The Role Of The Stike-Slip Tectonics In The Evolution Of The Alboran Sea, Western Mediterranean

The Alboran Basin is a Neogene extensional basin which originated and evolved since the early Miocene within a plate<br>tectonic setting of convergence between Iberia and Africa. The basin has been identified as formed by crustal stretching<br>and extensional tectonic from the early to the late Miocene. However, the current organization of the Alboran Sea basin<br>has resulted mainly from post-Miocene contractional tectonics superimposed on earlier extensional structures. The<br>present structural framework indicates that two sets of conjugate strike-slip systems (left-lateral faults with a NE-SW<br>trending, and right-lateral faults with a NW-SE trending; being 120• -130• the angle between the two strands) accounted<br>for a significant post-Messinian deformation of the Alboran Sea basin. The stress field evidenced by the wrench-tectonic<br>structures is consistent with the latest Neogene to Present Africa-Eurasie roughly N-S convergence plate kinematics in<br>the westernmost Mediterranean.