A new geodynamic and sedimentological approach to the Aragonian Branch Permian and Triassic continental record, NE Iberian Ranges, Central Spain

Abstract The Aragonian Branch is the NE part of the Iberian Ranges, Central Spain, an alpine structure trending NW–SE in Central-Eastern Iberia. This work focuses its NE part that represents the SW marging of the Triassic Ebro Basin. Twenty-one field sections where Permian and Triassic sediments are well exposed were studied. The Permian–Triassic Ebro Basin was a rift structure with a Basin Boundary Fault dipping to the NE, subdivided by strike-slip faults at high angles in three main domains, associated to a domino set of antithetic faults that were reactivated as thrusts during the Alpine compressional stages. Permian sediments are of alluvial fan and ephemeral river nature, while the Triassic sediments are of eolian origin at the base, in the SE domain, and of anabranching river and eolian origin at the top. A correlation scheme of the different Aragonian Branch domains is presented, as well as a proposal of correlation with the Central and SE domains of the Iberian Branch.