The complex crustal structure of the boundary zone between the Iberian and European plates, from the western Pyrenees to the Cantabrian Mountains, is probed by three‐dimensional (3‐D) gravity and magnetic modeling constrained by deep seismic profiles. The 3‐D modeling results support the presence of a continuous Iberian crustal root and suggest that the geometry of the orogenic belt that formed in latest Cretaceous‐Tertiary times along the northern margin of Iberia was conditioned by oblique structures separating areas characterized by different tectonic styles. In the western Pyrenees and the Basque‐Cantabrian basin (a thick Mesozoic basin presently incorporated to the Pyrenean‐Cantabrian belt), the relatively narrow thinning of the crust inherited from the Mesozoic rifting stage conditioned a structural style in which portions of the southward indenting European lower crust are interpreted to be back thrusted toward the north and uplifted to shallow depths, promoting the appearance of significant potential field anomalies. In the Basque‐Cantabrian basin, the strongest aeromagnetic anomaly of the whole Iberian Mainland is superimposed on the eastern part of a well‐defined positive gravity anomaly, similar in amplitude and wavelength to those located along the North Pyrenean Zone. These observations suggest that the eastern part of the dense, lower crustal causative body is strongly magnetized and may correspond to a gabbroic cumulate originated in the axis of the ancient Mesozoic rift. To the west, Tertiary compression affected the North Iberian (Cantabrian) passive continental margin, whose geometry and inherited structures conditioned the formation of a double crustal delamination and the uplift of the Cantabrian Mountains.

Abstract. A three-dimensional gravity modeling combined with integrated heat flow and elevation modeling is conducted to map out the crustal and lithospheric mantle thickness in the Alboran Basin, in the westernmost Mediterranean. A "sediment"-corrected Bouguer anomaly has been derived using a depth-to-the-basement map and densities determined from well logs and seismic data. The gravity effect of the base of the lithosphere has been removed from the sediment-corrected Bouguer anomaly to obtain a "crustal" Bouguer anomaly, which has been inverted for crustal thickness. The resulting lithospheric structure is further constrained by elevation data under the assumption of local isostasy. The low residual elevation anomalies obtained (_+100 m in average) suggest that the area is in local isostasy, particularly the medium-and long-wavelength topography features.

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).

Abstract. The oblique convergence of Eurasia and Iberia since the Early Cretaceous, caused the formation of the Pyrenean intracontinental collisional orogen in the east, and progressed to continent-ocean collision with subduction of the Bay of Biscay oceanic crust beneath the North Iberian Margin in the west. Two deep multichannel seismic profiles (IAM-12 and ESCIN-4), integrated with gravity modeling and other geological and geophysical data, provide the crustalscale architecture of this margin and its tectonic evolution during the convergence. The North Iberian Margin is modeled with a south or south-southeast dipping oceanic crust beneath the outer part of the continental shelf. Mesozoic basins on the shelf were inverted during the Tertiary, and compressional activity continued until recent times in the ESCIN-4 section, while a shallower, probably Neogene age basin is subjected to active recent erosion in the IAM-12 section. In the oceanic areas, a marginal trough deepens and widens toward the east as a result of the regional east dip of the oceanic basement. The accretionary prism increases in size from west to east (18-56 km), and its internal structure and morphology varies along strike. The prism is buried by postconvergence sediments in both sections and in the iAM-12 section appears to have been active at least during Lutetian to Burdigalian times. The crustal-scale structure of the North Iberian Margin is that of an arrested subduction zone in which a remnant oceanic basin was being consumed near two continental plates that collided obliquely.