The Ainsa Fold and thrust oblique zone of the central Pyrenees: Kinematics of a curved contractional system from paleomagnetic and structural data

Abstract Integration of structural, stratigraphic, and paleomagnetic data from the N–S trending structures of the Ainsa Oblique Zone reveals the kinematics of the major thrust salient in the central Pyrenees. These structures experienced clockwise vertical axis rotations that vary from 70° in the east (Mediano anticline) to 55° in the west (Boltaña anticline). Clockwise vertical axis rotations of 60° to 45° occurred from early Lutetian to late Bartonian when the folds and thrusts of the Ainsa Oblique Zone developed. This vertical axis rotation stage resulted from a difference of about 50 km in the amount of displacement on the Gavarnie thrust and an accompanying change in structural style at crustal scale from the central to the western Pyrenees, related to the NE–SW trending pinch out of Triassic evaporites at its basal detachment. A second rotation event of at least 10° took place since Priabonian, as a result of a greater displacement of the Serres Marginals thrust sheet with respect to the Gavarnie thrust sheet above the Upper Eocene‐Oligocene salts. The deduced kinematics demonstrates that the orogenic curvature of the central Pyrenees is a progressive curvature resulting from divergent thrust transport direction. Layer parallel shortening mesostructures and kilometer‐scale folds also developed by a progressive curvature related to divergent shortening directions during vertical axis rotation. Rotation space problems were solved by along‐strike extension which triggered the formation of transverse extensional faults and diapirs at the outer arcs of structural bends.