Evidence for three short-lived compressive episodes of late Carixian, late
Callovian-early Oxfordian, and Tithonian-Berriasian ages that lasted <5 m.y
r. and occurred during the process of rifting of the Algarve Basin is prese
nted. These tectonic-inversion episodes are described at outcrop and cartog
raphic scales and have been dated with the accuracy provided by the ammonoi
d scale. An uplift event of late Toarcian-Aalenian age of undetermined tect
onic origin is also described. We show that these four tectonic episodes co
incide in time with important ecological events, such as the onset of migra
tion and/or the segregation of Boreal and Tethyan ammonite species and the
confinement of the Algarve Basin. Stratigraphic and paleoecological data fr
om the Algarve and Lusitanian Basins are compared and discussed together wi
th eustatic and tectonic information. We propose that the tectonic-inversio
n episodes that caused uplift are the origin of the Mesozoic sedimentary ga
ps and the intermittent opening and closure of the seaway located offshore
the SW corner of Iberia between the Algarve and Lusitanian Basins (i.e., a
seaway between the Boreal and Tethyan realms). Three tectonic mechanisms fo
r the origin of these short-lived compressive episodes are presented after
comparing the tectonic setting of the Algarve Basin with other geological p
rovinces of the world where similar phenomena also occurred.