Tectono-climatic evolution of a Neogene intramontane basin (Late Miocene Carboneras subbasin, southeast Spain): revelations from basin mapping and bi…

2002

Exceptional 3-D exposures of fault blocks forming a 5km x 10 km clastic sediment-starved, marine basin (Carboneras subbasin, southeast Spain) allow a test of the response of carbonate sequence stratigraphic architectures to climatic and tectonic forcing. Temperate and tropical climatic periods recorded in biofacies serve as a chronostratigraphic framework to reconstruct the status of the basin within three time-slices (late Tortonian---early Messinian, late Messinian, Pliocene). Structural maps and isopach maps trace out the distribution of fault blocks, faults, and over time, their relative motions, propagational patterns and life times, which demonstrate a changing layout of the basin bec…