Conclusions

Available structural, geochemical and geophysical data from Iberia are consistent with a model of oroclinal bending at the lithospheric-scale of an originally near-linear convergent margin during the last stages of Variscan deformation in the late Paleozoic. Closure of the Rheic Ocean resulted in E-W shortening (in present-day coordinates) in the Carboniferous, producing a near linear N-S trending, east verging orogenic belt. Subsequent N-S shortening near the Carboniferous-Permian boundary resulted in complex oroclinal bending involving the whole lithosphere, highlighted by the formation of the Ibero-Armorican orocline.

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