No abstract

and Antarctica for the last 200 Myr are proposed. Computation of these APW paths is based upon the latest version (4.5a) of the Global Paleomagnetic Database (GPMDB), a revised global plate tectonic model since the Early Jurassic, and a new technique for generating smoothed APW paths. The smoothing technique includes the following steps: (1) pre-selection of palaeopoles, including pre-filtering parameters (number of sites, number of samples per site, 95 per cent confidence circle about mean direction, cleaning procedure, and time uncertainty); (2) generation of palaeolatitude and declination plots for a reference site on each continent that combines palaeopoles via a global plate tectonic circuit; (3) independent spline regression analyses of the palaeolatitude and declination plots; (4) removal of palaeolatitude or declination data that deviate by more than 10 • from the regression curves (post-filtering process); (5) generation of synthetic APW paths from the resulting palaeolatitude and declination plots. These synthetic APW paths are then rotated into African coordinates to determine the best-fit APW path and a global palaeomagnetic reference frame. Four representative plate tectonic reconstructions and global plate velocity fields are presented for the three time intervals that correspond to globally synchronous changes in plate motion.Plate tectonic reconstructions are based upon hierarchical data structures that describe the relative positions between pairs of plates. Each position of a plate A in the geological past is specified through the Euler pole and angle of a finite rotation that carries this plate from the present position to the position assumed at time t relative to a plate B, which is considered at rest with respect to the present geographical frame of reference. Hence, all the rotation poles included in a plate tectonic model are expressed through standard geographical coordinates. However, in these tree-like structures a reference continent occupies the topmost node. The motion of this reference plate must be first determined with respect to an external reference frame. Then, a transformation must be found that translates coordinates relative to the external frame into standard geographical coordinates. The identification of a physically meaningful external reference frame is one of the most interesting fields of research in plate tectonics. In this paper we use palaeomagnetic data to determine the orientation of the root continent with respect to a palaeomagnetic frame of reference.This determination, as well as the translation of the palaeomagnetic coordinates into the corresponding geographical coordinates, requires two basic assumptions.A first assumption is that the Earth's time-averaged palaeomagnetic field can be modelled through a spherical harmonic expansion having tesseral and sectoral coefficients equal to zero. This geocentric axial hypothesis is justified by the observation that the field is calculated by averaging the data over intervals of time that are supposed to be sufficien...

A new central Pangaea fit (type A) is proposed for the late Ladinian (230 Ma), together with a plate motions model for the subsequent phases of rifting, continental breakup and initial\ud spreading in the central Atlantic. This model is based on: (1) a reinterpretation of the process of formation of the East Coast Magnetic Anomaly along the eastern margin of North America\ud and the corresponding magnetic anomalies at the conjugate margins of northwest Africa and the Moroccan Meseta; (2) an analysis of major rifting events in the central Atlantic, Atlas and\ud central Mediterranean and (3) a crustal balancing of the stretched margins of North America, Moroccan Meseta and northwest Africa. The process of fragmentation of central Pangaea can be described by three major phases spanning the time interval from the late Ladinian (230 Ma) to the Tithonian (147.7 Ma). During the first phase, from the late Ladinian (230 Ma) to the latest Rhaetian (200 Ma), rifting proceeded along the eastern margin of North America, the northwest African margin and theHigh, Saharan and Tunisian Atlas, determining the formation of a separate Moroccan microplate at the interface between Gondwana and Laurasia. During the second phase, from the latest Rhaetian (200 Ma) to the late Pliensbachian (185 Ma), oceanic crust started forming between the East Coast and Blake Spur magnetic anomalies, whereas the Morrocan Meseta simply continued to rift away from North America. During this time interval, the Atlas rift reached its maximum extent. Finally, the third phase, encompassing the\ud time interval from the late Pliensbachian (185 Ma) to chron M21 (147.7 Ma), was triggered by the northward jump of the main plate boundary connecting the central Atlantic with the Tethys area. Therefore, as soon as rifting in the Atlas zone ceased, plate motion started along complex fault systems between Morocco and Iberia, whereas a rift/drift transition occurred in the northern segment of the central Atlantic, between Morocco and the conjugate margin of Nova Scotia. The inversion of the Atlas rift and the subsequent formation of the Atlas mountain belt occurred during the Oligocene–early Miocene time interval. In the central Atlantic, this event was associated with higher spreading rates of the ridge segments north of the Atlantis FZ. An estimate of 170 km of dextral offset of Morocco relative to northwest Africa, in the\ud central Atlantic, is required by an analysis of marine magnetic anomalies. Five plate tectonic reconstructions and a computer animation are proposed to illustrate the late Triassic and\ud Jurassic process of breakup of Pangaea in the central Atlantic and Atlas regions

S U M M A R YThe tectonic history of the Western Mediterranean region during the Oligocene and Early Miocene is illustrated through a series of plate reconstructions, from chron C13n to chron C6n. The reconstructions are based on a new interpretation of published magnetic anomaly data and two-ships seismic data, and their integration with known geological constraints, in order to determine style and timing of the backarc extension processes in the Liguro-Provençal, Valencia and Algerian basins. In particular, a reinterpretation of the regional magnetic anomaly field allowed the calculation of the instantaneous Euler poles associated with the motion of 11 microplates relative to Eurasia and Iberia. Furthermore, a quantitative analysis of the acoustic basement morphology and the balancing of deep crustal profiles were used to estimate the closure and pre-rift rotation angles associated with the Euler poles of opening of the Ligurian, Provençal, Valencia and Algerian basins. This rigorous reconstruction of the geometry of the pre-rift continental margins of Iberia and Eurasia could furnish important insights into the study of Mediterranean tectonics for older times.

This paper presents a new southern North Atlantic plate model from Late Cretaceous to present, with the aim of constraining the kinematics of the Iberian plate during the last 83.5 Myr. This model is presented along with a detailed isochron map generated through the analysis of 3 aeromagnetic tracks and ~400 ship tracks from the National Centers for Environmental Information database. We present a new technique to obtain well‐constrained estimates of the Iberia‐North America plate motions from magnetic anomalies, overcoming the scarcity of large‐offset fracture zones and transform faults. We build an integrated kinematic model for NW Africa, Morocco, Iberia, Europe, and North America, which shows that the deformation is partitioned between Pyrenees and Betic‐Rif orogenic domain during the Late Cretaceous‐Oligocene time interval. In the Eastern Betics domain, the calculated amount of NW Africa‐Iberia convergence is ~80 km between 83.5 and 34 Ma, followed by ~150 km since the Oligocene. The motion of Iberia relative to Europe in the Central Pyrenees is characterized by overall NE directed transpressional motion during the Campanian and the Paleocene, followed by NW directed transpressional movement until the Lutetian and overall NNW directed convergence from Bartonian to Chattian. This motion occurs along the axis of the Bay of Biscay from the Santonian–Campanian boundary to the middle Priabonian, subsequently jumping to King's Trough at Anomaly 17 (36.62 Ma).