2014 SPA Contest - Alberto Carballo - From the North-Iberian Margin to the Alboran Basin: a lithosphere geo-transect crossing the Iberian Plate

Hello, my name is Alberto Carballo and I am finishing my PhD in the Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera (CSIC). Since a long time ago the geologists have been studying the Earth's interior structure, revealing it's formed by spherical shells, like an onion.

The lithosphere (the solid outer part of the Earth) of the Iberia has been the subject of numerous geological and geophysical studies in the last decades. Therefore, the aim of my work is to obtain a more reliable lithosphere image along a 1065-km-long transect, crossing the entire Iberian plate in N-S direction, using a software which combines elevation, gravity, geoid, heat flow and mantle seismic velocities. The method follows a forward scheme in which the crustal geometry is constrained from previous seismic studies, and the lithosphere mantle geometry and composition have been changed according to the geodynamic setting, petrological data and mantle seismic velocities models until the best fit is reached.

The results highlight the lateral variations in the topography of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB), suggesting a strong lithospheric mantle strain below the Cantabrian and Betic mountain belts. Minimum value of around 60 km is found beneath the Alboran Basin.  

Contribution of Team Consolider-Ingenio 2010 TOPO-IBERIA (CSD2006-00041) and GASAM/TopoMed (CGL2008-03474-E/BTE/07-TOPO-EUROPE-FP-006)