Person:
Muñoz Martín, Alfonso

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First Name
Alfonso
Last Name
Muñoz Martín
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Ciencias Geológicas
Department
Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología
Area
Geodinámica Interna
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Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Item
    Quantifying the erosional impact of a continental-scale drainage capture in the Duero Basin, northwest Iberia
    (Quaternary Research, 2018) Antón López, Loreto; Muñoz Martín, Alfonso; De Vicente Muñoz, Gerardo
    Formerly closed drainage basins provide exceptional settings for quantifying fluvial incision and landscape dissection at different time scales. Endorheic basins trap all the sediment eroded within the watershed, which allows estimates of post–basin opening erosion patterns. The Duero Basin was a former closed basin and is presently drained by the Duero River into the Atlantic Ocean. During the Cenozoic, the basin experienced a long endorheic period, marked by the formation of continental carbonates and evaporites. The retrogressive erosion of the Atlantic drainage coming from the Portuguese coast subsequently captured the internal drainage, and significant fluvial dissection occurred. Presently, the basin contains a relatively well-preserved sedimentary fill. Gridding and surface fitting in this paper provide the first attempt to reconstruct the surface of the top of the former endorheic sedimentary sequence to quantify the erosional impact of the basin opening. At least 2251±524 km3 of sediment was removed from the formerly closed basin following the start of exorheism. This volume represents a mean basin-surface lowering of 65±13 m. Erosion estimates and landscape dissection patterns are consistent with geologic evidence of progressive establishment of an outward drainage system.
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    Crustal structure and continent?ocean boundary along the Galicia continental margin (NW Iberia): insights from combined gravity and seismic interpretation
    (Tectonics, 2018) Druet Vélez, María; Muñoz Martín, Alfonso; Granja Bruña, José Luis; Carbó Gorosabel, Andrés; Acosta, Juan; Llanes Estrada, Pilar; Ercilla, Gemma
    The magma?poor rifted continental margin of Galicia has an extremely complex structure. Its formation involved several rifting episodes that occurred ultimately during the early Cretaceous near a ridge triple junction, which produced a change in the orientation of the main structures in its transition to the north Iberia margin. In addition, there is a superimposed partial tectonic inversion along its northwest and northern border which developed from the Late Cretaceous to at least Oligocene times. The present study integrates a large volume of new geophysical information (mainly marine gravity data and 2D seismic reflection profiles) to provide insights on the formation of this rift system and on the development of its later inversion. The combined interpretation and modeling of this data enable the presentation of a new crustal and structural domains map for the whole Galicia margin. This includes the rift domains related to the extreme thinning of the crust and the lithospheric mantle (stretched, necking, and hyperextension and mantle exhumation (HME) domains), as well as a domain of intense compressional deformation. New constraints arise on the origin, the deep structure, and the characterization of the along? and across?strike variation of the continent?ocean transition of the margin, where a progressive change from hyperextension to partial inversion is observed. The development of both rifting and later partial tectonic inversion is influenced by the existence of former first?order tectonic features. Most of the tectonic inversion is focused on the HME domain, which in some areas of the northwestern margin is completely overprinted by compressional deformation.
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    Late glacial and post-glacial deposits of the Navamuño peatbog (Iberian Central System): Chronology and paleoenvironmental implications
    (Quaternary International, 2018) Turu, Valenti; Carrasco González, Rosa María; Pedraza Gilsanz, Javier de; Ros, Xavier; Ruiz-Zapata, María Blanca; Soriano-López, Joan Manuel; Mur-Cacuho, Elena; Pélachs-Mañosa, Albert; Muñoz Martín, Alfonso; Sánchez, Jesús; Echeverria-Moreno, Anna
    The Navamuño peatbog (Sierra de Béjar, western Spain) is a ∼14 ha pseudo-endorheic depression with boundaries defined by a lateral moraine of the Cuerpo de Hombre paleoglacier and fault-line scarps on granite bedrock. The stratigraphy of the Navamuño peatbog system is characterized here using borehole data to a depth of 20 m. An integrated interpretation from direct-push coring, dynamic probing boreholes and handheld auger drillings advances our knowledge of the Navamuño polygenetic infill. Correlating this data with those obtained in other studies of the chronology and evolutionary sequence of the Cuerpo de Hombre paleoglacier has enabled us to establish the sequence of the hydrological system in the Navamuño depression. During the Late Pleistocene (MIS2), the depression was dammed by the Cuerpo de Hombre glacier and fed by its lateral meltwaters, and was filled with glaciolacustrine deposits. The onset of the Holocene in Navamuño is linked to a flat, fluviotorrential plain with episodes of local shallow pond/peat bog sedimentation. This evolutionary sequence is congruent with the age model obtained from available radiocarbon dating, obtaining 19 ages from ∼800 cal yr BP (at depth 1.11 m) to ∼16800 cal yr BP (at depth 15.90–16.0 m). Finally, the sedimentary record enabled interpretation of the environmental changes occurring in this zone during the late glacial (from the Older Dryas to the Younger Dryas) and postglacial (Holocene) stages, placing them within the paleoclimatic context of the Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean regions.
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    A multi-isotopic approach to investigate the influence of land use on nitrate removal in a highly saline lake-aquifer system
    (Science of The Total Environment, 2018) Valiente, Nicolás; Carrey, R.; Otero, Neus; Soler, A.; Sanz, D.; Muñoz Martín, Alfonso; Jirsa, F.; Wanek, W.; Gómez Alday, J.J.
    Endorheic or closed drainage basins in arid and semi-arid regions are vulnerable to pollution. Nonetheless, in the freshwater-saltwater interface of endorheic saline lakes, oxidation-reduction (redox) reactions can attenuate pollutants such as nitrate (NO3-). This study traces the ways of nitrogen (N) removal in the Pétrola lake-aquifer system (central Spain), an endorheic basin contaminated with NO3-(up to 99.2mg/L in groundwater). This basin was declared vulnerable to NO3-pollution in 1998 due to the high anthropogenic pressures (mainly agriculture and wastewaters). Hydrochemical, multi-isotopic (δ18ONO3, δ15NNO3, δ13CDIC, δ18OH2O, and δ2HH2O) and geophysical techniques (electrical resistivity tomography) were applied to identify the main redox processes at the freshwater-saltwater interface. The results showed that the geometry of this interface is influenced by land use, causing spatial variability of nitrogen biogeochemical processes over the basin. In the underlying aquifer, NO3-showed an average concentration of 38.5mg/L (n=73) and was mainly derived from agricultural inputs. Natural attenuation of NO3-was observed in dryland farming areas (up to 72%) and in irrigation areas (up to 66%). In the Pétrola Lake, mineralization and organic matter degradation in lake sediment play an important role in NO3-reduction. Our findings are a major step forward in understanding freshwater-saltwater interfaces as reactive zones for NO3-attenuation. We further emphasize the importance of including a land use perspective when studying water quality-environmental relationships in hydrogeological systems dominated by density-driven circulation.
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    The Spanish-Portuguese Central System: An Example of Intense Intraplate Deformation and Strain Partitioning
    (Tectonics, 2018) De Vicente Muñoz, Gerardo; Cunha, P.P.; Muñoz Martín, Alfonso; Cloetingh, S.A.P.L.; Olaiz Campos, Antonio José; Vegas, Ramón
    The intraplate deformation of Iberia during the Cenozoic produced a series of ranges and deformation belts with a wide variety of structural trends. The Spanish-Portuguese Central System is the most prominent feature crossing over the whole of central Iberia. It is a large thick-skinned crustal pop-up with NE-SW to E-W thrusts. However, the 500-km-long left-lateral strike-slip Messejana-Plasencia fault, also NE-SW oriented, bends these thrusts to produce NE-SW local paleostresses close to the fault, which seems to be consistent with a common deformational arrangement. This is also supported by the similar sedimentary infilling characteristics found in the surrounding Cenozoic basins. The moment of the maximum intraplate deformation is registered at the same time in all these basins during the upper Priabonian-lower Chattian. As there are two possible sources for the intraplate compressive stresses, the Pyrenean (N-S shortening) orogen to the north and the Betic (NW-SE shortening) orogen to the south, neither can simply explain both simultaneous movements (NE-SW strike-slip and NE-SW thrusting). The deduced age of the main deformation indicates a Pyrenean origin. In contrast, the concept of strain partitioning between the two types of faults gives as a result an overall north trending compression. Existing data do not support crustal detachment from the Betics neither from the Pyrenees but are consistent with a crustal uplift related to lithospheric folding. The subsequent Betic-related stress field only slightly reworked previously Pyrenean-related structures, except for the Portuguese sector, where tectonic activity occurred mainly in the Upper Miocene.
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    Near surface geophysical analysis of the Navamuño depression (Sierra de Béjar, Iberian Central System): Geometry, sedimentary infill and genetic implications of tectonic and glacial footprint
    (Geomorphology, 2018) Carrasco González, Rosa María; Turu, Valenti; Pedraza Gilsanz, Javier de; Muñoz Martín, Alfonso; Ros, Xavier; Sánchez Vizcaíno, Jesús; Ruiz Zapata, Blanca; Olaiz Campos, Antonio José; Herrero-Simon, Ramón
    The geometric and genetic characterization of the Navamuño depression peatland system (Iberian Central System) is presented here using results from a geophysical survey. This depression is a ~30 ha pseudo-endorheic flat basin over granitic bedrock. Three geophysical techniques were used to map the subsurface geology, and identify and describe the infill sequence: shallow seismic refraction (SR), magnetic resonance sounding (MRS) and electrical resistivity measurements (VES and ERT). The three main geoelectrical layers (G1, G2, G3) identified in previous research, have also been identified in the present work. Using the data obtained in this new research we have been able to analyse these three geological layers in detail and reinterpret them. They can be grouped genetically into two sedimentary units: an ancient sedimentary body (G3), of unknown age and type, beneath an Upper Pleistocene (G2) and Holocene (G1) sedimentary infill. The facies distribution and geometry of the Upper Pleistocene was examined using the Sequence Stratigraphy method, revealing that the Navamuño depression was an ice-dammed in the last glacial cycle resulting in glaciolacustrine sedimentation. A highly permeable sedimentary layer or regolith exists beneath the glaciolacustrine deposits. Below 40 m depth, water content falls dramatically down to a depth of 80 m where unweathered bedrock may be present. The information obtained from geophysical, geological and geomorphological studies carried out in this research, enabled us to consider various hypotheses as to the origin of this depression. According to these data, the Navamuño depression may be explained as the result of a transtensional process from the Puerto de Navamuño strike-slip fault during the reactivation of the Iberian Central System (Paleogene-Lower Miocene, Alpine orogeny), and can be correlated with the pull-apart type basins described in these areas. The neotectonic activity of this fault and the icedammed processes in these areas during the Last Glacial Cycle (MIS2) were the main causes of recent sedimentary infill in this depression.