PLIO-QUATERNARY EVOLUTION OF THE WEST ALBPRAN BASIN (W MEDITERRANEAN)

摘要

The Alboran Sea Basin, in the Westernmost Mediterranean, has been the site of multiple gas and oil exploration surveys since the 70's decade of the last century. The commercial interests in this basin have provided a dense network of multi-channel seismic profiles, mainly confined to the Spanish and Moroccan margin shelves. Since 1988, several research cruises have been also carried out in the Alboran Sea: single channel and multichannel seismic profiling, multibeam bathymetry, and side-scan sonar reconnaissances. Of particular interest is that the origin and tectonic evolution of the Alboran Basin was the subject of ODP Leg 161 drilling in the western Mediterranean (Comas et al. 1999). Data acquisition from the surveys carried out in 2000-2001 by ConocoPhillips in the West Alboran Basin (WAB) provide a dense network of high-quality multichannel reflection lines (～1530 km) (Figure 1). This contribution is devoted to characterize the basin configuration and evolution during the Pliocene to Recent, analyzing in particular the contribution of mud diapirism and tectonics to the more recent evolution of the basin (i.e. for the last 5 Ma).