Delimitación de unidades morfotectónicas en el sector Almería – Jaén, España

Abstract

Almería and Jaén territories are located in the southern of Iberian Penynsula, at the western zone of African and Eurasian plates contact. The morphotectonic method using Rantsman’s criteria permits to find three macroblocks in the Iberian megablock: Southern (Nº 1), Southwestern (Nº 2), and Coastal (Nº 5), where both territories are located. There are also the following territorial units of low order: mesoblocks= 5, blocks= 37 (Almería= 13 / Jaén= 24), microblocks= 96 (Almería= 36 / Jaén= 60), and nanoblocks= 267 (Almería= 110 / Jaén= 257). The main alignments / alignments’ intersections are to Almería / Jaén, respectively, 29 / 26 and 52 / 57. In the mesoblocks exist a great quantity of morphostructural scarpments and stream net modifications associated with the neotectonics. The fractures density significally disminish from the coast to the inner mesoblocks as: Almería= 0,33, Córdoba= 0,23, Granada= 0,42, and Jaén= 0,23. The largest level of neotectonic activity is situated in the south-central part of Spain, and Granada has the greatest. The relation between seismicity and delimited structures is evident in the Málaga – Almería segment.