Description: We present the results of our analysis of the seismogenic and tsunamigenic structure of the Alboran Basin (westernmost Mediterranean). In particular, we upload two different types of files: 1) the 3D model of a fault plane and 2) the results of the numerical tsunami simulations for the 4 main faults in the area, the Alboran Ridge Fault System (ARFS), the Carboneras Fault System (CFS), the Yusuf Fault System (YFS) and the Al-Idrissi Fault System (AIFS). In order to perform a first approach to the tsunamigenic potential of these active structures, different models have been run with different input parameters (see metadata description). The fault plane has been obtained based on the analysis of active seismic data collected in the area, and the tsunami simulations have been obtained using the HySEA code. For details about the method, and the discussion of the different parameters used in the models, please see the related article "A first appraisal of the seismogenic and tsunamigenic potential of the largest fault systems of the westernmost Mediterranean" (Gómez de la Peña et al., Marine Geology, 2022).

Description: In May of 2019 the US American research vessel Marcus G. Langseth shot a seismic profile along the Emperor Seamounts in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Shots were recorded on 29 ocean-bottom-seismometers (OBS) of the US American Pool and GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Seismic data in SEGY format of the GEOMAR OBS are here available from PANGAEA Datacenter. Please note that the data have a time offset of 1 sec and a reduction velocity of 8 km/s. The SEGY data from the US American OBS are available at the Incorporated Research Institution for Seismology (IRIS) (see also link in station file) under the network code ZU. The seismic survey was funded by the US American National Science Foundation (Awards OCE17-37243, OCE17-37245).

Description: In August and September of 2006 the seismic WESTMED project was conducted in the Western Mediterranean aboard the German RV "Meteor" during the cruise M69/2. Profile 01 (p01) was recorded sucessfully in the Alboran Sea on 11 onshore stations and 16 offshore stations (ocean-bottom seismometers and hydrophones - OBS/OBH). The offshore stations were distributed every 4.5 km. Shoots were fired offshore along a ~150 km line, using two 32-litres BOLT air-guns array operated at 140 bar, fired every 60 s (~200 m). Total length of the seismic line is 360 km, running from the Gulf of Almeria, Spain southward approaching Morocco. Seismic segy data are reduced at 6 km/s. Please note that records from landstations start at 0 sec while OBS and OBH start at -2 sec.

Description: In May of 2019 the US American research vessel Marcus G. Langseth shot seismic profile p01 across the Emperor Seamounts in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Shots were recorded on 27 ocean-bottom-seismometers (OBS) of the US American Pool and GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. Seismic data in SEGY format of the GEOMAR OBS are here available from PANGAEA Datacenter. Please note that the data have a time offset of 1 sec and a reduction velocity of 8 km/s. The SEGY data from the US American OBS are available at the Incorporated Research Institution for Seismology (IRIS) under the network code ZU. The seismic survey was funded by the US American National Science Foundation (Awards OCE17-37243, OCE17-37245).

Description: Highlights • Along-strike variations of tectonic framework in northeastern Caribbean margin are studied. • Shallow plate boundary structure related to the slab geometry has been defined. • First-order fault systems and its associated features have been mapped along the margin. Abstract The North American (NOAM) plate converges with the Caribbean (CARIB) plate at a rate of 20.0 ± 0.4 mm/yr. towards 254 ± 1°. Plate convergence is highly oblique (20–10°), resulting in a complex crustal boundary with along-strike segmentation, strain partitioning and microplate tectonics. We study the oblique convergence of the NOAM and CARIB plates between southeastern Cuba to northern Puerto Rico using new swath multibeam bathymetry data and 2D multi-channel seismic profiles. The combined interpretation of marine geophysical data with the seismicity and geodetic data from public databases allow us to perform a regional scale analysis of the shallower structure, the seismotectonics and the slab geometry along the plate boundary. Due to differential rollback between the NOAM oceanic crust north of Puerto Rico and the relative thicker Bahamas Carbonate Province crust north of Hispaniola a slab tear is created at 68.5°W. The northern margin of Puerto Rico records the oblique high-dip subduction and rollback of the NOAM plate below the island arc. Those processes have resulted in a forearc transpressive tectonics (without strain partitioning), controlled by the Septentrional-Oriente Fault Zone (SOFZ) and the Bunce Fault Zone (BFZ). Meanwhile, in the northern margin of Hispaniola, the collision of the Bahamas Carbonate Province results in high plate coupling with strain partitioning: SOFZ and Northern Hispaniola Deformed Belt (NHDB). In the northern Haitian margin, compression is still relevant since seismicity is mostly associated with the deformation front, whereas strike slip earthquakes are hardly anecdotal. Although in Hispaniola intermediate-depth seismicity should disappear, diffuse intermediate-depth hypocenter remains evidencing the presence of remnant NOAM subducted slab below central and western Hispaniola. Results of this study improve our understanding of the active tectonics in the NE Caribbean that it is the base for future assessment studies on seismic and tsunamigenic hazard.

Description: In continental settings, seismic failure is generally restricted to crustal depth. Crustal structure is therefore an important proxy to evaluate seismic hazard of continental fault systems. Here we present a seismic velocity model across the Gibraltar Arc System, from the Eurasian Betics Range (South Iberian margin), across offshore East Alboran and Pytheas (African margin) basins, and ending onshore in North Morocco. Our results reveal the nature and configuration of the crust supporting the coexistence of three different crustal domains: the continental crust of the Betics, the continental crust of the Pytheas Basin (south Alboran Basin) and onshore Morocco, and a distinct domain formed of magmatic arc crust under the East Alboran Basin. The magmatic arc under the East Alboran Basin is characterized by a velocity structure containing a relatively high‐velocity lower crust (~7 km/s) bounded at the top and base by reflections. The lateral extension of this crust is mapped integrating a second perpendicular wide‐angle seismic profile along the Eastern Alboran basin, together with basement samples, multibeam bathymetry, and a grid of deep‐penetrating multichannel seismic profiles. The transition between crustal domains is currently unrelated to extensional and magmatic processes that formed the basin. The abrupt transition zones between the different crustal domains support that they are bounded by crustal‐scale active fault systems that reactivate inherited structures. Seismicity in the area is constrained to upper‐middle crust depths, and most earthquakes nucleate outside of the magmatic arc domain. Key Points New velocity model reveals the lithospheric structure under the Betics (South Iberia), the Alboran Basin and the North African margin The East Alboran Basin is floored by magmatic arc crust, while the southern area of the Alboran Basin is floored by continental crust Seismic activity is constrained to the upper‐middle continental crust. Crustal domains are likely bounded by active faults

Description: Oceanic transform faults and fracture zones represent major bathymetric features that keep the records of past and present strike‐slip motion along conservative plate boundaries. Although they play an important role in ridge segmentation and evolution of the lithosphere, their structural characteristics, and their variation in space and time, are poorly understood. To address some of the unknowns, we conducted interdisciplinary geophysical studies in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, the region where some of the most prominent transform discontinuities have been developing. Here we present the results of the data analysis in the vicinity of the Chain Fracture Zone (FZ), on the South American Plate. The crustal structure across the Chain FZ, at the contact between ~10 and 24 Ma oceanic lithosphere, is sampled along seismic reflection and refraction profiles. We observe that the crustal thickness within and across the Chain FZ ranges from ~4.6‐5.9 km, which compares with the observations reported for slow‐slipping transform discontinuities globally. We attribute this presence of close to normal oceanic crustal thickness within fracture zones to the mechanism of lateral dike propagation, previously considered to be valid only in fast‐slipping environments. Furthermore, the combination of our results with other datasets enabled us to extend the observations to morpho‐tectonic characteristics on a regional scale. Our broader view suggests that the formation of the transverse ridge is closely associated with a global plate reorientation that was also responsible for the propagation and for shaping lower‐order Mid‐Atlantic Ridge segmentation around the equator.

Description: Plate tectonics characterize transform faults as conservative plate boundaries where the lithosphere is neither created nor destroyed. In the Atlantic, both transform faults and their inactive traces, fracture zones, are interpreted to be structurally heterogeneous, representing thin, intensely fractured, and hydrothermally altered basaltic crust overlying serpentinized mantle. This view, however, has recently been challenged. Instead, transform zone crust might be magmatically augmented at ridge-transform intersections before becoming a fracture zone. Here, we present constraints on the structure of oceanic crust from seismic refraction and wide-angle data obtained along and across the St. Paul fracture zone near 18°W in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Most notably, both crust along the fracture zone and away from it shows an almost uniform thickness of 5-6 km, closely resembling normal oceanic crust. Further, a well-defined upper mantle refraction branch supports a normal mantle velocity of 8 km/s along the fracture zone valley. Therefore, the St. Paul fracture zone reflects magmatically accreted crust instead of the anomalous hydrated lithosphere. Little variation in crustal thickness and velocity structure along a 200 km long section across the fracture zone suggests that distance to a transform fault had negligible impact on crustal accretion. Alternatively, it could also indicate that a second phase of magmatic accretion at the proximal ridge-transform intersection overprinted features of starved magma supply occurring along transform faults. Key Points: - Seismic structure along the St. Paul fracture zone reflects magmatically accreted oceanic crust - Oceanic crust across St. Paul shows only small thickness variations, lacking evidence for regional crustal thinning near fracture zones - Magmatic nature of crust supports a mechanism where transform crust is augmented before being turned into a fracture zone

Description: Highlights • We present the first unified stratigraphy of the westernmost Mediterranean. • Miocene marine basins currently onshore are integrated. • We present a kinematic model for the Alboran and Algero-Balearic basins. • We evaluate western Mediterranean geodynamic models in the framework of basin evolution. Abstract Based on more than 4500 km of new and re-processed multichannel seismic lines, high-resolution seafloor bathymetry, available well data, and basement dredge samples, we have re-evaluated the entire stratigraphy and the tectonic evolution of the Alboran and western Algerian basins. We have correlated the sediment units deposited since the beginning of the formation of the different sub-basins, and we present for the first time a coherent stratigraphy and large-scale tectonic evolution of the whole region. The results provide the information to test and refine models of the geodynamic evolution of the westernmost Mediterranean. The data analysis supports an independent evolution of the sub-basins through the latemost Oligocene and Miocene, and a common Plio-Holocene evolution. The latemost Oligocene and Miocene evolution was controlled by the evolution of the Gibraltar subduction system. The oldest sedimentary unit is restricted to the West Alboran and Malaga basins depocenter that during the latemost Oligocene and early Miocene connected to some smaller marine basins currently uplifted and located onshore on the Betics range. Later, during the middle Miocene, the Habibas and Pytheas sub-basins formed a second depocenter on the North African margin. The different sedimentary units found in both depocenters, together with their different deformation patterns, support that the West Alboran-Malaga and the Habibas-Pytheas depocenters were separated by a major tectonic boundary. The early Tortonian initial arc magmatic activity produced the formation of new areas floored by a volcanic basement by the end of the late Tortonian, when the first sedimentary units deposited in the East Alboran sub-basin, and probably during the late Tortonian-early Messinian in the South Alboran sub-basin. Extension of the back-arc setting created oceanic crust flooring the Algero Balearic Basin. The extensional formation of the westernmost Mediterranean basins ended in the latemost Miocene. The western migration of the subduction system stopped and the convergence between the African and the European tectonic plates started to dominate the tectonic evolution of the region. During the Plio-Holocene, the sub-basins did not further subside individually so that these sediments have spread out across the whole Alboran Basin. A new tectonic contractional and strike-slip fault system developed that is active nowadays. The integration of our results together with the most recent tomographic studies has been used to test and refine the existing kinematic models of the area. None of the existing models explains all our large-scale observations.