Iberian plate

The Iberian plate is a microplate typically grouped with the Eurasian plate that includes the microcontinent Iberia, Corsica, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, the Briançonnais zone of the Penninic nappes of the Alps, and the portion of Morocco north of the High Atlas Mountains.

[4] In the Mesozoic, Late Jurassic Africa started moving east, and the Alpine Tethys opened.

On the south side deposits of carbonates and clastic sediments formed a shelf in shallow water during late Triassic and Liassic times.

[5] In the late Triassic and early Jurassic there were two stages of rifting involving extension and subsidence on the western margin of Iberia.

Detailed aeromagnetic measurements from the sea floor offshore of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland show that Iberia moved as part of the African plate from late Cretaceous to mid-Eocene time, with a plate boundary extending westward from the Bay of Biscay.

To the west, the peninsula is delimited by the continental boundary formed by the magma poor opening of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Hercynian Foldbelt is mostly buried by Mesozoic and Tertiary cover rocks to the east, but nevertheless outcrops through the Iberian Chain and the Catalan Coastal Ranges.