The evolution of the Iberian and European plate boundary evolved since the early Mesozoic as: a) a rifted margin during the extensional and transtensional Mesozoic episodes, b) a collisional margin during the Tertiary, and c) a large-scale passive margin during most of the late Miocene and Quaternary (e.g., Ziegler, 1988; Srivastava et al., 1990; Olivet, 1996), (Fig. 2).
Figure 2. Map of the Pyrenees combining topography and geology
The Pyrenean Range consists of the North Pyrenean thrust system (in green), basement Axial zone (in brown), and the South Pyrenean thrust system (in green for upper thrust sheets and yellow for lower thrust sheets). The Aquitaine and Ebro basins constitute the foreland basins of the Pyrenees.