Seismic constraints on the three-dimensional geometry of low-angle intracrustal reflectors in the Southern Iberia Abyssal Plain

Abstract

Several lines of evidence suggest that simple shear rifting of the continental crust, in the formof low-angle detachment faulting, occurred during the final stages of continental breakupbetween West Iberia and the Grand Banks. The primary evidence for such faulting is theoccurrence of low-angle, high amplitude reflectors within the basement adjacent to the ocean–continent transition zone. Here we present a series of intersecting, depth migrated seismicreflection profiles that image one such reflector, the H-reflector, located on the southern edgeof Galicia Bank. ‘H’ lies beneath several boreholes drilled during ODP Legs 149 and 173,in a region where the oceanward extent of extended continental crust steps at least 150 kmwestward from its location in the southern Iberia Abyssal Plain to its location off the relativelyshallow Galicia Bank. In our profiles ‘H’ appears to define a surface that extends over a regionof at least 200 km2 and that dips down ?19? to the north, towards Galicia Bank. The profilesshow that a close affinity exists between ‘H’ and the most seaward continental crust. Based ongeophysical data and ODP drilling results, we infer that the basement above ‘H’ is composedof continental crust deformed by extensional faults into a series of wedge-shaped blocks andthin slivers. These basement wedges have a complex 3-D geometry. ‘H’ rises to the basementsurface on a number of the seismic profiles and appears to define locally the oceanward extentof continental fault blocks