COLLISION RELATED INTRA-PLATE COMPRESSION DEFORMATIONS IN WESTERN AND CENTRAL-EUROPE

The Mesozoic grabens and wrench-induced troughs of Western and Central Europe developed in response to intra-plate tensional stresses affecting the Arctic-North Atlantic and the Tethys borderlands during the rifting phases preceding the opening of the respective oceans. During the Alpine orogeny, collision-related compressive stresses exerted on the foreland induced the reactivation of pre-existing fracture systems, and caused the inversion of Mesozoic grabens and the uplifting of major basement blocks at distances up to 1300 km to the north of the present Alpine deformation front. Total crustal shortening achieved by these deformations is unlikely to exceed a few tens of kilometres. These displacements require a coupling between the foreland and the orogen at the Alpine A-subduction zones and, within the foreland, a decoupling at intra-crustal levels, between the crust and mantle and/or at deeper lithosperic levels. © 1990.