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Scientific activities

Scientific activities

The Project of the Geopark is supported by the value of its geological heritage, being studied during the last decades.

For instance, the Barcelona Autonomous University (UAB) has carried out several studies, among which we mention as specially outstanding those studies dealing with the South-Central Pyrenean Eocene Basin (Aínsa – Jaca Basin):

• Bolaño, F. (2004) Estratigrafia i modelització 3D del Sistema Turbidític de Morillo (Conca d’Aínsa, Zona Sudpirinenca, Província d’Osca). Final Thesis Report. Unpublished. Geology Department, Stratigraphy Unit, UAB (119 pp.). 3D geological model depicting the spatial distribution of materials forming the turbidic system in Morillo.
• De Federico, A. (1981) La sedimentación de talud en el sector occidental de la Cuenca Paleógena de Aínsa. MSc Thesis, Geology Department, Stratigraphy Unit, UAB (273 pp.). It is a contribution to the knowledge of turbidic environments, focusing on the study of the transition from deep marine sediments in the San Vicente formation to the platform sediments in the central and southern areas in Sobrarbe.
• Estrada, R. (1982) Lóbulos deposicionales de la parte superior del Grupo de Hecho entre el anticlinal de Boltaña y el río Aragón (Huesca). MSc Thesis, Geology Department, Stratigraphy Unit, UAB (164 pp.). Study on the facies characterizing distal sediments in turbidic sediments.
• Gual, G. (2004) Anàlisi de fàcies de la transició entre elements turbidítics de desbordament i inici del complex d’expansió frontal en els sistemes turbidítics de Banastón (Eocè de la Conca d’Aínsa, Província d’Osca). Final Thesis Report. Unpublished. Geology Department, Stratigraphy Unit, UAB (99 pp.). Study on the transition between the turbidic systems of channel-dike with its flooding deposits and the beginning of the depositional system in the transition of channel-lobe.
• Oms, O., Dinarès-Turell, J. & Remacha, E. (2003) Magnetic stratigraphy from deep clastic turbidites: an example from the Eocene Hecho Group (Southern Pyrenees). Stud. Geophys. Geod., 47: 275-288. Study on the orientation of the magnetic field recorded on the rocks during its formation. This technique allows us to improve the dating of rocks.
• Remacha, E. (1983) Sand tongues de la unidad de Broto (Grupo de Hecho) entre el anticlinal de Boltaña y el río Osia (Prov. De Huesca). MSc Thesis, Geology Department, Stratigraphy Unit, UAB (163 pp.). A thorough study on the facies, applying a new methodology for the turbidite treatment, specially in reference to the information given for the reconstruction of sedimentary basins.
• Remacha, E., Fernández. L.P., Maestro, E., Oms, O., Estrada, R. & Teixell, A. (1998) The Upper Hecho Group Turbidites and their vertical evolution to deltas (Eocene South-Central Pyrenees), in Meléndez, A. & Soria, A. Eds. 15th International Sedimentological Congress (Alicante), IAS, Field Trip Guidebook, Excursion A1:2-25. Guided Tour to the South-Central Pyrenean Eocene Basin during the International Sedimentological Congress (International Association of Sedimentology, IAS), held in Alicante. The tour visited the outcrops signalling the transition from deep marine environments to coastal ones (deltas).
• Remacha, E., Oms, O., Fernández, L.P., Crumeyrolle, P., Pettingill, H., Vicente, J.C., Suarez, J., Gual, G., Bolaño, F., Arcuri, M. & Climent, F. (2003). Sand-rich Turbidite Systems and Megaturbidites of The Hecho Group from slope to the basin plain. Facies, stacking patterns, controlling factors and diagnostic features. AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, excursion num. 12, Field Guides 1 and 2, Barcelona. Guided Tour to the South-Central Pyrenean Eocene Basin during the International Conference of the American Association of Petroleum Geology (AAPG), held in Barcelona. The tour visited the outcrops of deep marine environments.

Studies by the Saragossa University:

• Martínez-Peña, Mª.B. (1991) La estructura del límite occidental de la Unidad Surpirenaica Central. MSc Thesis. Earth Sciences Department. Geodynamics Area. Saragossa University. Study on the development of the different tectonic stages in a wide area in the South-Central Pyrenees, including areas in the Sobrarbe, Ribagorza, Somontano de Barbastro, Cinca Medio and La Litera Counties.
• Millan, H. (1994) Estructura de las Sierras Exteriores Aragonesas (MSc Thesis): Universidad de Saragossa, (213 pp.). Thorough study on the outcomes of the final tectonic stage in the Alpide Orogeny, causing the settlement of the mountain ranges in the southern Sobrarbre, between the Pyrenees and the Ebro Basin.

Our territory has been studied by a large number of research projects published in international journals, showing the importance of our geological heritage.

Articles on the south-central Pyrenean Eocene Basin Modelling (Aínsa - Jaca Basin):

• Bitzer, K., Trave, A., Carmona, J.A. and Calvet, F. (1998) Fluid flow in foreland basins during emplacement of thrust sheets; modelling the South-Pyrenean Ainsa Basin. - Bull. Soc. Geol. France 169, 5, 627-633.
• Poblet, J., Munoz, J.A., Trave, A. and Serra-Kiel, J. (1998) Quantifying the kinematics of detachment folds using three-dimensional geometry; application to the Mediano Anticline (Pyrenees, Spain). - Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull., 110, 1, 111-125.
• Fernandez, O., Munoz, J.A., Arbues, P., Falivene, O. and Marzo, M. (2004) Three-dimensional reconstruction of geological surfaces: an example of growth strata and turbidite systems from the Ainsa basin (Pyrenees, Spain). - Bulletin Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., 88/8, 1049-1068.
• Schuppers, J.D. (1993) Quantification of turbidite facies in a reservoir-analogous submarine-fan channel sandbody, south-central Pyrenees. - in: Flint, S.S. and Bryant, I.D. (eds.) The geological modelling of hydrocarbon reservoirs and outcrop analogues. Spec. Publ. Int. Assoc. Sediment, 15, 99-112.

Articles on continental sedimentary environments from Tertiary in Sobrarbe:

• Anastasio, D.J., and Holl, J.E. (2001) Transverse fold evolution in the External Sierra, southern Pyrenees, Spain: Journal of Structural Geology, v. 23, p. 379-392.
• Bentham, P., and Burbank D.W. (1996) Chronology of Eocene foreland basin evolution along the western oblique margin of South-Central Pyrenees, in Friend, P.F. and Dabrio, C.J., eds., Tertiary basins of Spain: the Stratigraphic Record of Crustal Kinematics: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 144-152.
• Benham, P., Burbank D.W., and Puigdefàbregas, C. (1992) Temporal and spatial controls on the alluvial architecture of an axial drainage system: late Eocene Escanilla Formation, southern Pyrenean foreland basin, Spain. Basin Research 4, 335-352.
• Dreyer, T., Corregidor, J., Arbues, P., and Puigdefàbregas, C. (1999), Architecture of the tectonically influenced Sobrarbe deltaic complex in the Ainsa Basin, northern Spain: Sedimentary Geology, v. 127, p. 127-169.
• Holl, J.E., and Anastasio, D.J. (1995) Kinematics around a large-scale oblique ramp, southern Pyrenees, Spain: Tectonics, v. 14, p. 1368-1379.
• Muñoz, J.A. (1992) Evolution of a continental collision belt: ECORS-Pyrenees crustal balanced cross-section, in McClay, K.R., ed., Thrust Tectonics: Chapman and Hall, London, p. 235 -246.
• Muñoz, J.A., Arbues, P., and Serra-Kiel, J. (1998) The Ainsa Basin and the Sobrarbe oblique thrust system: Sedimentological and tectonic processes controlling slope and platform sequences deposited synchronously with a submarine emergent thrust system, in Hevia, A.M., and Soria, A.R., eds., Field Trip Guidebook of the 15th International Sedimentological Congress, Alicante, p. 213-223.