Evolution of the European Cenozoic Rift System: interaction of the Alpine and Pyrenean orogens with their foreland lithosphere

Dèzes, P.; Schmid, Stefan M.; Ziegler, Peter A.

doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2004.06.011

Cited by 475 publications

(423 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…During the Middle Miocene (Burdigalian), the southern parts of the Upper Rhine Graben and the RBTZ were uplifted together with the Vosges-Black Forest Arch. This large-scale uplift was probably controlled by lithospheric folding, reflecting the build-up of collision-related compressional stresses in the Alpine foreland (Dèzes et al 2004).…”

Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feedback between erosion and active deformation: geomorphic constraints from the frontal Jura fold-and-thrust belt (eastern France)

Madritsch¹,

Fabbri²,

Hagedorn³

et al. 2009

Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch)

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A regional tectono-geomorphic analysis indicates a Pliocene to recent rock uplift of the outermost segment of the Jura fold-and-thrust belt, which spatially coincides with the intra-continental Rhine-Bresse Transfer Zone. Elevated remnants of the partly eroded Middle Pliocene Sundgau-Forêt de Chaux Gravels identified by heavy mineral analyses allow for a paleo-topographic reconstruction that yields minimum regional Latest Pliocene to recent rock uplift rates of 0.05 ± 0.02 mm/year. This uplift also affected the Pleistocene evolution of the Ognon and Doubs drainage basins and is interpreted as being tectonically controlled. While the Ognon River was deflected from the uplifted region the Doubs deeply incised into it.Focused incision of the Doubs possibly sustained ongoing deformation along anticlines which were initiated during the Neogene evolution of the thin-skinned Jura fold-and-thrust belt. At present, this erosion-related active deformation is taking place synchronously with thick-skinned tectonics, controlling the inversion of the Rhine-Bresse Transfer Zone. This suggests local decoupling between seismogenic basement faulting and erosion-related deformation of the Mesozoic cover sequences.

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Section: Tectonic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feedback between erosion and active deformation: geomorphic constraints from the frontal Jura fold-and-thrust belt (eastern France)

Madritsch¹,

Fabbri²,

Hagedorn³

et al. 2009

Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch)

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“…In the following, we focus only on the regional aspects that are indispensable for understanding the neotectonic setting. More exhaustive descriptions of the regional geology are found in Becker (2000), Giamboni et al (2004a), Dèzes et al (2004) and Ustaszewski & Schmid (2006). The usage of the term "neotectonic" in this study refers to tectonic processes that occurred since the Late Pliocene.…”

Section: Geological Setting and Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Latest Pliocene to recent thick-skinned tectonics at the Upper Rhine Graben – Jura Mountains junction

2007

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The southernmost Upper Rhine Graben and adjacent Jura experienced basement-rooted shortening that occurred after the deposition of the Pliocene fluvial "Sundgau gravels". Folds affecting the base of these gravels systematically trend NE to ENE. Combined evidence from reflection seismic lines and contour maps of the base-Tertiary and base-Pliocene levels indicates that these folds probably formed by thick-skinned reactivation of both NNE-SSW and WSW-ENE-striking faults. This thick-skinned shortening is NW-SE oriented, i.e. parallel to the maximum horizontal stresses inferred from seismotectonics. NNE-SSW-striking faults (paralleling the Upper Rhine Graben) have been reactivated in sinistral strike-slip mode. However, dextrally transpressive reactivation of the WSW-ENE-trending faults that belong to the Rhine-Bresse Transfer Zone is interpreted to predominate.Deflections of recent river courses around the crests of en-échelon-aligned surface anticlines suggest that the deformation is ongoing at present.Retro-deformation of the folds affecting the base of the Sundgau gravels indicates horizontal displacement rates of about 0.05 mm/a. This corresponds to a minimum strain rate in the order of 2·10 -16 s -1 , given the maximum time span of 2.9 Ma for this deformation, i.e. the biostratigraphically determined minimum age of the gravels. A change from thin-skinned tectonics, that prevailed during the main phase of Jura folding, to very probably still ongoing thick-skinned tectonics is inferred to have occurred in the Late Pliocene. We speculate that this change might be linked to the incipient inversion of Permo-Carboniferous troughs within the Alpine foreland in general. This inversion in dextrally transpressive or purely compressive mode along a WNW-ESE-trending basement fault, that is part of the Rhine-Bresse Transfer Zone, which in turn was prestructured during the formation of the Permo-Carboniferous troughs, could have triggered the 1356 Basel earthquake.

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“…2 During the Cenozoic, the West and Central Platform underwent a polyphase evolution, involving the development of the European Cenozoic Rift System (ECRIS), inversion of Mesozoic tensional basin and upthrusting of basement blocks, lithospheric folding controlling uplift of the Vosges-Black Forest arch and the Armorican Massif, as well as subsidence of the North Sea Basin, and thermal doming of the Rhenish Massif and the Massif Central. 3,4 These deformations had severe repercussions on the development of the topography and drainage systems, particularly during the last 20 million years.…”

Section: Topo -West and Central European Platform (Topo-wecep)mentioning

confidence: 99%

TOPO-EUROPE: Coupled Deep Earth – Surface Processes in Europe

Cloetingh

Ziegler

2009

European Review

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TOPO-EUROPE is a multidisciplinary international research program that addresses the interaction of processes inherent to the deep Earth (lithosphere, mantle) with surface processes (erosion, climate, sea level), which together shaped the topography of Europe. The objective of the TOPO-EUROPE project is to assess neotectonic deformation rates and to quantify related geo-risks, such as earthquakes, flooding, landslides, rock falls and volcanism. Research, incorporating iterative data interactive modelling, focuses on the lithosphere memory and neotectonics, with special attention on the thermo-mechanical structure of the lithosphere, mechanisms controlling large-scale plate boundary and intraplate deformations, anomalous subsidence and uplift, and links with surface processes and topography evolution. The TOPO-EUROPE natural laboratories, in which these processes are analysed, cover a wide range of geodynamic settings. These include the post-collisional Alpine/Carpathian/Pannonian-Basin system, the very active Aegean-Anatolian and Apennines-Tyrrhenian orogens and back-arc basins, the Caucasus-Levant area in the Arabia-Europe collision zone, the Iberian Peninsula caught up between Alpine orogens, the meta-stable West and Central European Platform, the stable EastEuropean Platform and the seismically active and elevated Scandinavian continental margin. The TOPO-EUROPE project is a component of the International Lithosphere Program and was initiated with the support of Academia Europaea. A European Science Foundation EUROCORES project provides funding for part of the TOPO-EUROPE research. Other parts of TOPO-EUROPE require support by participating organizations.

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Evolution of the European Cenozoic Rift System: interaction of the Alpine and Pyrenean orogens with their foreland lithosphere

Cited by 475 publications

References 71 publications

Feedback between erosion and active deformation: geomorphic constraints from the frontal Jura fold-and-thrust belt (eastern France)

Feedback between erosion and active deformation: geomorphic constraints from the frontal Jura fold-and-thrust belt (eastern France)

Latest Pliocene to recent thick-skinned tectonics at the Upper Rhine Graben – Jura Mountains junction

TOPO-EUROPE: Coupled Deep Earth – Surface Processes in Europe

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