Advances in the Lower Ordovician of the western Iberian Chain, NE Spain

Abstract

The western Iberian Chain of NE Spain represents a lateral prolongation of the West Asturian-Leonese Zone. As other proximal sectors fringing NW Gondwana, the chain comprises a con­formable and continuous Furongian‒Tremadocian transition, comprising a thick (3600‒4500 m) Lower Ordovician sedimentary succession, exclusively composed of siliciclastic strata and deposited in mid-latitude (temperate) waters. Although the shelly fossil record is not abundant, some key trilobites and brachiopods allow the identification of distinct biogeographic links with the Argentinian margin of West Gondwana, Oaxaca (Mexico), and the neighbouring Montagne Noire (France), with which a common biostratigraphic biozonation can be enviaged. Two phosphoritic interbeds rich in linguliformean brachiopods punctuate the Valconchán and Borrachón formations, and represent event beds related to condensation processes and sedimentation of explosive ignimbritic tuffs, respectively.