| Abstract |
The alignment of the Balearic Islands, stretching from the Spanish mainland towards the Corsican-Sardinian block, has long intrigued many geologists. Since Suess (1886), we know that the Balearic block (Ibiza, Formentera, and Majorca) is part of the Alpine system. Many authors (Kober, 1914; Staub, 1928; Kober, 1931) have subsequently attempted to comprehensively integrate the history of the Balearic block within the history of the Alpine chain. In this paper, we will use data from marine geology and geophysics to define the location of the Balearic Islands during the diverse phases of distension, shearing, and compression between the European and African plates, which created the present western Mediterranean and the Alpine chain. In particular, we will try to explain the way in which the Balearic Islands have reacted to these diverse drift phenomena, and discuss the manifestations of these phenornena in this area. [NOT CONTROLLED OCR] |
