active tectonics and quaternary basin formation along the vienna basin transform fault abstract the vienna basin transform fault is an active fault system extending over a distance of some 300 km from the eastern alps through the vienna basin into the west carpathians active sinistral movement is indicated by moderate seismic activity in a ne striking zone paralleling the fault focal plane solutions and recent stress measurements by analogy to the miocene kinematics we propose that the sinistral strike slip fault terminates in the carpathians where horizontal offset is transformed into thin skinned thrust type deformation hypocenter depths mostly well above 12 km are in line with the inferred thin skinned style of deformation with active faults restricted to the overthrust alpine carpathian units mapping of active fault segments in the vienna basin using subcrop data thickness maps of quaternary deposits seismological data and geomorphological features seen in the digital elevation model shows that virtually all active faults are reactivated miocene structures in the southern part of the basin active faulting defines a small scale pull apart structure with an actively subsiding quaternary basin which is filled with up to 140 m fluvial gravel sand and paleosoils for this basin quaternary sinistral displacement was quantified by adopting a geometrical model for thin skinned extensional strike slip duplexes accordingly 1 5 2 km sinistral slip accumulated during deposition of the basin fill in the last 400 ky corresponding to a slip rate of 1 6 2 5 mm y results are in good agreement with published gps data indicating 2 mm slip per year a second group of quaternary basins is related to listric normal faulting rollover and crestal collapse of the reactivated normal faults at the nw basin margin rollover also resulted in tilting and dissecting late pleistocene river terraces of the danube

zoisite and clinozoisite segregations in metabasites tauern window austria as evidence for high pressure fluid rock interaction high pressure zoisite and clinozoisite bearing segregations are common in garnet and albite bearing amphibolites of the palaeozoic part of the lower schieferhulle south central tauern window austria the zoisite segregations primary assemblage zo qtz cal formed during an early to pre hercynian high pressure event p 0 6 gpa t 500 550 c by hydrofracturing as a result of protolith dehydration zoisite is growth zoned from fe3 poor cores al 2 fe 9 mol to fe3 rich rims 17 mol and has high sr pb and ga contents and lree enriched ree patterns controlling the trace element budget of the segregations hercynian deformation at c 0 7 gpa 600 c kinked and cracked primary zoisite and enhanced breakdown into secondary zoisite 13 mol al 2 fe clinozoisite 40 55 mol al 2 fe albite an 20 calcite and white mica during an eoalpine high pressure event at 0 9 1 2 gpa 400 500 c the clinozoisite segregations primary assemblage czo qtz omp ttn chl cal are mm to cm wide vein like bodies cross cutting fabric elements of the host garnet amphibolite they formed during the eoalpine high pressure event at 0 9 1 2 gpa 400 500 c during alpine exhumation omphacite was pseudomorphed by amphibole albite quartz and clinozoisite oxygen isotope data suggest equilibrium between host metabasite and zoisite segregations and indicate an internal fluid source and fluid buvering by the protolith mobility of p nb and lree changed the protolith s trace element composition in the vicinity of the zoisite segregations mobilization of lree is evidenced by decreasing modal amounts of lree rich epidote and decreasing lree contents in lree rich epidote towards the segregations chang ing the ree patterns of the host metabasite from lree enriched to lree depleted tectonic discrimi nation diagrams based on the trace element content of metabasites should be applied with extreme caution

geophysical geological transect and tectonic evolution of the swiss italian alps a complete alpine cross section integrates numerous seismic reflection and refraction profiles across and along strike with published and new field data the deepest parts of the profile are constrained by geophysical data only while structural features at intermediate levels are largely depicted according to the results of three dimensional models making use of seismic and field geological data the geometry of the highest structural levels is constrained by classical along strike projections of field data parallel to the pronounced easterly axial dip of all tectonic units because the transect is placed close to the western erosional margin of the austroalpine nappes of the eastern alps it contains all the major tectonic units of the alps a model for the tectonic evolution along the transect is proposed in the form of scaled and area balanced profile sketches shortening within the austroalpine nappes is testimony of a separate cretaceous age orogenic event west directed thrusting in these units is related to westward propagation of a thrust wedge resulting from continental collision along the meliata hallstatt ocean further to the east considerable amounts of oceanic and continental crustal material were subducted during tertiary orogeny which involved some 500 km of n s convergence between europe and apulia consequently only a very small percentage of this crustal material is preserved within the nappes depicted in the transect postcollisional shortening is characterized by the simultaneous activity of gently dipping north directed detachments and steeply inclined south directed detachments both detachments nucleating at the interface between lower and upper crust large scale wedging of the adriatic or apulian lower crust into a gap opening between the subduced european lower crust and the pile of thin upper crustal flakes alpine nappes indicates a relatively strong lower crust and detachment between upper and lower crust

palinspastic reconstruction and topographic evolution of the eastern alps during late tertiary tectonic extrusion this paper presents a new palinspastic restoration of the eastern alps for neogene time and an attempt to reconstruct the neogene palaeogeology palaeotopography and palaeohydrography in connection with the structural evolution the eastern alps underwent radical horizontal displacement during the neogene due to large strike slip systems and formation of structural windows our palinspastic reconstruction considers a the rearrangement of tectonic units dismembered during tectonic extrusion b the tectonic denudation driven by displacement of the crystalline blocks c geochronological arguments and d the sedimentary record of the syn extrusion basins the rearrangement of tectonic blocks results in a remarkably good fit of highly dismembered zones both in crystalline and sedimentary areas and shows the pre miocene unstretched pattern of the eastern alps reduced to 65 of its present day e w elongation using this structural frame and considering the sedimentary record a set of palaeogeologic and palaeotopographic sketch maps with the palaeo river systems is presented for three time slices pre syn and post extension situation in late oligocene and early miocene times the western eastern alps were already mountainous whereas the eastern part of the orogen formed lowlands or hilly areas enhanced block movement in the course of the extrusion process around the early middle miocene boundary led to the formation of intramontane sedimentary basins and a fault induced reorientation of the drainage pattern which forms the basis of the modern river system in the area east of the tauern window this region where pre miocene land surfaces are preserved probably became a mountainous area not before late miocene time and never reached the elevations of the areas further west

laterally varying structure and kinematics of the molasse fold and thrust belt of the central eastern alps implications for exploration the molasse deposits of the central eastern alps are partly incorporated into a fold and thrust belt that recently has come into exploration focus the structural style and timing of deformation varies significantly alongstrike regional three dimensional seismic and well data interpretation indicate three different structural segments from east to west 1 the sierning imbricates have a decollement close to the base of the molasse sequence and consist of varying numbers of thrust sheets alongstrike early miocene shortening of the molasse is at least 6 2 km 3 9 mi overthrusting of the internal penninic and helvetic wedge since the oligocene accommodated at least 25 km 15 5 mi of additional shortening 2 the regau segment is dominated by one to two small thrust sheets above a shallow detachment this segment is dominated by overthrusting of the alpine wedge 3 the perwang imbricates consist of an oligocene wedge with complex deformed thrust sheets above a detachment horizon in upper cretaceous marls minimum shortening in the imbricates is 18 5 km 11 5 mi with overthrusting 33 3 km 20 7 mi all shortening estimates have an uncertainty of approximately 20 to 35 the laterally varying thrust belt architecture results from predeformational conditions e g sediment thickness mechanical stratigraphy and basement dip in the sierning imbricates hydrocarbon trap definition and charge issues are exploration risks in the regau segment exploration is focused on the subthrust play the perwang imbricates have hydrocarbon shows but no economic discoveries charge and seal issues are the main risks the petroleum systems in the context of the structural evolution are not yet fully understood

crustal structure of the carpathian pannonian region from ambient noise tomography we use ambient noise tomography to investigate the crust and uppermost mantle structure beneath the carpathian pannonian region of central europe over 7500 rayleigh wave empirical green s functions are derived from interstation cross correlations of vertical component ambient seismic noise recordings 2005 2011 using a temporary network of 54 stations deployed during the south carpathian project 2009 2011 56 temporary stations deployed in the carpathian basins project 2005 2007 and 100 permanent and regional broad band stations rayleigh wave group velocity dispersion curves 4 40 s are determined using the multiple filter analysis technique group velocity maps are computed on a grid of 0 2 0 2 from a non linear 2 d tomographic inversion using the subspace method we then inverted the group velocity maps for the 3 d shear wave velocity structure of the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the region our shear wave velocity model provides a uniquely complete and relatively high resolution view of the crustal structure in the carpathian pannonian region which in general is validated by comparison with previous studies using other methods to probe the crustal structure at shallow depths 30 km are relatively fast presumably related to shallowing of the moho consequent on the extensional history of the pannonian region

eastern alpine tectono metamorphic evolution constraints from two dimensional p t t modeling we use two dimensional 2 d p t t modeling to constrain the thermal and rheological aspects of different scenarios for the late mesozoic and cenozoic tectonic evolution of the eastern alps inferred from excellent data sets from the tauern window tw models invoking subduction of the south penninic sp oceanic lithosphere during thrusting and subsequent erosion of the austro alpine aa upper plate nappe stack are inconsistent with the observed thermal evolution within the aa and penninic units in these models predictions for the aa peak thermal conditions are lower than observed after exhumation and cooling to midcrustal levels and subduction of the continental middle penninic mp block the aa undergoes a phase of renewed heating to almost the previous peak temperatures simultaneously the penninic units experience a phase of heating upon subduction followed by cooling after onset of subduction of the north penninic np basin the model predictions are inconsistent with the observed nearly isothermal uplift path of the sp after subduction and cannot explain observed inverted metamorphic peak conditions in the deeper aa amphibolite facies down to the higher penninic unit greenschist facies a model with the beginning of subduction of the sp occurring after crustal thickening of the aa and subsequent return to normal crustal thicknesses is compatible with the p t t data in this model peak temperature conditions are higher in the aa followed by a phase of strong cooling in the aa upper plate with the onset of underthrusting this model also explains successfully nearly isothermal exhumation of the mp and inverted metamorphic peak conditions in the deeper aa material accreted to the hanging wall from the oceanic crust sp experiences a phase of cooling during ongoing subduction of oceanic lithosphere and begins to heat up to its thermal climax after the subduction of trailing continental lithosphere the subsequent pt path of the penninic units strongly depends on the timing and rates of underthrusting by the foreland observed pt paths in the mp within the tw require continuous subduction of the np and the trailing european foreland under the exhuming mp block documented rapid cooling in the final uplift phase of the penninic units in the tw requires exhumation rates up to approximately 4 mm yr predictions of slightly elevated present day geothermal gradients in the tw area are consistent with available heat flow data as a result of mesozoic rifting followed by late mesozoic crustal thickening of the aa paleorheological reconstructions are characterized by a contrast between relatively strong oceanic lithosphere and adjacent weak continental lithosphere predicted decoupling of weak continental and oceanic lithosphere during subsequent subduction of the penninic units can explain observed late cretaceous crustal extension in the aa units in terms of gravitational spreading ongoing subduction leads to an overall strength increase due to underthrusting of cool oceanic lithosphere whereas subduction of continental lithosphere causes a strength decrease in the upper levels of the lithosphere continuous crustal thickening and relaxation of the depressed isotherms reduce the strength of the lower lithospheric mantle beneath the central orogen further enhanced by rapid late stage uplift predictions for the present day rheological structure of the eastern alps support the existence of a strong upper crustal layer two wedge shaped strong upper mantle layers to the north and the south of the orogen and a weak upper mantle underlying the central orogen

polyhalite microfabrics in an alpine evaporite melange hallstatt eastern alps in the hallstatt salt mine austria polyhalite rocks occur in 0 5 1 m thick and several metre long tectonic lenses within the protocataclasite to protomylonite matrix of the alpine haselgebirge fm thin section analysis of hallstatt polyhalites reveals various fabric types similar to metamorphic rocks of crust forming minerals e g quartz and feldspar polyhalite microfabrics from hallstatt include 1 polyhalite mylonites 2 metamorphic reaction fabrics 3 vein filling fibrous polyhalite and 4 cavity filling polyhalite the polyhalite mylonites contain a wide range of shear fabrics commonly known in mylonitic quartzo feldspathic shear zones within the ductile crust and developed from a more coarse grained precursor rock the mylonites are partly overprinted by recrystallised statically grown polyhalite grains metamorphic reaction fabrics of polyhalite fibres between blodite or astrakhanite na2mg so4 2 4h2o and anhydrite have also been found according to previous reports blodite may occur primarily as nodules or intergrown with loweite reaction fabrics may have formed by exsolution re crystallisation parallel growth or replacement this fabric type was only found in one sample in relation with the decomposition of blodite at ca 61 c in the presence of halite or slightly above testifying therefore a late stage prograde fabric significantly younger than the main polyhalite formation

lateral extrusion in the eastern alps part 1 boundary conditions and experiments scaled for gravity lateral extrusion encompasses extensional collapse gravitational spreading away from a topographic high in an orogenic belt and tectonic escape plane strain horizontal motion of wedges driven by forces applied to their boundaries in the eastern alps it resulted from 1 an overall northerly compression apulia against eurasia 2 a strong foreland bohemian massif 3 lack of constraint along a lateral boundary carpathian region and 4 a previously thickened gravitationally unstable thermally weakened crust eastern alpine orogenic belt six indentation experiments reproduce lateral extrusion at lithospheric scale the models have two to four lithospheric layers with a mohr coulomb rheology for the upper and a viscous rheology for the lower crust the lithosphere rests upon a low viscosity asthenosphere a broad indenter a narrow deformable area and a weakly constrained eastern margin fullfill as closely as possible conditions in the eastern alps indentation produces both thickening in front of the indenter and escape of triangular wedges lateral variations in crustal thickness become attenuated by gravitational spreading the overall fault pattern includes domains of reverse strike slip oblique normal and pure normal faults strike slip faults in conjugate sets develop serially the narrow width of the deformable area and the strength of the foreland determine the angles between the sets gravitational spreading produces a rhombohedral pattern of oblique and pure normal faults along the unconstrained margin opposite the unconstrained margin the indenter front shows thrusts and folds intersecting with the conjugate strike slip sets a triangular indenter favors spreading high velocity of indentation favors escape high confinement limits lateral motion inhibits spreading and favors thickening lateral extrusion in the eastern alps is best modeled by 1 a weak lateral confinement 2 a broad and straight indenter 3 a narrow width of the deformable area and 4 a rigid foreland crustal thickening lateral escape and gravitational spreading all contribute to the overall deformation

strike slip duplexes abstract strike slip fault systems often contain zones of steep imbricate faults geometrically similar to imbricate fans and duplexes in dip slip thrust and normal fault systems they are evident in map view rather than in vertical sections examples of duplexes are cited from both active and ancient systems and from theoretical and physical models duplexes may form at bends on strike slip faults by a process kinematically analogous to the sequential imbrication of ramps on dip slip faults however some may form and many may initiate as non sequential riedel fractures at fault offsets or on straight fault segments this process is more marked than in dip slip systems where primary anisotropy such as bedding exerts more control on fault geometry strike slip duplexes may be shunted along the fault system parallel to the regional slip vector however duplexes or individual horses will usually also move up or down perpendicular to the slip vector because of the unconstrained upper surface to the fault system these factors mean that no section through a strike slip system should be expected to area balance the faults of strike slip duplexes and imbricate fans may root in kinematically necessary low dip faults or may converge downwards and appear in vertical sections as flower structures

morphological analysis of the drainage system in the eastern alps abstract we study the morphology of the major rivers draining the eastern alps to test whether the active tectonics of this part of the orogen is reflected in the shape of channel profiles of the river network in our approach we compare channel profiles measured from digital elevation models with numerically modelled channel profiles using a stream power approach it is shown that regions of high stream power coincide largely with regions of highest topography and largest uplift rates while the forelands and the pannonian basin are characterised by a significantly lower stream power from stream power modelling we conclude that there is young uplift at the very east of the eastern alps in the bohemian massif and in the pohorje range the impact of the pleistocene glaciations is explored by comparing properties of rivers that drain in proximal and distal positions relative to the ice sheet during the last glacial maximum our analysis shows that most knick points wind gaps and other non equilibrium features of catchments covered by ice during the last glaciations salzach enns can be correlated with glacial processes in contrast the ice free catchments of the mur and drava are characterized by channels in morphological equilibrium at the first approximation and are showing only weak evidence of the strong tectonic activity within these catchments finally the channel profiles of the adige and the divide between the upper rhine and danube catchments differ significantly from the other catchments we relate this to the fact that the adige and the rhine respond to different base levels from the remainder of the eastern alps the adige may preserve a record from the messininan base level change and the rhine is subject to the base level lowering in the rhine graben

the tertiary dynamics of the northern eastern alps austria changing palaeostresses in a collisional plate boundary abstract six tertiary deviatoric palaeostress tensor groups from 165 stations in the calcareous alps describe the upper crustal dynamics of the leading edge of the adriatic plate during protracted continental collision with the european lower plate palaeostress changes are correlated to the kinematic evolution of the plate boundary and to independently derived plate kinematic data of the alpine carpathian pannonian area each palaeostress direction is defined by 32 to 89 individual tensors which constrain 1 late eocene to oligocene nw directed compression during thrusting and dextral shearing on wnw striking faults nw directed compression along the northern margin of the adriatic plate is correlated to its n directed translation combined with a counterclockwise rotation 2a late eocene to early miocene n directed compression during n directed thrusting of penninic and helvetic units and the molasse 2b early to middle miocene n directed strike slip compression during the onset of eastward lateral extrusion the change from nw to n directed compression is interpreted to result from strain partitioning at the periadriatic fault which has formed the new adriatic plate boundary since the oligocene dextral shearing on this fault accommodated continued anticlockwise rotation and decoupled the northern eastern alps from the rotational component n directed compression in the calcareous alps paralleled the n directed translation of the adriatic plate 3 middle miocene ne directed compression of thrust and strike slip type during lateral extrusion ne directed compression in the calcareous alps resulted from the drag of the eastward extruding central eastern alps sinistral shear stress was transmitted across the ene trending salzach ennstal fault ne oriented 1 axes include 45 with the e w striking zone of distributed sinistral shear in the calcareous alps 4 middle miocene e directed extension associated with orogen parallel normal faulting of the central eastern alps e directed extension paralleled the direction of mass transfer towards the pannonian basin during lateral extrusion normal faulting was induced by reduced lateral confinement due to removal of material east of the alps on the large scale eastward motion was enabled by the e directed retreat of the eastern carpathian subduction zone 5 late miocene e directed compression orogen parallel compression obstructed lateral extrusion the stress change from extension to e directed compression was caused by the end of subduction retreat in the eastern carpathians due to dynamic changes in the subduction zone 6 n directed extension late to post miocene extension paralleled recent topographic slopes in the foothill of the eastern alps palaeostresses changes correspond to distinct phases in the kinematic evolution of the northern eastern alps and to the systematic formation and reactivation of major fault zones wnw striking faults changed deformation styles from dextral shear to dextral transpression reverse faulting and finally to sinistral shear the early to middle miocene salzach ennstal fault which formed the northern boundary of the extruded central eastern alps changed from sinistral transpression to sinistral shear sinistral transtension and finally to dextral shear

cooling and crystallization of rhyolite obsidian lava insights from micron scale projections on plagioclase microlites abstract to reveal the cooling process of a rhyolite obsidian flow we studied the morphology of plagioclase microlites in the tokachi ishizawa lava of shirataki northern hokkaido japan where the structure of the lava can be observed from obsidian at the base of the flow to the innermost rhyolite needle like micron scale textures known as projections occur on the short side surfaces of the plagioclase microlites using fe sem we discovered a positive correlation between the lengths and spacings of these projections on the basis of the instability theory of an interface between melt and crystal and to understand the length and spacing data we developed a model that explains the positive correlation and allows us to simultaneously estimate growth rates and growth times applying the model to our morphological data and the estimated growth rates and growth times we suggest that the characteristics of the projections reflect the degree of undercooling which in turn correlates with lava structure the obsidian at the margin of the flow experienced a higher degree of undercooling than the interior rhyolite the newly developed method provides insights into the degree of undercooling during the final stages of crystallization of a rhyolitic lava flow

new evidence for block and thrust sheet rotations in the central northern calcareous alps deduced from two pervasive remagnetization events 1 we present 81 paleomagnetic sites early triassic to early cretaceous from the central sector of the northern calcareous alps nca eastern alps austria and germany stepwise thermal demagnetization defines three magnetic directions mostly carried by low unblocking temperature and low coercivity minerals j3 350 j2 500 j1 575 and 680 j3 and j2 show positive inclinations whereas j1 very seldom is of dual polarity the fold tests show that a j3 can be interpreted as a postfolding and posttilting remagnetization and j2 as a postfolding and pre syn tilting j1 can be considered as primary because of the occurrence of two polarities and evidence presented by other authors in the area all three components show a systematic and significant clockwise rotation after comparing with the expected european references j2 or j1 are marked by higher rotation values than j3 j2 shows different inclinations depending on the structural position north or southward dips considering the structural evolution and the observed inclinations the first postfolding and pretilting remagnetization event j2 could have taken place between late cretaceous and eocene times but certainly before the thrusting of the nca over the rhenodanubian flysch and northward tilting caused by the stacking of the lower austroalpine nappes the second postfolding and posttilting remagnetization j3 would have been acquired after the final thrusting of the nca over penninic units from then the nca behaved as a set of rigid blocks recording the main stage of vertical axis clockwise rotation 65 in average associated with the continental collision the variable degree of rotation in the different positions from 40 to 134 can be explained by individual vertical axis rotation in a block system trying to adjust to space problems the constant declination differences between j2 and j3 25 in average would reflect the rotation related with the lateral differences of shortening during the oblique thrust of the austroalpine units over the penninic units

mountain front development by folding and crustal thickening in the internal zone of the betic cordillera alboran sea boundary the boundary between the alboran sea and betic cordillera is a good example of a fold related mountain front in the internal zone of an alpine mountain range since the late miocene nnw sse convergence between the eurasian and african plates has produced shortening and related orthogonal extension to improve the characterisation of the geometry of the deep structure in the region and to establish the recent tectonic evolution of the mountain front well logs and newly acquired geophysical data multichannel reflection seismic and gravimetric surveys have been interpreted and integrated with available surface data the most marked tectonic structure corresponds to large antiforms and synforms of ene wsw trend which are related to mountain ranges and basins respectively the fold belt continues toward the northern continental shelf of the alboran sea the fold vergence is generally northwards and its amplitude decreases progressively towards sse until disappearring in a sharp boundary where the reflectors are undeformed the deep geometry suggests that fold growth started during upper tortonian times and continued its activity up to pliocene or even quaternary times the nnw sse compression produces crustal thickening and a regional and progressive southwards emersion the location of main present day deformation fronts in the internal zones contrasts with classical models where the deformation progresses towards the frontal part of external zones of cordilleras in addition this fold related deformation mountain front has features different from fault related fronts as it does not show a sharp boundary and folds that determine rectilinear mountain boundaries decrease progressively in amplitude or in wavelength up to undeformed areas

estimating displacement along the brenner fault and orogen parallel extension in the eastern alps the major structure accommodating orogen parallel extension in the eastern alps is inferred to be the brenner fault which forms the western boundary of the tauern window the estimated amount of extension along this fault varies from a minimum of 10 20 km to a maximum of 70 km all investigations that have attempted to constrain this amount of extension have calculated the fault plane parallel displacement required to restore the difference in structural level between footwall and hanging wall as constrained by geobarometry however these calculations neglected the component of exhumation of the footwall resulting from folding and erosion therefore the total amount of extensional displacement was systematically overestimated in the present study we project a tectonic marker surface from the footwall and hanging wall of the brenner fault onto a n s striking cross section this marker surface which is the base of the patscherkofel unit in the footwall and the base of the otztal basement in the hanging wall is inferred to have occupied the same structural level in the hanging wall and footwall of the brenner fault before its activity therefore the difference in height between the marker projected from the footwall and from the hanging wall is a measure of the vertical offset across the brenner fault this construction shows that the vertical offset of the marker horizon on both sides of the brenner fault varies strongly and continuously along strike of the brenner fault attaining a maximum value of 15 km at the hinge of the folded footwall tauern dome the along strike change of vertical offset is explained by large scale upright folding of the footwall that did not affect the hanging wall of the brenner fault therefore the difference in vertical offset of 10 km between the area of the brenner pass and the area immediately south of innsbruck corresponds to the shortening upright folding component of exhumation of the footwall the remaining 5 km of vertical offset must be attributed to extensional deformation the brenner fault itself is barely folded its dip varies between 20 and 70 and it crosscuts the upright folds of the western tauern window given the offset of 5 km the dip of the fault constrains the extensional displacement to be between 2 and 14 km we conclude that the tauern window was exhumed primarily by folding and erosion not by extensional unroofing

kinematics of austro alpine cover nappes changing translation path due to transpression upper and middle austro alpine nappes of the eastern alps the structural uppermost subunits of the alps suffered two major superposed deformations d1 d2 during the eo alpine cretaceous orogeny d1 is characterized by nw to w directed thrusting and nappe internal rock flow d2 by large scale folding and imbrication toward the north and northeast structures strain metamorphic history microfabrics and stretching trajectories indicate that the superposition of d2 over d1 structures can be interpreted as a progressive deformation it is concluded that the emplacement of the nappes follows a curved translation path a model which emphasizes non coaxial deformation structures explains the detachment of the nappes the configuration of the separating thrust planes and the distribution of intense deformation zones the overall kinematic history of the austro alpine nappes fits a model in which strike slip shearing horizontal shortening and vertical lengthening act together continuously over a finite deformation zone transpressional model this model emphasizing a gradually changing strain regime eliminates the space problems encountered in models which consider simple south over north imbrication during the alpine orogeny the study stresses two interpretations 1 1 stretching lineations indicate nappe transport directions 2 2 transpression may be a common feature of orogenic belts

late cretaceous exhumation of the metamorphic gleinalm dome eastern alps kinematics cooling history and sedimentary response in a sinistral wrench corridor abstract the metamorphic gleinalm dome eastern alps was uplifted and exhumed within a releasing structure in a sinistral wrench corridor during the late cretaceous the dome is confined by a system of ductile shear zones including low angle normal faults and steep sinistral tear faults which define a large releasing structure with the metamorphic dome in its center the fabrics developed within all ductile shear zones record processes which were operating during decreasing temperatures from initial epidote amphibolite upper greenschist facies conditions with crystal plastic fabrics in quartz to temperatures below ca 300 c with predominantly cataclastic fabrics a cooling path based on 40ar 39ar amphibole 95 4 1 2 ma and muscovite ages 87 6 0 6 84 3 0 7 ma together with sphene zircon and apatite fission track data indicate cooling through ca 500 c at ca 94 ma to below ca 250 200 c at 65 ma subsidence of the adjacent late cretaceous kainach gosau basin occurred synchronously with cooling and uplift of the gleinalm dome internal depositional patterns record rapid subsidence at the time of cooling with internal synsedimentary block rotation above an intra crustal ductile normal fault the sinistral wrench corridor of the eastern alps developed by sinistral displacement of the austroalpine units against a relatively stable europe during the late cretaceous

build up and dismembering of the eastern northern calcareous alps the structural geometry and kinematics of a segment of the classical fold and thrust belt of the northern calcareous alps nca is analyzed by map mesoscale fault slip and calcite twin data the most distinct feature of the eastern nca is the miocene semp salzachtal ennstal mariazell puchberg lineament which extends 400 km wsw ene from the northern tauern window in the west to the vienna basin in the east it forms an orogen parallel strike slip zone constitutes the major left lateral wrench corridor accommodating eastward lateral extrusion of crustal wedges along the central eastern alps and crosses the nca as an anastomosing zone of distributed shear the semp line and related structures dismember a fold and thrust belt formed during early transpressional and subsequent orthogonal contraction most early miocene structures are reversed in the late miocene accommodating little strain distinct strain fields are calculated based on fault slip and calcite deformation twin data they are regionally consistent in orientation and relative age and correlate with the following deformation stages 1 late cretaceous to early tertiary top to nw nappe stacking and right lateral wrenching along nw trending tear transfer faults as an expression of the build up of the austroalpine orogenic wedge e3 317 17 e1 058 28 e1 e2 e3 principal strains 2 early tertiary top to n stacking and conjugate strike slip faulting reflecting the change from transpressional to frontal contraction within the nca e3 356 12 e1 088 10 3 early to middle miocene large scale left lateral wrenching including early transpression and late transtension as expression of eastward displacement of the southern part of the nca e3 019 22 e1 109 27 4 post middle miocene e w contraction reactivating strike slip and normal faults e3 092 10 e1 004 12 the distributed nature of the lateral extrusion deformation and the anastomosing faulting along the semp line reflect the rheological heterogeneity inherited by the lithology and multiple deformations of the nca a combined extension and stress deflection model possibly accounts best for the pattern of northward concave faults branching off the semp line

the western termination of the semp fault eastern alps and its bearing on the exhumation of the tauern window the semp salzach ennstal mariazell puchberg fault strikes along more than 300 km from the southern margin of the vienna basin to the northern tauern window accommo dating a sinistral displacement of 60 km during tertiary time we present new structural data showing that the semp fault continues into the tauern window within a 50 km long mylonitic belt of approximately 2 km width which we term the ahorn shear zone this sinistral shear zone which marks the northern boundary of the zentral gneiss strikes e to ene dips subverti cally and is characterized by gently w dipping to subhorizontal stretching lineations s side up kinematic indicators in the y z fabric plane and a pronounced southward increase in the inferred temperature of sinistral shearing are observed within the shear zone microstructural observations indicate that deformation of quartz at the northernmost boundary of the zentral gneiss occurred by dislocation glide with only incipient dynamic recrystallization suggesting a temperature of approximately 300 8c further south temperatures greater than 300 8c are inferred because all samples are affected by dynamic recrystallization of quartz and dynamic recrystallization of feldspars also occurred in the southernmost part of the shear zone these findings point to trans pressive deformation accommodating a significant component of south side up displacement in addition to sinistral shearing the sinistral mylonitic foliation forms the axial plane foliation of the large scale ene striking upright folds of the western tauern window from east to west deformation becomes increasingly distributed passing from an area of interconnected shear zones in the east to a homogeneously deformed mylonitic belt in the west which terminates into a belt of wnw striking upright folds from the above we suggest the following 1 the semp fault extended beyond the brittle ductile transition to a depth where temperatures exceeded 500 8 c 20 km depth these mylonites should be included in the seismic interpretation profiles as a major crustal discontinuity 2 the large amplitude upright folds of the tauern window formed at the same time as the sinistral mylonites and hence during south side up differential displacement and 3 part of the 60 km lateral displacement of the semp fault is transferred into a vertical displacement at the western end of the ahorn shear zone and into a fold belt accom modating nne oriented shortening west of the ahorn shear zone

the interplay between subduction and lateral extrusion a case study for the european eastern alps based on analogue models a series of analogue experiments simulating intra continental subduction contemporaneous with lateral extrusion of the upper plate are performed to study the interference between these two processes at crustal levels and in the lithospheric mantle the models demonstrate that intra continental subduction and coeval lateral extrusion of the upper plate are compatible processes leading to similar deformation structures within the extruding region as compared to the classical setup lithosphere scale indentation strong coupling across the subduction boundary allows for the transfer of stresses to the upper plate where strain regimes are characterized by crustal thickening near a confined margin and dominated by lateral displacement of material near a weak lateral confinement the strain regimes propagate laterally during ongoing convergence creating an area of overlap characterized by transpression when subduction is oblique to the convergence direction the upper plate is less deformed and as a consequence the amount of lateral extrusion decreases in addition strain is partitioned along the oblique plate boundary resulting in less subduction in expense of right lateral displacement close to the weak lateral confinement both oblique and orthogonal subduction models have a strong resemblance to lateral extrusion tectonics of the eastern alps europe where subduction of the adjacent adriatic plate beneath the eastern alps is debated our results imply that subduction of adria is a valid mechanisms to induce extrusion type deformation within the eastern alps lithosphere furthermore our findings suggest that the oligocene to late miocene structural evolution of the eastern alps reflects a phase of oblique subduction followed by a later stage of orthogonal subduction conform a miocene shift in the plate motion of adria oblique subduction also provides a viable mechanism to explain the rapid decrease in slab length of the adriatic plate beneath the eastern alps towards the pannonian basin

present day kinematic behaviour of active faults in the eastern alps abstract the neogene to quaternary lateral extrusion of the eastern alps towards the pannonian basin is accommodated by a system of strike slip faults despite decades lasting gps observations no information on contemporary kinematic behaviour of these faults has been available therefore we had monitored subsidiary and or conjugated faults associated to these major fault systems in six caves throughout the eastern alps over a 1 5 2 5 year observation period by means of high resolution three dimensional moire extensometers tm71 we confirmed that the monitored faults revealed present day aseismic displacements at a micrometer level during several activity phases that usually also coincided with periods of increased local seismicity the annual displacement rates of the monitored faults were mostly about an order of magnitude smaller than the rates of the entire crustal wedges revealed from gnss the particular displacements consisted of a variety mechanisms and faulting regimes fault dilations and compressions were mostly associated with thermal volumetric variations normal dip slips and downward hanging wall displacements originated due to gravitational relaxation or mass movement displacements with the same mechanisms as the geologically documented fault systems or with an upward component were attributed to tectonic creep and strain built up during the interseismic period on the other hand the countervailing displacements opposite to the master fault kinematics were most probably caused by elastic rebound they were usually registered few days in advance to distinct local earthquakes that were simultaneously activated at locked segments within the same deformation band therefore the countervailing events could be considered an indicator of impending near earthquake within the rebound zone their better understanding and real time detecting could be a step forward to an effective earthquake early warning in similar geological settings

mesozoic and early tertiary evolution of the alpine foreland in upper austria and salzburg austria abstract the cenozoic molasse basin of upper austria and salzburg is part of the alpine foredeep its substratum is formed by the crystalline basement of the bohemian massif and its mesozoic sedimentary cover this autochthonous complex extends for a considerable but unquantifiable distance beneath the alpine nappes the area occupied by upper austria and salzburg started to subside during the middle jurassic and by late jurassic time it was covered by an extensive carbonate platform early cretaceous wrench deformations related to rifting activity in northwestern europe were accompanied by a major erosional phase during the late cretaceous 750 to 1000 m of shallow marine shales and elastics accumulated in the area whereby the clastic influx from the bohemian massif increased during the late senonian at the transition from the cretaceous to the tertiary dextral transpressional deformation induced partial basin inversion this deformation phase may be related to the collision of the north european craton with the alpine orogenic system following an erosional phase during the palaeocene and early eocene the area subsided again and became part of the alpine foredeep

shape and origin of the east alpine slab constrained by the alpass teleseismic model abstract during the last two decades teleseismic studies yielded valuable information on the structure of the upper mantle below the alpine mediterranean area subducted oceanic lithosphere forms a broad anomaly resting on but not penetrating the 670 km discontinuity more shallow slabs imaged below the alpine arc are interpreted as subducted continental lower lithosphere substantial advances in our understanding of past and active tectonic processes have been achieved due to these results however important issues like the polarity of subduction under the eastern alps and the slab geometry at the transition to the pannonian realm are still under debate the alpass teleseismic experiment was designed to address these open questions teleseismic waveforms from 80 earthquakes recorded at 75 temporary and 79 permanent stations were collected during 2005 and 2006 from these data a tomographic image of the upper mantle was generated between 60 km and 500 km depth crustal corrections additional station terms and ray bending caused by the velocity perturbations were considered a steeply to vertically dipping shallow slab below the eastern alps is clearly resolved down to a depth of 250 km it is interpreted as european lower lithosphere detached from the crust and subducted during post collision convergence between adria and europe below the pannonian realm low velocities or high mantle temperatures prevail down to 300 km depth consistent with the concept of a pannonian lithospheric fragment which underwent strike slip deformation relative to the european plate and extension during the post collision phase of the alpine orogeny between 350 km and 400 km depth a deep slab extends from below the central eastern alps to under the pannonian realm it is interpreted as subducted lithosphere of the alpine tethys at greater depth there is a continuous transition to the high velocity anomaly above the 670 km discontinuity

k ar dating of synkinematic clay gouges from neoalpine faults of the central western and eastern alps abstract with ongoing alpine convergence and deformation during exhumation there is a general progression from ductile to brittle behaviour on the periadriatic fault and kinematically related faults farther north e g the simplon rhone fault and a diffuse discontinuous zone of generally dextral strike slip movement on the southern boundary of the aar massif k ar dating of fine grained illite from clay fault gouges provides a reliable method for establishing the maximum age of this transition to brittle faulting and for short lived faults the approximate time of faulting itself the new results establish that brittle faulting on the northeastern segment of the canavese fault i e the part of the periadriatic fault southwest of lago maggiore occurred around 20 ma with south side up kinematics a k ar age of ca 17 ma for the crosscutting giudicarie fault in the eastern alps is effectively identical with an already published pseudotachylyte age and places a lower limit on major and continuous strike slip movements of the periadriatic fault the age of brittle faulting farther north on the southern border of the aar massif is from 13 6 0 3 to 8 3 1 1 ma consistent with the younger cooling and exhumation in this area the dominantly dextral brittle faulting becoming younger to the north reflects the continued indentation and anticlockwise rotation of adria as alpine units become exhumed and progressively welded to the southern block in contrast to the eastern alps there is no field evidence for westward lateral extrusion of alpine units relative to adria and the european foreland

active crustal deformation in two seismogenic zones of the pannonian region gps versus seismological observations abstract the seismicity and the associated seismic hazard in the central part of the pannonian region is moderate however the vulnerability is high as three capital cities are located near the most active seismic zones in our analysis two seismically active areas the central pannonian and mur murz zones have been considered in order to assess the style and rate of crustal deformation using global positioning system gps and earthquake data we processed data of continuous and campaign gps measurements obtained during the years 1991 2007 velocities relative to the stable eurasia have been computed at hgrn cegrn and epn gps sites in and around the pannonian basin uniform strain rates and relative displacements were calculated for the investigated regions gps data confirm the mostly left lateral strike slip character of the mur murz vienna basin fault system and suggest a contraction between the eastward moving alpine north pannonian unit and the carpathians the computation of the seismic strain rate was based on the kostrov summation the averaged unit norm seismic moment tensor which describes the characteristic style of deformation has been obtained from the available focal mechanism solutions whereas the annual seismic moment release showing the rate of the deformation was estimated using the catalogues of historical and recent earthquakes our analysis reveals that in the central pannonian zone the geodetic strain rate is significantly larger than the seismic strain rate based on the weakness of the lithosphere the stress magnitudes and the regional features of seismicity we suggest that the low value of the seismic geodetic strain rate ratio can be attributed to the aseismic release of the prevailing compressive stress and not to an overdue major earthquake in the mur murz zone although the uncertainty of the seismic geodetic strain rate ratio is high the seismic part of the deformation seems to be notably larger than in the case of the central pannonian zone these results reflect the different deformation mechanism rheology and tectonic style of the investigated zones

lateral extrusion in the eastern alps revisited refining the model by thermochronological sedimentary and seismic data 1 this study comprises a reassessment of the classical model of lateral extrusion in the eastern alps by using recently published geochronological data sedimentary ages from intramontane basins ages and distribution of magmatic rocks and information from seismic profiles extrusion related faulting continuously propagated from the western toward the central eastern part of the eastern alps during oligocene to middle miocene times this is confined by oblique convergence between the adriatic and european plates during middle miocene times extrusion became not only lateral in terms of parallel to the trend of the eastern alps but was characterized by a displacement vector at a high angle to the strike of the orogen this resulted in the exhumation of the schladming and pohorje blocks that were exhumed within extensional bridges at the northern and southern terminations of the pols lavanttal fault system respectively from middle miocene to recent times extrusion was controlled by overall extension between the dinaric and carpathian subduction zones the influence of north directed compression triggered by the northward moving adriatic plate diminished and the influence of the retreating carpathian subduction zone increased this gave rise to miocene volcanism that is exclusively found east of the dinaric subduction zone we therefore consider that lateral extrusion in the eastern alps can be subdivided into distinct tectonic phases with less pronounced eastward extension related displacement between late oligocene and middle miocene times as soon as the eastern alps passed the dinaric subduction zone the entire domain became highly extensive

plate boundary kinematics in the alps motion in the arosa suture zone the arosa zone forms a melange complex along the penninic austroalpine boundary and belongs to the main alpine suture zone accretion and plate collision occurred during cretaceous and lower tertiary time a mixture of ophiolitic rocks and pelagic sediments is imbricated with flysch and blocks of austroalpine continental derivation we present a description of deformation structures an analysis of strain and a kinematic interpretation based on structural work deformation histories of imbricates show a translation path that was west directed between ca 110 and 50 ma and north directed thereafter the kinematics of the arosa zone agrees with the recently deduced displacement history of the austroalpine units in the eastern alps during the cretaceous orogeny this calls for a predominantly top to the west imbrication of austroalpine and penninic units and is in contradiction to what is inferred in most models of the eastern alps a direct relation between the deformation along the austroalpine margin and relative plate motion existed

modes of orogen parallel stretching and extensional exhumation in response to microplate indentation and roll back subduction tauern window eastern alps the tauern window exposes a paleogene nappe stack consisting of highly metamorphosed oceanic alpine tethys and continental distal european margin thrust sheets in the eastern part of this window this nappe stack eastern tauern subdome etd is bounded by a neogene system of shear the katschberg shear zone system kszs that accommodated orogen parallel stretching orogen normal shortening and exhumation with respect to the structurally overlying austroalpine units adriatic margin the kszs comprises a 5 km thick belt of retrograde mylonite the central segment of which is a southeast dipping low angle extensional shear zone with a brittle overprint katschberg normal fault knf at the northern and southern ends of this central segment the kszs loses its brittle overprint and swings around both corners of the etd to become subvertical dextral and sinistral strike slip faults the latter represent stretching faults whose displacements decrease westward to near zero the kinematic continuity of top east to top southeast ductile shearing along the central low angle extensional part of the kszs with strike slip shearing along its steep ends combined with maximum tectonic omission of nappes of the etd in the footwall of the knf indicates that north south shortening orogen parallel stretching and normal faulting were coeval stratigraphic and radiometric ages constrain exhumation of the folded nappe complex in the footwall of the kszs to have begun at 23 21 ma leading to rapid cooling between 21 and 16 ma this exhumation involved a combination of tectonic unroofing by extensional shearing upright folding and erosional denudation the contribution of tectonic unroofing is greatest along the central segment of the kszs and decreases westward to the central part of the tauern window the kszs formed in response to the indentation of wedge shaped blocks of semi rigid austroalpine basement located in front of the south alpine indenter that was part of the adriatic microplate northward motion of this indenter along the sinistral giudicarie belt offsets the periadriatic fault and triggered rapid exhumation of orogenic crust within the entire tauern window exhumation involved strike slip and normal faulting that accommodated about 100 km of orogen parallel extension and was contemporaneous with about 30 km of orogen perpendicular north south shortening of the etd extension of the pannonian basin related to roll back subduction in the carpathians began at 20 ma but did not affect the eastern alps before about 17 ma the effect of this extension was to reduce the lateral resistance to eastward crustal flow away from the zone of greatest thickening in the tauern window area therefore we propose that roll back subduction temporarily enhanced rather than triggered exhumation and orogen parallel motion in the eastern alps lateral extrusion and orogen parallel extension in the eastern alps have continued from 12 to 10 ma to the present and are driven by northward push of adria

evolution of the molasse basin germany switzerland abstract in the molasse basin 500 1000 m thick mesozoic sediments overlie the variscan basement and locally permo carboniferous grabens containing a largely unknown thickness of clastic sediments the vindelician basement high extended southwestward from the bohemian massif and separated the southern part of the german basin from the tethys shelf triassic early and middle jurassic sediments progressively transgressed over this high which became fully inundated during the late jurassic following a temporary regression sedimentation resumed in the early cretaceous and after another hiatus in the late aptian to campanian during the latest cretaceous to earliest tertiary the area of southern germany became uplifted resulting in a progressive northwestward truncation of cretaceous strata and the late jurassic carbonates at the same time the bohemian massif became upthrusted along northwest striking wrench faults similar faults controlled the upthrusting of the landshut neuoetting high over which some 1 000 m of mesozoic sediments were eroded these wrench and thrust tectonics are part of an extensive compressional deformation in central europe that is supposed to be caused by the latest cretaceous earliest tertiary collision of the adriatic african and european plates during the alpine orogeny the area subsided again during the late eocene and developed into the molasse basin proper in which oligocene to miocene elastics reach a thickness of some 5 000 m near the alpine thrust front subduction and flexuring of the foreland caused numerous essentially basin parallel synthetic and antithetic normal faults the latter form the primary traps for oil and gas accumulations in the molasse basin

kinematics of the alpine plate margin structural styles strain and motion along the penninic austroalpine boundary in the swiss austrian alps a structural and kinematic analysis of parts of the alpine suture zone i e the arosa zone and the edges of the overlying austroalpine and underlying penninic units is presented the arosa zone is interpreted as part of an accretionary wedge formed by the overriding of the austroalpine units the northern part of the adriatic plate over the penninic units structures strain and stretching trajectories indicate that two main deformation events followed each other discontinuously the earlier event was a wsw to nw directed thrusting under noncoaxial deformation and led to melange type structures the second event less penetrative in the arosa zone and with a downward increase in strain and noncoaxial flow formed n to ne verging folds and imbrication zones west directed displacement commenced in the early cretaceous and the motion changed to a prevailing northerly direction during the eocene as revealed by sediments involved in thrusting and by radiometric dating of the mylonites the kinematic history deduced from structural analysis agrees with the history obtained by recent work on plate margin sediments we correlate the anticlockwise rotation of the adriatic plate relative to europe between about 130 and 60 ma with the west directed motion in the arosa zone a change to relative n s motion during the lower tertiary led to the n to ne directed displacements a direct relationship thus exists between the motion of the adriatic plate and the resulting deformation along its northern margin during the early history of the eastern alps partitioning in brittle and ductile deformation and structural slicing under noncoaxial deformation is responsible for the melange type structures

a turbulent convection model with an observational context for a deep sea hydrothermal plume in a time variable cross flow 1 a turbulent convection model for a hydrothermal fluid discharging into a tidally modulated stratified cross flow is used to investigate time variable conditions in plumes such as the one rising from dante a sulfide mound at 2175 m depth on the endeavour segment of the juan de fuca ridge that plume is the consequence of the coalescence of 10 or more small individual plumes from chimneys discharging hot salt diminished fluid into the near bottom ocean at dante the discharge encounters ambient horizontal currents with speeds oscillating from near zero to a maximum of 7 cm s 1 speeds which can bend a plume more than 45 from the vertical model results are compatible with field measurements of the plume footprint size and vertical velocity both 20 m above the source when earlier estimates for dante s heat flux of 50 mw drive the convection the small scale short period variability of velocities and properties distributions observed in the field is mimicked in model results plumes pool above a source during periods of weak cross flows but stream away from the source with more diluted concentrations and lower rise heights at other times plume distributions at identical cross flow speeds differ whether the flow is accelerating or decelerating small changes in background hydrographic profiles create differences in rise heights comparable to those caused by large changes in source buoyancy flux if put into an entrainment context results suggest an entrainment coefficient eff that varies from 0 11 to 0 025 with increasing height 2 76 m above the source

transpressional collision structures in the upper crust the fold thrust belt of the northern calcareous alps abstract two major structural events characterize the tectonic evolution of the northern calcareous alps nca 1 late early cretaceous to late eocene nw directed dextral transpressional stacking of nappes as an expression of the formation of the austroalpine orogenic wedge and 2 miocene sinistral wrenching due to eastward lateral extrusion of crustal wedges along the central eastern alps three first order detachment horizons are defined by differences of competence within areas of facies transition preexisting normal faults control the thrust architecture transpressional contraction in the nca is indicated by a nw directed thrusting oblique to both the long axis of the nca and the edge of the orogenic foreland b the occurrence of en echelon arrays of thrusts and folds laterally displaced by dextral strike slip faults the thrusts and strike slip faults are kinematically connected to each other and dissect the nca into rhomboidal blocks c ne directed extension parallel to fold and ramp axes and the internal strike of the nca and d clockwise rotation 30 of the entire nca around a vertical axis kinematic and dynamic analysis of mesoscale fault striae data related to transpressional stacking indicates a nw trend of contraction directions and in general a ne trend of the extension directions parallel to fold axes and branch lines of thrusts before rotation the average contraction direction was probably parallel to the generally w directed shear direction recorded in the crystal plastically deformed central part of the eastern alps three balanced cross sections across the nca yield a minimum of 54 65 total shortening

time calibration of a pt path from the western tauern window eastern alps the problem of closure temperatures new hornblende k ar and 39ar 40ar and mica rb sr and k ar ages are used to place specific timemarks on a well constrained pressure temperature path for the late alpine metamorphism in the western tauern window after identification of excess 40ar the closure behavior of ar in hornblende is compared with that of sr and ar in phengite and biotite samples were collected in three locations whose maximum temperatures were 570 c zemmgrund 550 c pfitscher joch and 500 540 c landshuter hutte

fault slip analysis along the northern margin of the eastern alps molasse helvetic nappes north and south penninic flysch and the northern calcareous alps fault slip data are analyzed and paleostress tensors computed from 84 stations along the northern margin of the eastern alps between liechtenstein and vienna most fault sets resulted from more than one deformation heterogenous sets are divided into homogenous subsets by cross cutting relationships observed in the field and stress tensors are calculated separately for each subset the deviatoric stress tensors fall into six distinct groups that are regionally consistent in orientation stress ratio and relative age throughout the northern margin of the eastern alps from oldest to youngest the tensor groups are as follows 1 1 subhorizontal e w 3 subvertical thrusting related e w compression this group is only encountered in the south penninic flysch and the northern calcareous alps 2 1 subhorizontal n s 3 subvertical thrusting related n s directed compression 3 1 subhorizontal n s 3 subhorizonal e w strike slip faulting conjugate to n s compression 4 1 subvertical 3 subhorizontal e w e w directed subhorizontal extension 5 1 subhorizontal e w 3 subhorizontal n s strike slip faulting during e w compression and 6 1 subvertical 3 subhorizontal about n s 3 trajectories are oriented perpendicular to the general strike of the eastern alps and parallel topographic gradients the six trensor groups correlate with distinct steps in the cretaceous and the post eocene tectonic evolution of the northern units of the eastern alps 1 1 thrusting related e w compressional structures in the south penninic flysch and the northern calcareous alps are correlated to cretaceous top to w directed thrusting in the south penninic and austroalpine domains 2 2 thrusting related n s compressional structures encompass large scale folds with e w trending axes rare e w oriented thrust branch lines and cut off lines and s dipping ramps in the rhenodanubian flysch tensors reflect the stresses during northward thrusting in the late eocene early miocene 3 3 4 strike slip faults and extensional structures depicting n s compression and e w extension formed during the eastward lateral extrusion of the eastern alps prominent reactivations of strike slip faults during subhorizontal extension in the east and permutation between 1 and 2 reflecting periodic superposition of strike slip and normal faulting in the western eastern alps during overall e w extension suggest a close relationship of both tensor groups deformation resulted in the eastward lateral motion of the northern units of the eastern alps that started during the miocene 4 5 the significance of late miocene e w directed compression reactivating pre existing fractures and faults is presently not well understood we tentatively relate this event to a major change of boundary conditions within the miocene 5 6 the youngest deformation recorded is caused by surface uplift and gravitational collapse of the eastern alps

progressive strain localization in a major strike slip fault exhumed from midseismogenic depths structural observations from the salzach ennstal mariazell puchberg fault system austria 1 analysis of a strike slip fault exhumed from midseismogenic depths reveals that the fault experienced progressive strain localization toward a high strain fault core we focus on the ennstal segment of the 400 km long salzach ennstal mariazell puchberg semp strike slip fault system in the eastern alps which accommodated 60 km of left lateral displacement during oligo miocene time macroscopic and microscopic observations reveal a zoned fault featuring a high strain core at least 10 m wide within a fault zone that is at least 150 m wide grain size distribution analysis shows how the ennstal segment of the semp evolved our data reveal a 10 m wide high strain fault core characterized by a power law relationship of grain sizes d2 2 0 bordered by a 54 m wide transition zone where the largest and smallest grains are characterized by two power law relationships d2 2 0 and 1 6 respectively this zone is in turn bordered by a region with grain sizes that show a single low strain power law relationship of d2 1 6 we interpret these relationships to be the result of concentrated shear overprinting an initial low strain power law grain size distribution before strain localized to the core this is consistent with the theory that faults mature by smoothing geometrical complexities forming a highly localized high strain fault core the data do not support the idea that damage forms primarily in response to dynamic stresses during seismic rupture although they do suggest that this mechanism may operate within tens of meters of the fault once it has developed its zoned structure

on the causes and modes of exhumation and lateral growth of the alps 1 a compilation of the apatite and zircon fission track ages of the alpine chain points to markedly different patterns of cooling and exhumation of the eastern alps compared to the central and western alps the site of exhumation and shortening in the western alps migrated outward whereas it was more stationary in the eastern alps where it created a narrower metamorphic belt a correlation of these observations to the deep structure of the orogen suggests that north directed lower crustal wedging induces northward propagation of the deformation and exhumation front in the middle and upper crust of the central and western alps the absence of such lower crustal wedges in the eastern alps does not induce a similar shift of deformation but rather a long term localization of shortening and exhumation in one and the same area namely the axial zone of the orogen a critical review of the temporal correlations between inferred changes in the erosional efficiency of the alps and tectonic phases points to a negative correlation and hence no erosional control on the shifts of the deformation front of the alps therefore we conclude that changes in the deep structure and rheology of the orogen instead of changes in its erosional efficiency exerted the prime control on the lateral growth of the alps

p t t history of the lower austroalpine nappe complex in the tarntaler berge nw of the tauern window implications for the geotectonic evolution of the central eastern alps new petrologic and 40ar 39ar geochronologic data constrain conditions of alpine metamorphism along the northwestern border of the tauern window the p t estimations based on phengite barometry were determined for samples from units of the lower austroalpine nappe complex exposed above the southpenninic interior of the tauern window and from upper parts of the southpenninic bundner schiefer sequence results suggest that both mesozoic metasedimentary nappe units reckner and hippold nappes and an ophiolitic nappe reckner complex of the lower austroalpine nappe complex have been metamorphosed at pressures between 8 and 10 5 kbar and temperatures around 350 c the structurally highest lower austroalpine unit quartzphyllite nappe was not affected by high pressure metamorphism and records maximum p t conditions of approximately 4 kbar and 400 c highest parts of the structurally underlying southpenninic bundner schiefer sequence were metamorphosed at intermediate pressures 6 7 kbar temperatures increased in all structural units during decompression whole rock 40ar 39ar plateau ages of silicic phyllites and cherts with abundant high si phengites record ages around 50 ma in the reckner nappe and 44 37 ma in the hippold nappe and southpenninic bundner schiefer sequence these ages are interpreted to date closely the high pressure metamorphism

fluid channelling during ductile shearing transformation of granodiorite into aluminous schist in the tauern window eastern alps ductile shearing in the core of the tauern window austria transformed metagranodiorite into si undersaturated garnet chlorite staurolite schist at a depth of c 35 40 km during the alpine orogeny four distinct zones have been recognized extending from the wallrock into the centre of the shear zone zone i unaltered metagranodiorite with subordinate amphibolite zone ii biotite white mica garnet schist zone iii biotite phengite schist zone iv quartz absent garnet chlorite staurolite schist with garnets up to 10 cm across whole rock analyses show a dramatic decrease in sio2 from 65 wt in zone i to 35 wt in zone iv ca na and sr also decrease across the shear zone whereas al ti fe mg p cr ni zn and rb all increase towards zone iv mass balance calculations indicate that shearing was accompanied by up to 60 volume loss near the centre of the shear zone comparison of the tauern window samples with other shear zones in granitic hosts indicates that silica loss accompanied by gains in mg fe and ti is typical for volume loss shear zones but is distinctly different from the element behaviour exhibited in shear zones that are thought to represent approximately isovolumetric behaviour in the samples studied here volume loss appears to have resulted from channellized fluid flow during shearing producing time integrated fluid fluxes of 108 cm3 cm 2 in zone iv this large volume of fluid may have originated in part from dehydration of flysch carried beneath the metagranodiorites during eocene movement on the north penninic subduction zone development of an inverted thermal gradient during subduction would have allowed the fluid to scavenge large amounts of silica from the shear zone during ascent and heating

relating orogen width to shortening erosion and exhumation during alpine collision we investigate along strike width changes of the thickened accreted lower plate talp in the central and in the eastern alps we set the width of the talp in relation to the inferred amount of collisional shortening and exhumation along six orogen scale cross sections taking the present day along strike gradients in the amount of collisional shortening to represent the temporal evolution of the collisional wedge it may be concluded that the cross sectional area of the talp diminishes during ongoing shortening indicating that the erosional flux outpaced the accretionary flux higher amounts of collisional shortening systematically coincide with smaller widths of the talp and dramatic increases of the reconstructed eroded rock column higher amounts of shortening also coincide with larger amplitudes of orogen scale upright folds with higher exhumation and with higher exhumation rates hence erosion did play a major role in reducing by 30 km the vertical crustal thickness in order to accommodate and allow shortening by folding long term climate differences cannot explain alternating changes of width by a factor of almost 2 along straight segments of the orogen on length scales less than 200 km as observed from the western central alps to the easternmost eastern alps sedimentary or paleontological evidences supporting such paleo climatic differences are lacking suggesting that erosional processes did not directly control the width of the orogen

plate motions in the alpine region and their correlation to the opening of the atlantic ocean the plate tectonic evolution of the alps is intimately related to the stepwise protrusion of the atlantic ocean to the north the south penninic oceanic basin of the alps is part of the spreading system of the early atlantic ocean in the jurassic in the lower cretacous the north peeninic basin forms as an appendix of the atlantic in its second stage of evolution connected with it via the pyrenees trough and the bay of biscay subduction in the south penninic ocean by convergent motion of the brianconian and the adriatic plates leads to a first continental collision in about mid cretaceous time in the upper cretaceous when the atlantic ocean protrudes between north america and greenland eurasia and africa move divergently and there is relative quiescence in the alps in the tertiary the atlantic ocean spreads between greenland and scandinavia which results in convergent motion between eurasia and africa and important compressional events in the alps

deformation partitioning during polyphase oblique convergence in the karawanken mountains southeastern alps abstract the karawanken mountains of southeastern austria straddle the insubric line a major fault zone that corresponds to the austroalpine south alpine border of the eastern alps they display polyphase structural patterns that resulted from deformation partitioning at shallow crustal levels following a poorly constrained late cretaceous deformation history paleogene contraction produced nw se trending fold thrust structures and possibly related sinistral cross faults miocene deformation produced both nw and se directed thrust faults and nw striking high angle dextral cross faults which merged with or displaced the w striking insubric line distributed dextral strike slip displacements of the order of 30 40 km and thrust displacement of 4 5 km along the northern karawanken front initiated subsidence of a small foreland basin north of the karawanken mountains recent regional deformation seems to be concentrated along cross cutting nnw striking dextral faults within a shifting system of seismogenic transfer faults that probably merge with the convergent south alpine thrust front to the west there are conspicuous parallels in the style of deformation along the karawanken mountains with that found along other seismogenic convergent strike slip faults such as those of southern california new zealand and anatolia

the topographic state of fluvially conditioned mountain ranges abstract the topography of mountain ranges reflects the competition of constructive and destructive processes driven by tectonics and climate respectively there is a vital debate whether the topography of individual orogens reflects stages of growth steady state or decay that is fueled by the million year time scales hampering direct observations on landscape evolution the superposition of various process patterns and the complex interactions among different processes hence there is a demand for sophisticated analysis tools to extract constraints on the long term evolution of orogens from their topography we review the field of orogen scale landscape evolution from a numerical perspective summarize the most prominent modelling concepts and their implications for the fluvially driven development of mountain topography and finally evaluate their applicability for understanding real world orogens following the concept of equilibrium a state where uplift rates are balanced by erosion rates and topography remains steady over time the erosional long term response of rivers and hillslopes can be mathematically formalised by the stream power and mass diffusion equations respectively based on a simple 1 dimensional model consisting of two rivers separated by a watershed we explain the influence of uplift rate and rock erodibility on steady state channel profiles and show the time dependent development of the channel drainage divide system dynamic drainage network reorganisation adds additional complexity and its effect on topography is explored on a two dimensional model river capture events and drainage divide migrations as expression of the ongoing drainage network reorganisation cause changes in topography until a stable network topology and hence full topographic steady state is achieved the long time spans needed for this drainage network optimization suggest that orogens on earth may never reach full topographic steady state in real world orogens we find evidence for premature mature and decaying topography as well as relief rejuvenation by analysing slope elevation distributions and trace the expression of crustal strain distorting drainage networks by applying the transform we conclude that modern concepts of landscape evolution allow sophisticated analyses of real world orogens but emphasize that unambiguous results are mostly derived from regions dominated by a limited number of interacting processes such as mountain ranges with limited or no glacial imprint this results in a high demand for techniques to disentangle the complex topography of real world orogens into the signals resulting from the individual land shaping processes

mesozoic and tertiary evolution of the alpine carpathian foreland in eastern austria abstract the bohemian massif partly covered by mesozoic sediments extends southward some 50 km under the alpine carpathian nappe complex a major basement spur devoid of mesozoic sediments and referred to as the south bohemian basement spur separates the jurassic cretaceous upper austrian basin from the lower austrian basin the latter came into evidence during the middle jurassic under a tensional setting late jurassic shelf carbonates and basinal shales were deposited under a tectonically quiet regime early cretaceous uplift of the south bohemian basement spur induced the truncation of jurassic strata along its margins transgressive late cretaceous elastics overlap the truncated jurassic series and locally onlap on basement upper austria latest cretaceous to paleocene foreland deformations may have caused a renewed uplift of the south bohemian basement spur the eocene to late miocene evolution of the molasse foredeep went hand in hand with the emplacement of the alpine carpathian nappe system differential movements between the eastern alpine nappes and the carpathian nappes combined with tensional stresses in the basement caused the subsidence of the vienna basin

latest pannonian and quaternary evolution at the transition between eastern alps and pannonian basin new insights from geophysical sedimentological and geochronological data the transition zone between eastern alps and pannonian basin is a key area for the investigation of the interplay between regional uplift local tectonic subsidence and depositional environment our study area the western margin of the little hungarian plain is characterized by gentle hills plateaus and depressions of which several are filled by lakes including one of austria s largest and shallowest lakes lake neusiedl geological investigation is hampered by the scarcity of outcrops and thus direct observation of sedimentological or structural features is difficult despite a long research history in the area a consistent landscape evolution model considering all relevant constraints is lacking so far in this study we apply multidisciplinary methods to decipher the complex tectonic and fluvial depositional evolution of the region local data from shallow lake drilling and seismic investigation are combined with regional data from industrial seismics and core data to gain new insights into the latest pannonian late miocene and quaternary evolution shallow lake seismic data show the erosionally truncated pannonian sediments dipping and thickening toward southeast toward the modern depocenter of the little hungarian plain overlying quaternary fluvial sediments show a very similar thickening trend except for the area on the plateau north of the lake indicating ongoing subsidence in major parts of the basin drill cores from locations along the lake seismic lines were analyzed concerning their age mineralogy and heavy minerals and compared with outcrop samples from the surrounding plains and the plateau to derive indications on sediment provenance a key observation is the apparent lack of a significant gravel layer on top of the tilted pannonian sediments beneath lake neusiedl small scale faults can be observed in the lake seismic sections along with key sedimentary features significant differences of the current elevation of the top pannonian between the surrounding plains and the plateau indicate post pannonian normal faulting which is a key process in shaping the present day morphology of the region luminescence ages of samples from the quaternary fluvial gravels on top of the pannonian sediments are a significantly higher 300 ka compared to the gravels in the plain 102 11 and 76 8 ka suggesting ongoing tectonic subsidence

paleogene and neogene kinematics of the alpine carpathian fold thrust belt at the alpine carpathian transition abstract in this study we analyze a 300 km long segment of the alpine carpathian orogen using novel outcrop data and regional seismic profiles from the west carpathians to unravel the kinematics and timing of eocene to late miocene deformation of the fold thrust belt comparison with data from the eastern alps and the vienna basin leads to an updated tectonic model for the paleogene and neogene of the alpine carpathian transition which includes three stages 1 eocene to early oligocene nnw directed foreland propagating thrusting thrusts are directed perpendicular to the strike of the european foreland in the outer west carpathians owc and sub parallel to thrusts observed in the eastern alps west of the vienna basin 2 continued late oligocene to early miocene nnw directed foreland propagating thrusting simultaneous with sinistral strike slip reactivation of former nappe boundaries in the hinterland of the active thrusts this deformation corresponds to the early stage of eastward lateral extrusion of the eastern alps the ene striking sinistral faults in the owc are kinematic equivalents of the semp fault system in the eastern alps which was active at the same time the latest stage of thrusting is characterized by sse directed out of sequence thrusts in the hinterland of the owc and the reactivation of variscan basement thrusts in the european foreland as sse directed backthrusts 3 formation of n ne striking sinistral strike slip faults which are kinematically linked to n ne directed out of sequence thrusts post dating nnw directed thrusting the sinistral faults formed coeval with the opening of the vienna pull apart basin during the middle to late miocene stage of lateral extrusion unlike proposed in previous studies the west carpathians do not appear to be affected by oligocene to early miocene crustal scale wrenching of the pieniny klippen belt our data show that the deformation of the pkb is in line with the eocene to late miocene tectonic evolution reconstructed for the owc

seismic image of the deep crust at the eastern margin of the alps austria indications for crustal extension in a convergent orogen abstract a 39 km long deep seismic reflection profile recorded during two field campaigns in 1996 and 2002 provides a first detailed image of the deep crust at the eastern margin of the eastern alps austria the ese wnw trending low fold seismic line crosses austroalpine basement units and extends approximately from 20 km west of the penninic window group of rechnitz to 60 km sse of the alpine thrust front the explosive source seismic data reveals a transparent shallow crust down to 5 km depth a complexly reflective upper crust and a highly reflective lowermost crust the upper crust is dominated by three prominent west dipping packages of high amplitude subparallel reflections the upper two of these prominent packages commence at the eastern end of the profile at about 5 and 10 km depth and are interpreted as low angle normal shear zones related to the miocene exhumation of the rechnitz metamorphic core complex in the western portion of the upper crust east dipping and less significant reflections prevail the lowermost package of these reflections is suggested to represent the overall top of the european crystalline basement along the western portion of the line the lower crust is characterised by a 6 8 km thick band of high amplitude reflection lamellae typically observed in extensional provinces the moho can be clearly defined at the base of this band at approximately 32 5 km depth due to insufficient signal penetration outstanding reflections are missing in the central and eastern portion of the lower crust we speculate that the result of accompanying gravity measurements and lower crustal sporadic reflections can be interpreted as an indication for a shallower moho in the east preferable at about 30 5 km depth the high reflectivity of the lowermost part of the lower crust and prominent reflection packages in the upper crust the latter interpreted to represent broad extensional mylonite zones emphasises the latest extensional processes in accordance with eastward extrusion

far field effects of late miocene subduction in the eastern carpathians e w compression and inversion of structures in the alpine carpathian pannonian region kinematic and paleostress data constrain a late miocene e w compressional event that affected the entire alpine carpathian pannonian system after 9 ma and prior to 5 3 ma the maximum horizontal compression directions obtained from 110 stations show a mean 1 orientation of 083 deformation is mainly strike slip e w directed compression followed early to middle miocene upper plate extension in the pannonian basin which was caused by the retreating subduction boundary in the outer carpathians this compressional event terminated early to middle miocene eastward lateral extrusion of the eastern alps and reverted strike slip faults which bounded earlier extruded wedges such as the salzachtal ennstal fault the periadriatic fault the mur murz vienna basin fault system and strike slip faults in the western carpathians e w compression caused the reorientation of the extension direction of the alpine crustal stack east directed tectonic unroofing of the metamorphic domes in the central eastern alps terminated between 9 and 6 ma and early to middle miocene orogen parallel e w extension switched to late miocene n s extension which parallels modern topographic slopes in the pannonian basin the change from synrift extension to late miocene compression during the postrift phase caused the pronounced postrift subsidence by stress induced downward flexure of the loaded lithosphere we relate late miocene e w compression to coeval late stage west directed subduction of the european plate below the eastern carpathians slab pull of the subducted plate caused subduction roll back and upper plate extension of the pannonian area up to the middle miocene subduction slowed down and ceased when up to 60 km thick buoyant continental crust entered the subduction zone during the short period of continued convergence e w directed compressive stress was transmitted across the subduction boundary into the upper plate compressive stress was transferred through the uppermost brittle crust of the earlier extended pannonian region into the eastern alps up to 1400 km behind the subduction zone e w compression terminated during the pliocene when the pliocene to recent nnw sse compressive stress field was established in central europe

localized ductile shear below the seismogenic zone structural analysis of an exhumed strike slip fault austrian alps 1 the miocene salzachtal ennstal mariazell puchberg semp strike slip fault in austria allows study of the internal structure of a fault zone from the near surface to 30 km depth as it enters the tauern window along the rinderkarsee shear zone the semp fault passes from a dominantly brittle to a dominantly ductile structure the shear zone consists of three 1 to 100 m wide zones of brittle ductile and ductile deformation separated by 500 m wide zones of less deformed rocks the southern shear zone is mylonitic with ductile amphibole and plagioclase weak crystal preferred orientations imply that the main deformation mechanism was dislocation accommodated grain boundary sliding the northern and central shear zones are characterized by discrete millimeter wide shear zones with ductile quartz muscovite and biotite and brittle feldspar shear zone nucleation at the grain scale involved dislocation creep and the transformation of plagioclase to muscovite strain then localized in muscovite rich grain boundary shear zones that linked to form throughgoing shear zones

direct observation of fault zone structure at the brittle ductile transition along the salzach ennstal mariazell puchberg fault system austrian alps 1 structural analysis of two key exposures reveals the architecture of the brittle ductile transition bdt of the subvertical strike slip salzachtal fault at lichtensteinklamm the fault zone is dominantly brittle with a 70 m wide high strain fault core highlighted by a 50 m thick highly foliated gouge zone in contrast at kitzlochklamm deformation is dominantly ductile albeit with relatively low strain indicated by weak lattice preferred orientations lpos the marked contrast in structural style indicates that these sites span the bdt the close proximity of the outcrops coupled with raman spectroscopy indicating similar maximum temperatures of 400 c suggests that the difference in exhumation depth is small with a commensurately small difference in total downdip width of the bdt the small strains indicated by weak lpos at kitzlochklamm coupled with evidence for brittle slip at the main fault contact and along the sides of a 5 m wide fault bounded sliver of klammkalk exposed 30 m into the grauwacken zone rocks suggest the possibility that this exposure may record hybrid behavior at different times during the earthquake cycle with ductile deformation occurring during slow interseismic slip and brittle deformation occurring during earthquakes as dynamic coseismic stresses induced a strain rate dependent shift to brittle fault behavior within the nominally ductile regime in the lower part of the bdt a key aspect of both outcrops is evidence of a high degree of strain localization through the bdt with high strain fault cores no wider than a few tens of meters

evidence for east west crustal extension in the eastern alps implications for the unroofing history of the tauern window the contact between the western border of the tauern window and the overlying austroalpine nappes austria and italy is marked by a structural petrologic and geochronologic discontinuity that developed in the early stages of unroofing of the window within the window pressure temperature time paths j selverstone 1985 indicate that significant ductile thinning occurred shortly after the cessation of thrusting paleocene eocene sense of shear indicators rotated porphyroblasts asymmetric augen and pressure shadows s c fabrics associated with a west plunging stretching lineation indicate that this thinning occurred in response to top to the west low angle normal shear during metamorphism the same sense of normal shear is present in the mesozoic members of the austroalpine sequence west of the window in these rocks however west directed shear occurred at low temperatures 300 c after the thermal peak of metamorphism structural data and the regional geometry imply that the western end of the tauern window is a low angle normal fault brenner line that juxtaposed brittlely deformed rocks of the austroalpine nappes against more ductilely deformed rocks from the window biotite k ar and rb sr data suggest a miocene age for final movement on the brenner line these data indicate a prolonged history of east west extension in the eastern alps that affected all crustal levels early ductile thinning of lower crust followed by mid to upper crustal low angle normal faulting a model is presented that relates the young east west extension to displacement transfer from dextral movement on the periadriatic lineament in this model the brenner line and by analogy the simplon line can be thought of as detachment faults that tectonically unroofed the tauern window and lepontine thermal highs respectively

does subduction polarity changes below the alps inferences from analogue modelling the surface expression of a lateral polarity change of continental mantle lithosphere subduction has been studied by using lithosphere scale physical models key parameters investigated were the degree of lateral coupling between adjacent domains of opposing subduction polarity the width of the zone separating the domains and the lithosphere geometry and rheology the model results illustrate an asymmetric lithospheric structure induced by deformation of the downgoing plates which have been separated by a narrow transition zone a wide and symmetric orogenic wedge overlying a region of thickened mantle lithosphere and hampered subduction characterizes this transition zone in addition interaction between the neighboring subduction domains caused downbending of the upper plates and resulted in the lateral termination of crustal structures and lowering of surface topography the lateral extent of interaction between the domains strongly depends on the degree of coupling between the domains the rheology of the mantle lithosphere and the amount of bulk shortening the modelling results have major implications on the interpretation of seismic and tomographic data from the european alps in terms of the crust and lithosphere geometries it appears that an observed lateral change of subduction polarity at mantle depth can explain the variations of wedge build up between the western central and eastern alps

balancing lateral orogenic float of the eastern alps abstract oligocene to miocene post collisional shortening between the adriatic and european plates was compensated by frontal thrusting onto the molasse foreland basin and by contemporaneous lateral wedging of the austroalpine upper plate balancing of the upper plate shortening by horizontal retrodeformation of lateral escaping and extruding wedges of the austroalpine lid enables an evaluation of the total post collisional deformation of the hangingwall plate quantification of the north south shortening and east west extension of the upper plate is derived from displacement data of major faults that dissect the austroalpine wedges indentation of the south alpine unit corresponds to 64 km north south shortening and a minimum of 120 km of east west extension lateral wedging affected the eastern alps east of the giudicarie fault west of the giudicarie fault north south shortening was compensated by 50 to 80 km of backthrusting in the lombardian thrust system of the southern alps the main structures that bound the escaping wedges to the north are the inntal fault system ca 50 km sinistral offset the konigsee lammertal traunsee klt fault 10 km and the salzach ennstal mariazell puchberg semp fault system 60 km these faults as well as a number of minor faults with displacements less than 10 km root in the basal detachment of the alps the thin skinned nature of lateral escape related structures north of the semp line is documented by industry reflection seismic lines crossing the northern calcareous alps nca and the frontal thrust of the eastern alps complex triangle zones with passive roof backthrusts of middle miocene molasse sediments formed in front of the laterally escaping wedges of the northern eastern alps the aim of this paper is a semiquantitative reconstruction of the upper plate of the eastern alps most of the data is published elsewhere

plate tectonics and pelagic facies late jurassic to early cretaceous deep sea sediments of the ybbsitz ophiolite unit eastern alps austria abstract pelagic sediments of the ybbsitz unit are part of an ophiolite sequence within the penninic unit in the eastern alps cherts and calpionellid limestones of late jurassic to early cretaceous age were deposited on oceanic basement sedimentation near an oceanic spreading center below the calcium compensation depth ccd is represented by chert clay rhythmites cherts display hydrothermal fe and mn mineralizations that are characterized by low contents of co ni and cu as well as by high fe2o3 tio2 and mno tio2 ratios as the site of deposition migrated away from the spreading center hydrothermal influence ceased due to the late jurassic drop of the ccd calcareous radiolarian ooze was deposited on intrabasinal topographic heighs downslope transport of this ooze to sites below the ccd by turbidity currents resulted in intercalations of calcareous and carbonate free sediments apparently the drop of the ccd was greater than the rate of cooling induced basement subsidence as calcareous radiolarites overly this sequence carbonate contents gradually increase upsection and micritic limestones terminate purely pelagic sedimentation at the jurassic cretaceous boundary plate drift moved the site of deposition towards an active continental margin producing a coarsening upward clastic sequence this sequence starts with turbidite and breccia intercalations in pelagic limestones followed by the deposition of early cretaceous flysch it marks the onset of subduction of the ybbsitz unit under the austroalpine continental margin

alpine metamorphism in the south east tauern window austria 2 rates of heating cooling and uplift existing geochronological data are reviewed and new rb sr k ar and 39ar 40ar ages are presented including a suite of 33 mica ages from a 20 km north south tunnel section these data are discussed in relation to the thermal history from the overthrusting of the autroalpine nappes c 65 myr ago to the present the earliest phase of metamorphism involving lawsonite crystallization is associated with emplacement of these nappes subsequently temperatures in the rocks beneath rose at a mean rate of 3 6 c myr until the climax of metamorphism at high structural levels published data indicate an age 35 myr for the metamorphic climax in contrast a new 39ar 40ar step heating age of 23 8 0 8 myr on amphibole from near the base of peripheral schieferhulle closely approximates the age of metamorphism and provides the first clear indication that the climax of metamorphism occurred later at deeper structure levels following the climax near isothermal uplift and erosion reduced pressure to c 1 kbar before white mica closure at 19 myr this implies uplift at 3 mm yr along the tunnel section white mica k ar ages vary systematically from 24 myr to 16 5 myr with position relative to a late 4 km amplitude dome whereas biotite rb sr ages are uniform at 16 5 myr across the whole profile doming is thus dated at 16 5 myr with transient uplift rates 5 mm yr at other times uplift rates were 1 mm yr

fault slip analysis and late exhumation of the tauern window eastern alps exhumation of the eastern alps from the early tertiary to the late miocene was localized mainly in the tauern window a thermal and structural dome located in front of the dolomites indenter stress inversions based on new structural investigations over the entire tauern window indicate a regional zoning of the paleostress field with a predominance of strike slip states of stress in the core of the investigated area and dominant extensional regimes in the eastern and western borders of the dome few inverse fault structures have been highlighted we propose a two stage deformation history in order to explain the different types of structures that characterise the ductile and the brittle domains during the first stage of exhumation of the tauern window corresponding to the folding event the brittle crust was probably dominated by n s shortening and compression the second stage of exhumation was marked by normal faulting at the borders of the dome and strike slip faulting in the core during the second stage the brittle part of the crust that was previously affected by compressive structures belonging to the first stage was eroded normal faulting associated to e w extension along the eastern and western borders of the tauern window was accommodated by strike slip faulting located in the core of the tauern window yielding e w extension and n s shortening the orientation of the extensional axes and the nature of the stress tensors are similar to the ones inferred for the late stage brittle overprint of the internal basement massifs of the central alps pointing to a possible common large scale state of stress acting well beyond the area of the eastern alps

eocene high pressure metamorphism in the penninic units of the tauern window eastern alps evidence from 40 ar 39 ar dating and petrological investigations the40ar 39ar degassing spectra of white micas and amphiboles from three tectonic units of the central tauern window pennine basement and cover in the eastern alps have been measured white micas are classified as 1 pre alpine low si relic micas with an age value of 292 ma variously disturbed by the alpine metamorphism 2 alpine phengitic micas of variable composition with an age between 32 and 36 ma 3 alpine low si micas with a maximum age of 27 ma we attribute the higher alpine ages to a blueschist facies event whereas the lower age reflects the late cooling of the nappe pile blueschist facies phengites from the basement lower schieferhulle and the tectonic cover upper schieferhulle crystallized at a temperature below the closure temperature tc for argon diffusion in white mica and record ages of 32 to 36 ma at the same time a thin eclogite facies unit eclogite zone was thrust between the lower and the upper schieferhulle and cooled from eclogite facies conditions at about 600 c at 20 kbar to blueschist facies conditions at 450 c or even 300 c at 10 kbar eclogite facies phengites closed for argon diffusion and record cooling ages coinciding with the crystallization ages in the hanging and the footwall unit amphibole age spectra actinolite glaucophane barroisite are not interpretable in terms of geologically meaningful ages because of excess argon

the structure of the hallstatt evaporite body northern calcareous alps austria a compressive diapir superposed by strike slip shear based on old detailed mining maps and own observations in the hallstatt salt mine we reinterpret the structure of the hallstatt evaporite body of the upper permian to lower triassic haselgebirge fm within the northern calcareous alps nca the haselgebirge fm represents a rocksalt mylonite with abundant lenses of sulphates mudstones and limestones in comparison to published results of analogue modeling we interpret the present shape of the hallstatt body as a wnw ese elongated compressive teardrop like diapir this is overprinted by nne ssw shortening and dominantly sinistral shearing along a w trending shear zone the internal structure shows steeply dipping rock units and foliation earlier dextral ductile shear fabrics of likely late early cretaceous age are preserved in sulphate rocks and are subsequently overprinted by mylonitic fabrics in rocksalt and cataclastic fabrics in other rocks the low strength of halite results in recent subvertical shortening and a strain rate e of 8 10 10 s 1 is deduced from deformed subhorizontal boreholes this value is similar to such strain rates 10 10 to 10 9 s 1 estimated by the halite grain size distribution from other salt mines in the nca and thus indicative of sub recent formation of the halite microfabrics

penninic windows at the eastern end of the alps and their relation to the intra carpathian basins abstract the deformation history of the penninic windows at the eastern end of the alps is related to oligocene dextral transpression in the eastern alps and miocene formation of the intra carpathian basins ductile flow of penninic rocks resulted in subhorizontal ene trending pure shear crustal thinning omission of parts of the tectonostratigraphy and excision of tertiary metamorphic isograds indicate normal displacements between penninic and austro alpine units overprinting the alpine nappe edifice later nw se compression is by folding and causes sigmoidal trajectories of earlier foliations in the penninic units finally e w extension led to a conjugate set of steep faults these deformations occurred on the decompression path of tertiary metamorphism e w extension along the eastern margin of the alps resulted from instability of overthickened crust and repeated episodes of oligocene and miocene continental escape during compression of the alpine wedge against the e w trending european foreland material is transported laterally eastward away from a zone of collision and toward the intra carpathian region which acted as a geometrically unconstrained interface to the alpine orogenic wedge the final e w extensional event is attributed to the final phase of uniform e w extension of the intra carpathian region

are the alps collapsing abstract orogenic collapse is a process that transfers gravitational potential energy from regions of high potential energy to regions of lower potential energy this transfer is classically considered to be accomplished by extension in the orogenic core and by synchronous shortening in foreland regions of the orogen not all extensional features in collisional mountain belts need however reflect orogenic collapse normal faulting thrust faulting and strike slip faulting are all active in different parts of the alps today and reflect complex local responses to ongoing europe adria convergence the western alps is the only area today where extension and shortening radial to orogen trend occur synchronously and where orogenic collapse may be an important process elsewhere in the alps normal faults are oriented at a high angle to orogen trend and were primarily active in oligocene and miocene time most present day activity in the central and eastern alps is on strike slip faults that are accommodati

subduction tectonic erosion and late cretaceous subsidence along the northern austroalpine margin eastern alps austria abstract the late cretaceous to early tertiary subsidence history of the northern calcareous alps nca records the effect of two independent basin formation mechanisms at the northern leading margin of the austroalpine unit the terrestrial to shallow marine sediments of the lower gosau subgroup were deposited mainly within small fault bound basins during a phase of strike slip faulting from the late turonian onwards after a short period of uplift deformation and erosion of 1 to 3 ma renewed rapid subsidence followed during this period the whole nca subsided into bathyal to abyssal depths the characteristics of this second evolutionary phase are 1 a short period of uplift and erosion followed by strong subsidence of the whole nca with tectonic subsidence rates up to 700 m ma 2 sedimentation of turbidites and hemipelagites upper gosau subgroup 3 northward tilting of the depositional area 4 elimination of an accretionary wedge north of the nca as the main source for the sediments and 5 a pronounced migration of the subsidence event from the northwest to the southeast from late turonian santonian to the maastrichtian these features can be explained by a model of subduction tectonic erosion along the northern margin of the austroalpine unit a part of the adriatic microplate tectonic erosion as compared to recent analogues and fore arc modelling may be due to the collision and oblique subduction of an oceanic swell or ridge of the penninic plate beneath the overriding austroalpine unit with the nca on its leading northern margin

fragmentation of the adriatic promontory new chronological constraints from neogene shortening rates across the southern alps ne italy key points folded alluvial surfaces and balanced cross section constrain post lgm and neogene shortening rates decrease in shortening rate and change in compression direction are inferred at 1 2 ma kinematic reorganization is best explained by a shift from nubia driven to adria driven convergence abstract the eastern southern alps are located at the northern tip of the adria microplate which imposes 2 0 2 5 mm yr of n s convergence relative to stable eurasia we map surface evidence of recent folding faulting in this area from a 5 m dem in the eastern part of the belt observations reveal a 30 km wide zone of active folding composed of at least five growing anticlines the most recent ones warped the post glacial alluvial surface by 10m combining these findings with published geological and geophysical data allows us to infer that active thrusting occurs along a single deeply rooted thrust which accommodates the indentation of the adriatic crust resolving the observed pattern of uplift on the inferred fault geometry indicates that nne ssw shortening across the eastern southern alps has occurred at a rate of about 1 5 mm yr over the post glacial period on the other hand a balanced cross section for the eastern southern alps at the scale of the upper crust constrains a minimum of 43 km of finite shortening over the last 14ma yielding a shortening rate of about 3 mm yr which is two times higher than the post glacial shortening rate this decrease in the shortening rate is associated to the pleistocene activation of new thrusts that is compatible with a change in the direction of compression the inferred local change in the kinematics of thrusting during the pleistocene is consistent with a change from nubia imposed to adria imposed convergence indicating that the fragmentation of the adriatic promontory could have occurred 1 2 ma ago

crustal structure and active tectonics in the eastern alps 1 during the last decade a series of controlled source seismic experiments brought new insight into the crustal and lithospheric structure of the eastern alps and their adjacent tectonic provinces a fragmentation of the lithosphere into three blocks europe eu adria ad and the new pannonian fragment pa was interpreted and a triple junction was inferred the goal of this study has been to relate these deep crustal structures to active tectonics we used elastic plate modeling to reconsider the moho fragmentation we interpret subduction of eu below ad and pa from north to south and underthusting of ad mantle below pa from southwest to northeast the moho fragmentation correlates well with major upper crustal structures and is supported by gravity seismic and geodetic data an analysis of crustal thickening suggests that active convergence is associated with continued thrusting and lateral extrusion in the central eastern alps and thickening of the adriatic indenter under the southern alps according to the velocity relations at the triple junction pa moves relative to eu and ad along ene and se striking faults mainly by strike slip an eastward directed extensional component is compensated by the lateral extrusion of the central eastern alps the periadriatic insubric line east of the triple junction and the mid hungarian fault zone have relatively recently lost their role as first order active structures we favor the idea that the pannonian fragment and the tisza block merged to a soft microplate surrounded by the eastern and southern alpine carpathian and dinaric orogens