The geological story of southern Spain
Chapter 4
the latest moulding
After the dramatics of the main collisional phase described in Chapter 3, the last 2,5 to 5 million years (the Plio-Pleistocene) has seen a somewhat gentler polishing of the landscape that has led to the physiography we see today.
The rate of convergence between Iberia and North Africa today is a relatively sedate 4-6 millimetres per year and is being accommodated in a manner more like a Plate transform margin where blocks of Crust slide past each other, rather than directly into each other. The locus of this slippage is spread out ("distributed") across several fault complexes in the area and is happening at an oblique angle. The most prominent fault system is a complex called the Trans Alboran Shear Zone which cuts across the middle of the Alboran Sea. Other features of this latest moulding phase are:
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