Individual places and topics of interest
Cabo de Gata volcanics
During the Miocene, as part of the collisional phase between Africa and Eurasia, subduction was occurring at the leading edge of crustal material being "ploughed down" from the NE (Chapter 3). As a result, the area saw substantial volcanic activity with lavas being erupted across the region above the subducting slab. One main phase of this volcanism was from 17 to 8 million years ago during the Miocene. Most of the lavas were extruded across the site of the current Alboran Sea, but remnants are visible onshore - on Alboran Island, or more accessibly, in the beautiful coastal nature reserve of Cabo de Gata-Nijar, east of Almeria.
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The lavas utilised large scale weaknesses in the Crust as conduits to the surface. Being below surface, these are not visitable, but they are visible on seismic data (a way of imaging into the earth) - see section on the Alboran Basin (an example of a sedimentary basin).
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