressure/low-temperature metamorphism are found below higher-grade blueschist facies rocks. Moreover, the high-pressure/low-temperature (HP/LT) units underwent contrasting (P-T) and structural evolutions. The structurally highest unit was exhumed in a typical postorogenic high-temperature geothermal context in the andalusite stability field, while the intermediate unit was exhumed following a cooling and decompression P-T path within the kyanite stability field. The superposition of the three units occurred during the lower Miocene related with north directed brittle-ductile shear zones and associated north vergent overturned folds, after postorogenic exhumation of the top unit. The coexistence of thrusting with lower and middle Miocene brittle extensional systems active in shallower levels of the Alboran orogenic wedge implies that extension was synorogenic. These data strengthen the hypothesis that rocks thinned by postorogenic extension during the latest Oligocene and lower Miocene were entrained in the lower to middle Miocene Alboran orogenic wedge.