Abstract Paleozoic calcitic marbles are found in the Estremoz Anticline, Ossa-Morena Zone (Southern Branch of the European Variscides in Portugal). This 40 km NW–SE structure presents outcrop continuity and intense mining activity since the Roman Period. The structure has a Precambrian core and the younger rocks are from the Devonian Period. The marbles occupy an intermediate stratigraphic position in the Cambrian age Volcano Sedimentary Sequence. The Variscan Orogeny had two pulses with different intensities under ductile and brittle tension fields. The Alpine Cycle also caused more fracturing of the marbles. The geological features imprinted in the marbles are beautiful aesthetic patterns highlighted when used as dimension stone. Since the Roman period, pieces of art made with Estremoz Marble were exported abroad and can be found in museums and archaeological sites throughout Europe and North Africa countries. Present day, Estremoz Marble objects can be found all over the world. The very rich marble based heritage is omnipresent in cities, and the countryside is marked by intense mining activity side by side with rural industries; therefore the region has unique characteristics allowing the development of integrated industrial tourism routes, promoting sustainable development of industrial, scientific and technological cultural opportunities. The historical and widespread application of these marbles in national and international monuments, some of them already part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, is a condition to propose them as Global Heritage Stone Resource for their international recognition.

Abstract The Cambrian Atlas – Ossa–Morena – North Armorican Rift extended along West Gondwana from the end of the Pan-African and Cadomian orogenies until the diachronous beginning of drift conditions related to the opening of the Rheic Ocean. The along-axis rift cross-cut the western parts of the Anti-Atlas, High Atlas and Coastal Meseta, which were linked to the Ossa–Morena Zone and the North Armorican Domain, whereas several joint tectonic branches connected with off-axis rift transects of the Central Iberian, West Asturian–Leonese and Cantabrian zones (Iberian Massif), the Central and South Armorican domains, the Occitan Domain, the Pyrenees, and southern Sardinia. The pre-rift unconformity, post-dating the orogenic collapse, is characterized by initial (half-)graben development and subsequent infill, with slope-related breccias and conglomerates controlled by the denudation of surrounding uplands. Synrift pulses show regional extension and are distinctly identifiable on the top of rift shoulders, recording episodes of carbonate production due to their association with karst and hydrothermal processes. The break-up unconformity ranges from volcanic-free angular discordances and paraconformities to generalized uplift and denudation of subaerially exposed areas, associated with the onset of granite-dominant large igneous provinces (LIPs). The Furongian–Tremadocian (Toledanian) and Ordovician (Sardic) phases have been interpreted as due to: (i) Andean-type subduction magmatism reaching the crust in an arc–back-arc setting; (ii) post-collisional decompression melting without significant mantle involvement; and (iii) partial melting of the lower continental crust affected by the underplating of hot mafic magmas linked to superplumes.

Abstract The Devonian was one of the first Palaeozoic periods to be intensively studied in Spain. A few years after the formal definition of the Devonian by A. Sedgwick and R. I. Murchison in Devon, the French naturalists E. de Verneuil and A. d’Archiac (1845) noticed the occurrence of Devonian shelly fossil faunas in Asturias (north Spain). Later on, Prado & Verneuil (1850) enlarged the known Devonian outcrop area to the neighbouring province of Leon, and Prado (1856) extended this to Palencia province. Verneuil & Collomb (1853) , Verneuil & Lorière (1854) and Verneuil & Lartet (1863) demonstrated Devonian rocks in the Iberian Ranges, and both Almera (1891c) and Barrois (1892) were pioneers in the study of Devonian rocks in the Catalonian Coastal Ranges. In southern Spain the seminal work on the system belongs to E. de Verneuil and J. Barrande ( Prado et al. 1855 ), and in the Balearic Islands Hermite (1879) discovered the Devonian succession of Minorca. The history of Devonian research in other Spanish areas is in general much more recent, and was mainly developed in the twentieth century ( Julivert et al. 1983 ). Devonian rocks everywhere in Spain were deposited in marine conditions, although in varied settings ranging from supratidal to subtidal environments. The thickest and most complete Devonian succession in Spain is found in the Cantabrian and WestAsturo-Leonian zones and in the Basque Pyrenees (a–f and w,