Original paper
The Variscan geographic position of the Iberian Peninsula
Paproth, E.
Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen Band 163 Heft 2 (1982), p. 284 - 286
248 references
published: May 28, 1982
DOI: 10.1127/njgpa/163/1982/284
ArtNo. ESP155016302016, Price: 29.00 €
Abstract
The anticlockwise rotation of the Iberian Peninsula relative to France since at least the beginning of the Mesozoic has been supposed for nearly a century now. Similar rock successions with similar fossil bearing horizons in tectonically appropriate parts of the Hercynian foldbelt in Iberia, France—Germany and Britain—Ireland suggest an original and rather close connexion between a rotated Iberia and France. Biostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic evidence has been described from Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous rocks by Paris & Robardet (1977), Oliveira et al. (1979) and Bless et al. (1981). Bless et al. (1977) summarized and discussed biostratigraphic, lithostratigraphic, mineralisational and palaeomagnetic characters suggesting this rotation and mutual proximity. As these publications are still available facts will not be repeated here, with the exception of one: One of the most striking biostratigraphic phenomena is the similarity between the development and succession of the Upper Carboniferous (Silesian) endemic non-marine faunas in the Acadian Province (Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, E Canada) and NW Europe, described already in 1946 by A. E. Trueman (Fig. 1). This fact is the more peculiar, as contemporary non-marine faunas in the neighbouring depositional areas of Appalachia and Central Europe respectively seem to be quite different.
Keywords
geographic • Iberian Peninsula • France • biostratigraphic • lithostratigraphic