Opening of the Atlantic and development of the Iberian intraplate rift basins during the late Jurassic-early Cretaceous

A comparative approach of the late Jurassic-early Cretaceous Iberian intraplate rift basins is presented. To do it a restoration of the basins at chron M0 (125 Ma) was performed. When the Bay of Biscay begun his oceanization and spread through the continental crust of Iberia, two lines of trenches appeared: the Pyrenean Rift and the Cantabrian-Iberian-Catalan Rift, both separated by the Ebro High. The Iberian intraplate rift basins was a part of the network of rifted basins of the northwestern Peri-Tethyan platform, that evolved during the break-up of Pangea, and gave rise to the opening of the Alpine Tethys and North Atlantic.