The Minas de Henarejos basin (Iberian Ranges, Central Spain): precursor of the Mesozoic rifting or a relict of the late Variscan orogeny? New sedimentological, structural and biostratigraphic data

Resumen

The tiny outcrop of the mining area of Minas de Henarejos is unique among the early post-Variscan basins of the Iberian Ranges, Central Spain, for several reasons: Its age, considered up now to be Late Carboniferous (Stephanian B-C), its syn-sedimentary compressional structures and the thick coal beds in the upper part of the section. A re-assesment of the biostratigraphic range of its macrofl ora shows that it is representative of the hygrophytic assemblage that ranges from the Late Carboniferous to the Early Permian, coeval with the so-called “Autunian” assemblages. Nothing prevents this basin to be considered coeval with other continental basins of Early Permian age in the Iberian Ranges. Compressional structures can be related to a right restraining bend in the sinistral N-S Teruel strike-slip fault system that created a synformal basin in the underthrust block.