New Palaeomagnetic Data from the Betic Cordillera: Constraints on the Timing and the Geographical Distribution of Tectonic Rotations in Southern Spain

A palaeomagnetic investigation has been carried out at 14 sites on Jurassic red nodular limestones from the central and eastern part of the External Zones of the Betic Cordillera (Subbetic and Prebetic Zones). Progressive thermal demagnetisation of samples from the Subbetic Zone reveals the presence of two stable magnetic components of the natural remanent magnetisation: 1) a secondary Neogene syn-folding component and 2) the original Jurassic magnetisation. As similar characteristics have been reported in Jurassic limestones from the western Subbetic Zone, a widespread remagnetisation event took place within <106 years in the entire Subbetic region during Neogene times. In contrast, in the Prebetic region, no evidence for a secondary overprint has been detected. Palaeomagnetic Jurassic declinations indicate variable and locally very large clockwise rotations (35 –140 ), but the two sites in the north-westernmost part of the investigated region are not rotated. The use of both components of magnetisation and the incremental fold-test results allowed the timing of block rotations in the Subbetic Zone to be constrained. Rotations in the western Subbetic occurred after the acquisition of the secondary overprint, whereas in the central part of the Subbetic Zone they were completed by the time of the remagnetisation event.