Abstract Tertiary (Palaeogene and Neogene) deposits crop out widely across both the Iberian peninsula and the Balearic Islands (Fig. 13.1 ), and record a dramatic sequence of events during plate convergence. The anticlockwise rotation of an initially isolated Mesozoic Iberian plate was followed by late Cretaceous– Cenozoic interaction with both the European and African plates. This ultimately created two great Alpine mountain belts (Pyrenean-Basque-Cantabrian and Betic-Balearic) (Fig. 13.1 ), each of which generated major Cenozoic foreland basins (Ebro and Guadalquivir). Away from these mountain belts, two large Cenozoic intraplate depressions (Duero and Tajo basins) flank a central horst (Central Range). Another important group of depocentres occurs within a string of Neogene grabens situated along the eastern side of mainland Spain (Fig. 13.1 ), forming part of a long-lived and still-active extensional system linking the Valencia trough with the Rhine and Rhone grabens in Germany and France. Further SE, Neogene extension propagated from the Valencian trough into the southern Betic orogen and created a series of basins from Alicante to Granada and beyond. Tertiary sedimentary rocks in Spain were thus deposited during and after Alpine compression in the Iberian area. This chapter summarizes the main characteristics of these sediments, moving broadly from north to south, a direction reflecting the diachronous shift in Cenozoic Alpine deformation from the Pyrenees to the Betic-Balearic region.

Abstract The island of Mallorca forms part of the Balearic promontory, which, in turn, forms part of the alpine Betic Range extending from the southern IberianPeninsula as a northeastward submarine prolongation into the western Mediterranean. The Betic orogenunderwent its phase of maximum deformation in Mallorcaduring the early-middle Miocene (Burdigalian-Langhian), when the area developed a series ofimbricate thrust sheets transported in a northwest direction (Fallot, 1922; Alvaro, 1987; Sabat et al., 1988).After this compressive stage, post-Langhian extension resulted in a series of horsts and grabens bounded by northeast-southwest and northwest-southeast oriented faults. The Santa Margalida Basin is one of these small grabens filled by marine, as well as continental,postorogenic sediments, ranging from Serravallian to Quaternary in age (Figure 1). The postorogenic sedimentary record in Mallorca issplit into 11 sequences (Figure 2). The thickness of these successions is highly variable due to the strongfault activity, which generated several grabens andhalf-grabens. From borehole and geophysical data,Benedicto et al. (1993) estimated a postorogenic fill thickness of 1500 m for the Inca Basin, which lies a few441kilometers to the west, whereas the Santa Margalida Basin, one of the smallest grabens, is filled by up to 300mof postorogenic sediments. Approximately 150 m of this infill belongs to Sequence V (Figure 2).The lowermost unit of this postorogenic filling(Sequence V according to Forn6s et al., 1991) consists of 150 m of clastic nonmarine carbonates (Figure 2).Three informal lithostratigraphic units can be identified in this nonmarine sequence. Two of these units(the Pina Marls unit and the Son Verdera Limestoneunit (Pomar et al., 1983); units 1 and 2 respectively in Figure 2) consist mainly of lacustrine and palustrine carbonate rocks that interfinger laterally into the thirdterrigenous unit (marginal terrigenous complex),which extends along the basin edges (Manacor Siltunit; Pomar et al., 1983). The lowermost Pina Marls unit lies unconformablyover the folded and thrusted pre- and syn-orogenicsubstratum (Figure 2). The unit is composed of greymarls with interbedded gypsum and sandy layers,and contains abundant resedimented marine microforaminiferaattributed to the Burdigalian (Celom,1967). The Son Verdera Limestone unit conformablyoverlies the Pina Marls and is composed of limestones and fine-grained siliciclastic rocks with variable amounts of organic matter.