ABSTRACT
Within the Western European continental plate, since Mesozoic
times, one sees the alternation or succession of convergent and divergent
tectonic episodes. These tectonic episodes, although representing geolo¬
gically discontinuous phenomena, still have time periods of between 4to
40 millions years. These tectonic phenomena are the cause of the formation
or reactivation, at all scales in the continental plate, of brittle, fault¬
like structures.
Tectonic analysis and the in situ measures of stress and the
earquake focal phenomena show that, from the lower Quaternary to the
present, the Western European continental plate has been subjected to
NNW to SSE convergent stress. Astudy of the arrangement of European
and African plates in the Western Mediterranean shows that the entire
region, is undergoing aperiod of continental collision. The change in
the process implies awesterly continental drift of the Spanish plate,
amovement which would toke several million years.
On the Western European scale, the most likely hypothesis
during the next 100 000 years is the persistance of the present stress
trending approximately N-S. On the other hand, on alocal scale, reorga¬
nisations of this stress are possible, owing to the presence of tectonic
or lithological heterogeneities.
ABSTRACT
Within the Western European continental plate, since Mesozoic
times, one sees the alternation or succession of convergent and divergent
tectonic episodes. These tectonic episodes, although representing geolo¬
gically discontinuous phenomena, still have time periods of between 4to
40 millions years. These tectonic phenomena are the cause of the formation
or reactivation, at all scales in the continental plate, of brittle, fault¬
like structures.
Tectonic analysis and the in situ measures of stress and the
earquake focal phenomena show that, from the lower Quaternary to the
present, the Western European continental plate has been subjected to
NNW to SSE convergent stress. Astudy of the arrangement of European
and African plates in the Western Mediterranean shows that the entire
region, is undergoing aperiod of continental collision. The change in
the process implies awesterly continental drift of the Spanish plate,
amovement which would toke several million years.
On the Western European scale, the most likely hypothesis
during the next 100 000 years is the persistance of the present stress
trending approximately N-S. On the other hand, on alocal scale, reorga¬
nisations of this stress are possible, owing to the presence of tectonic
or lithological heterogeneities.