The Rift and Continent‐Ocean Transition Structure Under the Tagus Abyssal Plain West of the Iberia
Irene Merino, César R. Ranero, Manel Prada, Valentı́ Sallarès, Ingo Grevemeyer
Abstract
Abstract The West Iberia margin is the focus of intense research since the 1980s, with some of the most exemplary geophysical cross‐sections and drilling expeditions. Those data sets have been used to create conceptual models of rifting used as a template to interpret margins worldwide. We present two collocated ∼350 km long lines of multi‐channel seismic (MCS) streamer data and wide‐angle seismic (WAS) data collected across the Tagus Abyssal Plain (TAP). We use travel‐times of first arrivals identified at WAS and reflected seismic phases identified at both WAS and MCS records to jointly invert for the P wave velocity ( V p) distribution and the geometry of a sediment unconformity, the top of the basement, and the Moho boundary. The V p model shows that the TAP basement is more complex than previously inferred, presenting abrupt boundaries between five domains. Domain I under the foot of the slope and Domain III under the abyssal plain display V p values and gradients of thin continental crust. In between, Domain II displays a steep V p gradient and high V p values at shallow depth that support that basement is made of exhumed partly serpentinized mantle. Domain IV and Domain V, further oceanward, have oceanic crust V p structure. The new results support an unanticipated complex rift history during the initial separation of Iberia and America. We propose a geodynamic scenario characterized by two phases of extension separated by a jump of the locus of extension, caused by the northward propagation of the oceanic spreading center during the J‐anomaly formation, which terminated continental rifting.