Rocas volcanoclasticas submarinas de edad Burdigaliense inferior en el sector del Mencal (Zona Subbetica, Cordillera Bética central). Contexto sedimentario y tectónico

Abstract

This paper discuss the petrologic features of volcaniclastic rocks and its geodynamic implications. This rocks are included in the pelagic marine sediments of lower Burdigalian from the Río Fardes region (Subbetic Zone, Betic Cordillera). There are two different kinds of volcaniclastic rocks: vitric and feldspathic sandstones, and vitric siltstones, both of them from fragmental volcanic emissions of a calc-alkaline rhyodacitic magma. In these rocks there are planktonic Foraminifera that indicate volcanism occurring in a submarine environment. The emission focus is placed close to the present-day location of these rocks, due to low dispersion of the pyroclastic fragments into the pelagic marine deposits. During lower Burdigalian several N70ºE strike-slip faults was working simultanously with the pelagic marine sedimentation. In this paper it is assumed that these faults are connected with the volcanic activity. During the lower Miocene the orogenic deformation of the Sudiberian PaJeomargin (External Betic Zones) are related to fracturarion and volcanism, in coincidence with a major tectonic event, best known as Burdigalian Paroxysm (Hermes, 1985).