Skip to main content
  • Book
  • Feb 2025

The Geology of Iberia: A Geodynamic Approach

Volume 1: General Introduction and Cadomian Cycle

  • Enriches readers’ understanding of the evolution of the Iberian microplate over the past 600 million years
  • Reviews key recent advances concerning the geology of the Iberian Peninsula from a geodynamic perspective
  • Summarizes the latest studies on the record of the Cadomian, Variscan, and Alpine orogenies in Iberia

Part of the book series: Regional Geology Reviews (RGR)

About this book

Pursuing a new global approach, this unique book provides an updated review of the geology of Iberia and its continental margins from a geodynamic perspective. Owing to its location close to successive plate margins, Iberia has played a pivotal role in the geodynamic evolution of the Gondwanan, Rheic, Pangea, Tethys s.l. and Eurasian plates over the last 600 Ma of Earth’s history. The geological record begins with the amalgamation of Gondwana in the Neoproterozoic, followed by the rifting and spread of the Rheic ocean; its demise, which led to the amalgamation of Pangea in the late Paleozoic; the rifting and spread of several arms of the Neotethys ocean in the Mesozoic Era; and concludes with their ongoing closure, which was responsible for the Alpine orogeny. The significant advances made in the past 20 years have attracted considerable international research interest in the geology of the Iberian Peninsula. 

This volume is the only one of the whole series of books composing the Geology of Iberian separated in two parts: Introduction to the Geology of Iberian and the Cadomian Cycle. The first part presents a general introduction to the Geology of Iberian, presented in five different volumes. The second part focuses in the Cadomian orogenic cycle and the oldest geological records in the Iberian Peninsula.

Keywords

  • Geodynamics
  • Rifting and Spreading of the Rheic and Neotethys Oceans
  • Controls on Basins Formation and Evolution
  • Cadomian, Variscan and Alpine Orogenies
  • Iberia and its Continental Margins
  • Geology of Portugal
  • Geology of Spain
  • Geology of Catalonia

Editors and Affiliations

  • Instituto de Geociencias (CSIC-UCM), Madrid, Spain

    J. Javier Álvaro

  • Complutense de Madrid, (IGME) and Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Cecilio Quesada

  • Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geo., Alfragide-Amadora, Portugal

    José Tomás Oliveira

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Geology of Iberia: A Geodynamic Approach

  • Book Subtitle: Volume 1: General Introduction and Cadomian Cycle

  • Editors: J. Javier Álvaro, Cecilio Quesada, José Tomás Oliveira

  • Series Title: Regional Geology Reviews

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-10397-2Due: 13 March 2025

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-10398-9Due: 13 March 2025

  • Series ISSN: 2364-6438

  • Series E-ISSN: 2364-6446

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VIII, 382

  • Number of Illustrations: 60 b/w illustrations, 50 illustrations in colour