Lyell and the Spanish Geology
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Lyell visited Spain in the summer of 1830, after the publication of the first volume of Principles of Geology, and in the winter of 1853 coming back from his third trip to America.In his first stay he visited, among others, the Olot region (Catalonia, NE Spain) and in the second the Canary Islands.In both cases his major aim was to study these volcanic zones since volcanism constituted for Lyell the clearest evidence of the Earth interior energy, which had led to mountain building in the past.Another of his aims during his 1830 visit was to study the Pyrenees.Lyell endeavoured to show that this orogen did not result from a violent and rapid "revolution", as proposed by Elie de Beaumont, but from processes that spanned long time periods.In the Pyrenees he also made some observations on the neogene lacustrine deposits of la Cerdanya basin, while in the southern Pyrenean foreland (i.e.Ebro basin) he paid attention to facies changes and correlations in the Eocene sequences.Lyell spent some days in Barcelona during this visit but at that time the country was in political turmoil and the main scientific institutions of the city had been closed down.Once in the Olot region, Lyell paid a visit to Bolós, pharmacist and botanist who had an interest in geology and introduced him in the volcanic zone.During his second trip in 1853, Lyell visited the Canaries and limited his personal contacts to Pedro Maffiote, professor of the Nautical School of Tenerife, who had made some interesting although never published geological observations in this island.In the Canary Islands Lyell sought to demonstrate the relationship between volcanism and coastal movement, and to confirm his theory of volcanic cone growth by accretion.Lyell's influence in Spain was not due to his personal contacts in the country but to his books and especially the translation into Spanish by Ezquerra del Bayo of the first edition of "Elements of Geology" in 1838.Lyell's ideas and especially his geological terminology, which was one of his most important contributions, spread in Spain thanks to this translation.Both the personality and the scientific reputation of Ezquerra del Bayo helped to promote the book that became for many years the official teaching book at the Schools of Mines in Spain and Mexico.Ezquerra del Bayo carried out the first geological map of the whole of Spain (1850) adopting in this and other publications (1850-1857) Lyell's nomenclature, although his theoretical concepts (e.g.actualism) did not exert the same influence.It should be borne in mind that Lyell regarded his Elements of Geology as a descriptive Geology, a text book for students and beginners.His more elaborated theories included in Principles of Geology resulted in little influence in Spain, since this book was not translated into Spanish.Accretionary wedge
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Fluvial fans represent one of the dominant sedimentary systems at the active margins of non-marine foreland basins. The Puig-reig anticline at the north-eastern margin of the Ebro Foreland Basin (SE Pyrenees, Spain) exposes continuous outcrops of Late Eocene-Early Oligocene fluvial deposits, from proximal to medial fluvial fan environments. The proximal deposits are found in the north limb of the anticline, especially in the northwest zone. These deposits are characterised by conglomerates with minor interbedded sandstones, with thick and wide sheet-like geometries with unscoured or variably scoured basal surfaces. These are interpreted to be the deposits of unconfined flash floods and wide-shallow channel streams. The medial deposits, covering the rest of the anticline, consist of interbedded conglomerates, sandstones and claystones. These are interpreted to have been deposited from braided to meandering channel streams and overbank areas. Distal deposits are found towards the south, beyond the anticline, and are characterised by sandstone and clay deposits of terminal lobes and lacustrine deltas. This study assesses the impact of the primary depositional characteristics, diagenesis and deformation of the most heterolithic portion of the system, with implications for increasing our understanding of folded fluvial reservoirs. Diagenetic processes, mainly mechanical compaction and calcite cementation, resulted in overall low intergranular porosity, with limited relatively high porosity developed in sandstone lithofacies in the medial deposits. Deformation associated with thrusting and fold growth resulted in the formation of abundant fractures, with relatively high fracture intensities observed in sandstone lithofacies in the anticline crest. This study shows that post-depositional processes can both improve and diminish the reservoir potential of basin proximal fluvial deposits, through the development of fracture networks and by compaction-cementation. The comparison of the Puig-reig anticline with other similar settings worldwide indicates that foreland basin margin locations may be potential areas for effective reservoirs, even in the case of low intergranular porosity.
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Pennsylvanian foreland deformation associated with the Ouachita orogene reactivated a west-northwest-east-southeast Cambrian basement trend, the southern Oklahoma aulacogen, to form the Wichita uplift, southwest Oklahoma. The 30-km-wide subsurface Frontal fault zone separates the uplift from the Anadarko basin to the north. Horizontal shortening across this fault zone is estimated at 7-15 km (20-40%), vertical displacement totals 9-10 km from the uplift to the basin. Folds are mapped on an interformational scale within the Frontal fault zone, and on an intraformational scale (Cambro-Ordovician Arbuckle Group) in the Slick Hills, southwest Oklahoma. Additional shortening occurred along southwest dipping mountain flank thrusts and on bedding plane thrusts, respectively. Hanging wall blocks of major faults contain the shallow dipping limb and anticlinal hinge zone of the interformational scale folds. Oil and gas production is generally restricted to these anticlinal crests within Paleozoic rocks. Deep wells (> 6000 m) that have penetrated footwall imbricates of the mountain flank thrusts have drilled through steep-overturned beds and tight recumbent folds before passing through faults into a normal stratigraphic sequence. Basement thrust loading of the southern margin of the Anadarko basin controlled the trend (west-northwest-east-southeast) of the axis of maximum deposition within the basin during the Pennsylvanian.
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