Recent advances in geochemical studies of igneous rocks, isotopic age data for magmatism and metamorphism, quantitative pressure-temperature (P-T) estimates of metamorphic evolution, and structural geology in the northwestern Iberian Massif are integrated into a synthesis of the tectonic evolution that places the autochthonous and allochthonous terranes in the framework of Paleozoic plate tectonics. Because northwestern Iberia is free from strike-slip faults of continental scale, it is retrodeformable and preserves valuable information about the orthogonal component of convergence of Gondwana with Laurentia and/or Baltica, and the opening and closure of the Rheic Ocean.

The evolution deduced for northwest Iberia is extended...