Tectonic and climatic controls on the sequential arrangement of an alluvial fan/fan-delta complex (Montserrat, Eocene, Ebro Basin, NE Spain)

A magnetostratigraphy-based chronological framework has been constructed in the Eocene sediments of the Montserrat alluvial fan/fan-delta complex (southeast Ebro Basin), in order to unravel forcing controls on their sequential arrangement and to revise the tectonosedimentary history of the region. The palaeomagnetic study is based on 403 sites distributed along an 1880-m-thick composite section, and provides improved temporal constraints based on an independent correlation to the geomagnetic polarity time scale. The new chronological framework together with sequence stratigraphy and geohistory analysis allow us to investigate the interplay between factors controlling the sequential arrangement of the Montserrat complex at the different temporal scales and to test for orbitally driven climate forcing. The results suggest that the internal stacking pattern in transgressive and regressive sequences sets within the more than 1000-m-thick Milany Composite Megasequence can be explained as the result of subsidence-driven accommodation changes under a general increase of sediment supply. Composite sequences (tens to hundreds of metres thick) likely reflect orbitally forced cyclicity related to the 400-kyr eccentricity cycle, possibly controlled by climatically induced sea-level fluctuations. This study also provides new insights on the deformational history of the area, and shows a correlation between (tectonic) subsidence and forelimb rotation measured on basin-margin deformed strata. Integration of subsidence curves from different sectors of the eastern Ebro Basin allows us to estimate the variable contribution of tectonic loads from the two active basin margins: the Catalan Coastal Ranges and the Pyrenees. The results support the presence of a double flexure from Late Lutetian to Late Bartonian, associated with the two tectonically active margins. From Late Bartonian to Early Priabonian the homogenization of subsidence values is interpreted as the result of the coupling of the two sources of tectonic load. © 2011 The Authors. Basin Research © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers and International Association of Sedimentologists.This manuscript is a contribution of the Institut de Recerca Geomodels and the Research Group of Geodynamics and Basin Analysis SGR 2009SGR1198, of the Age`ncia de Gestio´ d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) de la Generalitat de Catalunya. It has been developed in the framework of the MCI projects REMOSS 3D/4D (CGL2007-66431-C02-02) and COFORSED (CGL2010-17479).Peer Reviewe