Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Simón, J. L. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Erosion-controlled geometry of buckle fold interference

¹ Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain

Refolding structures in the Aliaga area (Iberian Chain, Spain) show how erosion can exert a control on the geometry of buckle fold interference. Early Miocene ENE-trending buckle folds are superposed on a large NNW-SSE anticline (Eocene–Oligocene). North of Aliaga, the earlier hinge zone in the competent limestone unit controlling buckling (Urgon facies, Lower Cretaceous) constitutes a mechanical obstacle to refolding, which induces development of essentially conical type 2 interference. To the south, erosional removal of the hinge zone at that competent unit allowed the near-vertical eastern limb to behave as independent layers, being refolded into cylindrical, near-vertical-axis folds showing a snake-like map pattern. Lower Miocene conglomerates containing pebbles of Jurassic origin, whose source area was the core of the earlier NNW-SSE–trending anticline, indicate that this Jurassic core had been effectively exhumed before refolding occurred. In this way, snake-like folds constitute a new case of erosion-controlled tectonic structure.

Key Words: superposed folds • erosion control • Iberian Cordillera • Spain