The Gulf of Cadiz is located at the SW Iberian Margin and hosts the African-Eurasian plate boundary. This is one of the most seismogenic areas in Western Europe, where historical and instrumental earthquakes occurred, ranging from Mw 6 to 8.5, and some of them triggered destructive tsunamis. The ICM-CSIC team keeps investigating the Gulf of Cadiz area since more than 15 years, carrying out multiscale bathymetric, high-resolution to deep seismic and sampling surveys. The active structures in the Gulf of Cadiz can be classified in two main families: The WNW-ESE dextral strike-slip faults and the NE-SW thrusts faults. The orientation of these faults is compatible with the current plate convergence in the region. The largest active strike-slip faults are: -the Lineament South and the Lineament North that may generate earthquakes up to Mw 8; while the active NE-SW thrust faults, the Marquês de Pombal, the Horseshoe and the Coral Patch Ridge faults can individually generate earthquakes up to Mw7.8

Inciativa Ibérica para el Estudio de las Fallas Activas, Tercera Reunión Ibérica sobre Fallas Activas y Paleosismología IBERFAULT 2018 - Third Iberian Meeting on Active Faults and Paleoseismology, 11-13 June 2018, Alicante, Spain.-- 4 pages, 4 figures

Peer Reviewed