The Variscan Cantabrian Zone of northern Spain records the transition from passive-margin sedimentation to foreland basin deposition during the Late Devonian. Initiation of the foreland basin system is reflected in the evolution of a hinge line that separated the foredeep from the adjacent peripheral bulge. Bulge erosion provided siliciclastic detritus that was deposited in the evolving foredeep. After cessation of sedimentary input, the foredeep achieved starved conditions during the earliest Tournaisian. These events were a long-distance effect of initial subduction of the Iberian continental margin prior to collision between northwestern Gondwana and North America. During the Namurian, propagation of the...