Salt Tectonics and Inversion Style in the Southeastern Iberian Chain

Abstract

The southeastern Iberian Chain is characterized by Mesozoic rift basins that were subsequently inverted during Alpine contraction. We integrate geological mapping, borehole data, balanced cross‐sections, structural restoration, and forward kinematic modeling to evaluate how rift architecture controlled Alpine deformation from basin to crustal scale. Basement‐involved structural culminations are associated with inferred thrust ramps, whereas the sedimentary cover is locally decoupled along Triassic evaporitic detachments. In the Perenchiza sub‐basin, Jurassic‐Cretaceous thickness variations, salt pillows, diapiric structures, and minibasins indicate that salt migration predated contraction. Alpine inversion subsequently reactivated these structures through folding, squeezing, welding, and local salt extrusion. Upper Muschelkalk carbonate stringers enclosed within the evaporitic succession show that the Middle Muschelkalk M2 evaporites participated in diapiric flow together with the Keuper succession, defining a mechanically complex Layered Evaporite Sequence. At regional scale, the Penyagolosa‐Columbrets and Herbers‐Cameros fault systems are interpreted as long‐lived crustal discontinuities that influenced the localization and partitioning of inversion. Shortening decreases eastward, from focused basement‐involved thrusting inland to folding, uplift, erosion, and truncation toward the Columbrets Basin. More broadly, our results show that inherited crustal structure and layered evaporite sequences exert a first‐order control on the portioning of shortening between basement‐involved deformation and detached cover tectonics during rift inversion.