The Western Alps, from Rift to Passive Margin to Orogenic Belt An Integrated Geoscience Overview

About this book

The objective of the book is to provide an updated synthesis of the evolution of the Alpine fold belt hitherto not available in English. The overall concept is to build on classical Alpine geological studies made since the start of the 19th century by integrating this work with modern results obtained systematically on mid ocean ridges and passive margins worldwide over the past 50 years using new marine geological and geophysical technologies.

The book thus provides an integrated overview of the evolution of the Alps from rift to passive margin to the present fold belt over a time span of 300my. It presents an integrated multidisciplinary synthesis of the evolution of the Alps from rift to passive margin to foldbelt. It includes 175 figures, structural maps and cross sections. It includes an index of localities referred to in the text and figures. It features a brief summary of the history and development of ideas concerning the evolution of fold belts and passive margins since the 19th century. It provides basis for further enquire and research. It also provides wider context relevant to marine and oil industry geoscientists.

Contents

From geosynclinal theory to plate tectonics in understanding folded belts.
The birth of the Alpine fold belt at the expense of the now vanished Tethyan Ocean and its continental margins.
The permanence of Hercynian heritage in Tethyan then Alpine structures.
The initiation of Tethyan rifting on the future European margin. The evolution of Tethyan rifting on the future European margin and the transition to oceanic spreading
The Valais Ocean controversy and the change from Tethyan spreading to Alpin shortening.
The Tethyan margin in Corsica.
A brief summary of the Apulian margin in the Eastern Alps in Italy and in the Grisons of Switzerland.
Alpine ophiolites in the Western Alps. Reconstruction of the Tethyan oceanic crust.
Recapitulation et overview.
From extension to shortening ; inversion on the European Tethyan margin and th start of orogenesis in the Western and Central Alps.
The birth of the Western and Central Alps : subduction, obduction, collision.
The Alps - Neotectonics.
Summary, discussion. Interpretation of Alpine stratigraphic sections in terms of Sequence Stratigraphy.

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