The Betic Ophiolites consist of numerous tectonic slices, metric to kilometric in size,
of eclogitized mafic and ultramafic rocks associated to oceanic metasediments, deriving from the Betic
oceanic domain. The outcrop of these ophiolites is aligned along 250 km in the Mulhacén Complex
of the Nevado-Filábride Domain, located at the center-eastern zone of the Betic Cordillera (SE
Spain). According to petrological/geochemical inferences and SHRIMP (Sensitive High Resolution
Ion Micro-Probe) dating of igneous zircons, the Betic oceanic lithosphere originated along an
ultra-slow mid-ocean ridge, after rifting, thinning and breakup of the preexisting continental crust.
The Betic oceanic sector, located at the westernmost end of the Tethys Ocean, developed from the
Lower to Middle Jurassic (185–170 Ma), just at the beginning of the Pangaea break-up between
the Iberia-European and the Africa-Adrian plates. Subsequently, the oceanic spreading migrated
northeastward to form the Ligurian and Alpine Tethys oceans, from 165 to 140 Ma. Breakup and
oceanization isolated continental remnants, known as the Mesomediterranean Terrane, which were
deformed and affected by the Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene Eo-Alpine high-pressure metamorphic
event, due to the intra-oceanic subduction of the Jurassic oceanic lithosphere and the related
continental margins. This process was followed by the partial exhumation of the subducted oceanic
rocks onto their continental margins, forming the Betic and Alpine Ophiolites. Subsequently, along
the Upper Oligocene and Miocene, the deformed and metamorphosed Mesomediterranean Terrane
was dismembered into different continental blocks collectively known as AlKaPeCa microplate
(Alboran, Kabylian, Peloritan and Calabrian). In particular, the Alboran block was displaced
toward the SW to occupy its current setting between the Iberian and African plates, due to the
Neogene opening of the Algero-Provençal Basin. During this translation, the different domains of
the Alboran microplate, forming the Internal Zones of the Betic and Rifean Cordilleras, collided
with the External Zones representing the Iberian and African margins and, together with them,
underwent the later alpine deformation and metamorphism, characterized by local differences of P-T
(Pressure-Temperature) conditions. These Neogene metamorphic processes, known as Meso-Alpine
and Neo-Alpine events, developed in the Nevado-Filábride Domain under Ab-Ep amphibolite and
greenschists facies conditions, respectively, causing retrogradation and intensive deformation of the
Eo-Alpine eclogites.