Eastern segment of the Azores-Gibraltar line (central-eastern Atlantic): an oceanic plate boundary with diffuse compressional deformation

New seismic-reflection images across the eastern segment of the Azores-Gibraltar line west of the collisional area between the African and Iberian plates have revealed a complex pattern of compressional deformation involving the Mesozoic oceanic lithosphere. The compressional deformation developed in a region of slow plate convergence and is diffused, at different lithospheric levels, across an area spanning approximately 200 km from the Gorringe Ridge to the Seine Plain. The convergence between the African and Iberian plates has been active since Tertiary time, and our results indicate that no subduction zone exists across this part of the plate boundary.