Carlos Luis Liesa Carrera

The Lower Cretaceous (Barremian) Camarillas Formation in the Galve Sub‐basin of eastern Spain is an exceptionally muddy, synrift, aggradational then retrogradational paralic succession. Deposition within these arid, equatorial paralic systems was strongly controlled by crustal rifting of the Iberia plate linked to the geodynamic evolution of the Atlantic Ocean, the Bay of Biscay and the Tethys Ocean. Although synsedimentary extensional tectonics controlled thickness and facies distributions, the parasequence stacking patterns point to a superimposed high‐order allogenic control on the paralic succession. Field data and drone imagery are combined to document changes in sedimentology and three‐dimensional stratigraphic architecture of these deposits to interpret changes in depositional environments as this basin filled. Three evolutionary stages are identified: (i) tide‐dominated estuary; (ii) mixed‐energy estuary, with a well‐developed wave‐dominated barrier island system; and (iii) barrier island–tidal inlet suite. An exceptional record of back‐barrier‐island depositional interactions is preserved in this high‐subsidence, extensional‐basin setting, including deposition of washover fans, flood‐tidal deltas and ebb‐tidal deltas. Drone‐derived imagery facilitates three‐dimensional architectural characterization of these complex paralic deposits, including multi‐episodic tidal inlets, and correlation of basin scale stratigraphic markers. Spatio‐temporal interactions between climate change, sea‐level variations and rift‐related subsidence generated complex estuarine and barrier island geobodies. The general transgressive trend recorded in the Camarillas Formation correlates well with global eustatic sea‐level rise during the Barremian.

Many works in the last decades underline the role of evaporites, not just as a conditioning factor but as the engine for subsidence and eventually basin inversion. The western Mediterranean alpine ranges are being investigated in this regard because of the presence of discontinuous units of Permian to Triassic evaporites, deposited in the western Tethys basins. This work presents a thorough analysis of two particular structures (Cañada Vellida and Miravete anticlines) in the intraplate Maestrazgo basin (eastern Iberian Chain, Spain) in which evidence to support their reinterpretation as salt‐driven structures have been recently reported. Our analysis includes (i) a comprehensive stratigraphic and structural study of the folds along their entire trace, (ii) the compilation of thickness and distribution of evaporite–bearing and supraevaporite units, paying special attention to changes in the thickness of units in relation to anticlines, and (iii) the study of fault patterns, sometimes in relation to the mechanical stratigraphy. All three aspects are also documented and discussed on a regional scale. The new data and interpretations reported here reinforce the extensional origin of the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous basins, and the role of regional extensional tectonics as the responsible for the development of first‐order syn‐sedimentary normal fault zones driving the formation and evolution of sub‐basins. These basins were subsequently inverted and deformed, including the formation of complex, box‐geometry anticlines that, in their turn, controlled deposition in Cenozoic basins. The review of the arguments that support the alternative of salt tectonics for the origin of such anticlines has allowed us to delve into the sedimentary and tectonic evolution of the inverted extensional basins and to propose a specific model for the development of these faulted anticlines. The role of salt levels and other interlayered detachments in the structuring of sedimentary basins and their inversion is also pondered. The observations in the eastern Iberian Chain reported here have implications to assess ongoing reinterpretations in terms of salt tectonics in other alpine basins and ranges of the western Mediterranean.