Quaternary deformation of the Bajo Segura blind fault (eastern Betic Cordillera, Spain) revealed by high-resolution reflection profiling

The blind reverse Bajo Segura Fault is located at the eastern extreme of the Trans-Alboran shear zone (Betic Cordillera, southeast Iberian Peninsula). The surface expression of recent activity of this blind ENE–WSW fault is represented by coseismic surface anticlines and growth synclines on both sid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geological magazine 2002-05, Vol.139 (3), p.331-341
Main Authors: ALFARO, P., ANDREU, J. M., ESTÉVEZ, A., SORIA, J. M., TEIXIDÓ, T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
active faults
active tectonics
applied (geophysical surveys & methods)
Bajo Segura Fault
Betic Cordillera
blind faults
Cenozoic
deformation
Europe
faults
Geology
geophysical methods
geophysical profiles
geophysical surveys
Geophysics
high-resolution methods
Iberian Peninsula
neotectonics
Plate tectonics
Quaternary
reflection methods
seismic methods
seismic profiles
seismicity
Seismology
shear zones
Southern Europe
Spain
Structural geology
surveys
tectonics
Trans-Alboran shear zone
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Summary:The blind reverse Bajo Segura Fault is located at the eastern extreme of the Trans-Alboran shear zone (Betic Cordillera, southeast Iberian Peninsula). The surface expression of recent activity of this blind ENE–WSW fault is represented by coseismic surface anticlines and growth synclines on both sides of the anticlines. In the synclines, the deformation of the most recent Quaternary materials is obscured by a sedimentary unit more than 30 m thick which was deposited during the later part of the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. The present study reports three high-resolution seismic profiles made in the northern growth syncline, which was the one developed most by the Bajo Segura Fault. In these seismic profiles we recognize the boundary between pre-growth strata and growth strata. This marker, Early Pliocene in age, dates the start of the activity of this blind reverse fault. The geometry observed in the seismic profiles of the syntectonic strata, dating from the Late Pliocene and Quaternary, indicates a limb rotation folding mechanism. On seismic profile 2, the complex geometry of the Benejúzar anticline forelimb can be attributed to several splay faults close to the surface of Bajo Segura Fault.
ISSN:0016-7568
1469-5081
DOI:10.1017/S0016756802006568