Abstract

The western end of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin developed as a restricted depocenter during the Tortonian and Messinian, as deformation and uplift of the basin floor propagated from the east. In the late Tortonian, four axial submarine-slope-channel complexes incised into an east-facing silt- and marl-rich paleoslope (the Sartenella Formation) and fed coarse-grained sediment into the deeper basin. One of these conduits is the well-known Solitary Channel. Overlying this incision and bypass-dominated slope interval is an early Messinian, confined-sheet turbidite interval (the mud-rich Loma de los Baños Formation), which is abruptly overlain by a sand-rich, confined-sheet turbidite interval with intercalated megabeds (the Verdelecho Formation). This unusual superposition of basin-floor, confined-sheet turbidite beds above incisional submarine-slope-channel complexes is interpreted to be driven by the westward migration of the deep basin, leading to the tectonic collapse of the basin margin. This style of deep-marine basin-fill, incision, and bypass facies, overlain by confined-sheet turbidite facies, is referred to here as a sill-and-fill stratigraphy.