| Geology of the Alps | | | | Tectonic subdivision | | Helvetic nappes Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2272x1704, 1566 KB) Mont Blanc from a distance. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
| | Penninic nappes | | Austroalpine nappes | | Southern Alps | | Formations & rocks | | Bündner slate | flysch | molasse This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
A flysch is a sandstone formation, the word comes from the Swiss German language. ...
Molasse refers to the sandstones, or less commonly shales, formed as shore deposits, for example that left from the rising Alps, or erosion in the Himalaya. ...
| | Geological structures | | Aarmassif | Dent Blanche klippe | Engadine window | Flysch zone | Giudicárie line | Greywacke zone | Hohe Tauern window | Molasse basin | Penninic thrustfront | Periadriatic Seam | Ivrea zone | Lepontin dome | Rechnitz window | Rhône-Simplon line | Sesia unit This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
In geology, a molasse basin is the stage of a developing foreland basin, in which molasse is deposited. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
Relief of the Alps, and the Periadriatic Seam The Periadriatic Seam is a distinct geologic fault in Southern Europe, running S-shaped about 1000 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea through the whole Southern Alps as far as Hungary. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This is an article about the geology of the Alps. ...
This is an article about the geology of the Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
| | Paleogeografic terminology | | Valais Ocean The Valais Ocean is a disappeared piece of oceanic crust which was situated between the continent Europe and the microcontinent Iberia. ...
| | Briançonnais microcontinent | | Piemont-Liguria Ocean | | Apulian or Adriatic plate | The Alps form a part of a Tertiary orogenic belt of mountain chains along the southern margin of the continents Asia and Europe, called the Alpide belt. This belt of mountain chains was formed during the Alpine orogeny. The chains of mountains seem discontinuous, there is, for example, a gap between the Alps and the Carpathians. Orogeny took place continuously and tectonic subsidence is to blame for the gaps in between. The Briançonnais microcontinent or Briançonnais terrane is a piece of continental crust found in the Penninic nappes of the Alps. ...
The Piemont-Liguria basin or the Piemont-Liguria Ocean (sometimes only one of the two names is used, for example: Piemonte Ocean) was a former piece of oceanic crust that is seen as part of the Tethys Ocean. ...
The Adriatic or Apulian Plate is a small tectonic plate that broke away from the African plate along a large transform fault in the Cretaceous period. ...
The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ...
Central Europe The Alpine Countries and the Visegrád Group (Political map, 2004) Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. ...
Geography (from the Greek words Ge (γη) or Gaea (γαια), both meaning Earth, and graphein (γÏαφειν) meaning to describe or to writeor to map) is the study of the earth and its features and of the distribution of life on the earth, including human life and the effects of human activity. ...
The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ...
For other uses, see Tertiary (disambiguation). ...
Orogeny is the process of mountain building, and as such is both a tectonic structural event, a geographical event and a chronological event, in that orogenic events happen within a time frame, affect certain regions of rocks and crust, and cause distinctive structural phenomena and related tectonic activity. ...
Color-coded regions of the world based on the seven commonly-recognised continents Dymaxion map by Buckminster Fuller shows land masses with minimal distortion as nearly one continuous continent A continent is one of several large landmasses on Earth. ...
World map showing the location of Asia. ...
World map exhibiting the location of Europe. ...
The Alpide belt extends from Java to Sumatra through the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and out into the Atlantic. ...
The Alps arose as a result of the pressure exerted on sediments of the Tethys Ocean basin as its Mesozoic and early Cenozoic strata were pushed against the stable Eurasian landmass by the northward-moving African landmass. ...
Satellite image of the Carpathians. ...
The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century. ...
A road destroyed by subsidence and shear. ...
The Alps arose as a result of the collision of the African and European tectonic plates, in which the western part of the Tethys Ocean, that was formerly in between these continents, disappeared. Enormous stress was exerted on sediments of the Tethys Ocean basin and its Mesozoic and early Cenozoic strata were pushed against the stable Eurasian landmass by the northward-moving African landmass. Most of this occurred during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs. The pressure formed great recumbent folds, or nappes, that rose out of what had become the Tethys Sea and pushed northward, often breaking and sliding one over the other to form gigantic thrust faults. Crystalline basement rocks, which are exposed in the higher central regions, are the rocks forming Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and high peaks in the Pennine Alps and Hohe Tauern. The African plate, shown in pinkish-orange The African Plate is a tectonic plate covering the continent of Africa and extending westward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. ...
The Eurasian plate, shown in green The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate covering Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the continents Europe and Asia) except that it does not cover the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Verkhoyansk Range in East Siberia. ...
The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century. ...
Tethys Ocean (here labeled Tethys Sea) divides Pangea into two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana The Tethys Ocean was a Mesozoic era ocean that existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia before the opening of the Indian Ocean. ...
Compressive stress is the stress applied to materials resulting in their compaction (decrease of volume). ...
Sediment is any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow and which eventually is deposited as a layer of solid particles on the bed or bottom of a body of water or other liquid. ...
Tethys Ocean (here labeled Tethys Sea) divides Pangea into two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana The Tethys Ocean was a Mesozoic era ocean that existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia before the opening of the Indian Ocean. ...
The Mesozoic Era is one of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon. ...
The Cenozoic Era (IPA pronunciation: ); sometimes Caenozoic Era in the United Kingdom) meaning new life (Greek kainos = new + zoe = life) is the most recent of the three classic geological eras. ...
Goldenville Strata exposed at a quarry in Bedford, Canada. ...
Eurasia African-Eurasian aspect of Earth Eurasia is a landmass covering about 54,000,000 km² compared with the Americas (approximately 42,000,000 km²), Africa (approximately 30,000,000 km²), Antarctica (approximately 13,000,000 km²) and Oceania (9,000,000 km²). Eurasia is composed of the traditional continents...
A world map showing the continent of Africa. ...
The Oligocene epoch is a geologic period of time that extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present. ...
The Miocene epoch is a period of time that extends from about 23 to 5. ...
A nappe, in geology, is a large sheetlike body of rock that has been moved far from its original position. ...
The Tethys Sea was a shallow inland body of water that existed between Laurasia and Gondwana, the geological ancestor of the modern Black, Caspian and Aral Seas. ...
A thrust fault is a particular type of fault, or break in the fabric of the Earths crust with resulting movement of each side against the other, in which a lower stratigraphic position is pushed up and over another. ...
In geology, the terms basement and crystalline basement are used to define the rocks below a sedimentary basin, or more generally any rock below sedimentary rocks or sedimentary basins that are metamorphic or igneous in origin. ...
This article is about the Alpine mountain. ...
The Matterhorn (Italian: Monte Cervino, French: Mont Cervin or Le Cervin) is perhaps the most familiar mountain in the European Alps. ...
The Pennine Alps (also: Valais Alps) are a mountain range in the western part of the Alps. ...
The High Tauern (German Hohe Tauern) is the highest range of the Alps in Austria. ...
The formation of the Mediterranean Sea is a more recent development and does not mark the northern shore of the African landmass. Composite satellite image of the Mediterranean Sea. ...
Geologic boundaries of the Alps
The Alps form a northward convex arc around their southern foreland basin (to be precise the south is in fact their hinterland), the Po River basin. Quarternary and Neogene sediments in this basin lie discordant over the southernmost thrust units. In the northeast southward dipping foreland deposits are found in the Bavarian basin, which are overthrusted from the south by the thrustfront of the Alpine nappes. To the northwest the foreland becomes more complicated as the external Jura mountains, geologically a part of the Alps, are found north of a big basin that separates both chains. This basin is called Molasse basin and forms the Swiss Mittelland. The reason for the differences between the northeastern and southeastern forelands is still a topic for debate, but a possible cause is the nearby north-south extensional Rhine graben in the northwest. A foreland basin is a depressed area of the Earths crust landward of a young mountain chain, and parallel to it. ...
The meaning of hinterland and its history. ...
The Po (Latin: Padus, Italian: Po) is a river that flows 652 kilometers (405 miles) eastward across northern Italy, from Monviso (in the Cottian Alps) to the Adriatic Sea near Venice. ...
The Quaternary Period is the geologic time period from the end of the Pliocene Epoch roughly 1. ...
Neogene Period is a unit of geologic time consisting of the Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Holocene epochs. ...
Sediment is any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow and which eventually is deposited as a layer of solid particles on the bed or bottom of a body of water or other liquid. ...
In poetry, dissonance is the deliberate avoidance of patterns of repeated vowel sounds (see assonance). ...
A thrust fault is a particular type of fault, or break in the fabric of the Earths crust with resulting movement of each side against the other, in which a lower stratigraphic position is pushed up and over another. ...
Strike and dip refer to the orientation or attitude of a geologic feature. ...
The geographic region and Free State of Bavaria (German: Freistaat Bayern), with an area of 70,553 km² (27,241 square miles) and 12. ...
Looking towards Lelex from near to Crêt de la Neige The Jura folds are located north of the main Alpine orogenic front and are being continually deformed, accommodating the northwards compression from Alpine folding. ...
In geology, a molasse basin is the stage of a developing foreland basin, in which molasse is deposited. ...
The Swiss plateau (plateau suisse in French, Schweizer Mittelland in German) constitutes one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland alongside the Jura mountains and the Alps. ...
The Alps continue more or less smoothly into the following related Alpine mountain ranges: the Apennines to the southwest, the Dinarides to the southeast and the Carpathians to the northeast. In the east the Alps are bounded by the Viennese Basin and the Pannonian Basin, where east-west stretching of the crust takes place. This is about the terrestrial mountain range. ...
Dinaric Alps or Dinarides are a mountain chain in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. ...
The Viennese Basin (German: Wiener Becken, Czech: VÃdenská kotlina, Slovak: Viedenská kotlina) is a tectonic basin between the Alps and the Carpathian Mountains. ...
The Pannonian plain is a large plain in central/south-eastern Europe that remained when the Pliocene Pannonian Sea (see below) dried out. ...
Geologic structure of the Alps The Alps have a complex geology, but the general structure is the same as for other mountain ranges formed by continental collision. Continental collision is a phenomenon of the plate tectonics of our solid Earth. ...
Tectonic subdivision The main suture (big shear zone) in the Alps is called the Periadriatic Seam and runs through the Alps from east to west. This is the boundary between materials from the (former) European and Apulian plates. A suture is in structural geology a major faultzone through an orogen or mountain range. ...
Study of geological shear is related to the study of structural geology, rock microstructure or rock texture and fault mechanics. ...
Relief of the Alps, and the Periadriatic Seam The Periadriatic Seam is a distinct geologic fault in Southern Europe, running S-shaped about 1000 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea through the whole Southern Alps as far as Hungary. ...
The Adriatic or Apulian Plate is a small tectonic plate that broke away from the African plate along a large transform fault in the Cretaceous period. ...
The tectonic plates of the world were mapped in the second half of the 20th century. ...
South of this line are folded and thrusted units of the Southern Alps. Fold or folding may refer to: fold (geology) folding, in poker, is the act of withdrawing from a hand rather than meeting the bet folding ingredients together is a cooking technique protein folding origami, the art of paper folding pattern welding, the folding of metal This is a disambiguation page...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
North of the Periadriatic seam the three main nappe stacks of the Alps are found: the Helvetic, Penninic and Austroalpine nappes. This subdivision is more or less according to the paleogeographical origins of the rocks found in the units: the Helvetic nappes contain material from the European plate, the Austroalpine nappes material from the Apulian plate, the Penninic nappes material from the domains that existed in between the two plates. This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
Palaeogeography is the study of the ancient geography of the Earths surface. ...
Click on image for a larger version Schematic geological map of the Alps, showing the tectonic subdivision as well as the largest geological structures. Watch out: some of the details of this map are based on controversial assumptions. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (3338x1607, 1905 KB) Drew this map myself. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (3338x1607, 1905 KB) Drew this map myself. ...
Structural geology Because the thrusts in the Helvetic, Penninic and Austroalpine terranes are directed to the north, the dominant vergence (direction of fold asymmetry) in these units is to the north. In the Southern Alps the thrusts are to the south so the vergence is dominantly southward. A terrane in paleogeography is an accretion that has collided with a continental nucleus, or craton but can be recognized by the foreign origin of its rock strata. ...
In structural geology, the vergence of a deformed rock is the direction in which the next antiform can be found. ...
The rocks of the Austroalpine nappes form most of the outcrops in the Eastern Alps, while in the west these nappes are, with the exception of a few places (the Dent Blanche and Sesia units, eroded away. In the Western Alps the Helvetic nappes can be found to the north and west, sometimes still under klippes of the Penninic nappes, as in the Préalpes du Sud south of Lake Geneva. Eastern Alps is the name given to the eastern half of the Alps, usually defined as the area east of the Splügen Pass in eastern Switzerland. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
Severe soil erosion in a wheat field near Washington State University, USA. For erosion as understood by materials science, see Erosion (materials science) For erosion as an English analogy, see Erosion (figurative) Erosion is the displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock and other particles) by the agents of wind, water...
The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ...
A klippe is a geological feature of thrust fault terranes, where a nappe has thrust exotic strata over an area and been removed to leave a form of inlier. ...
Lake Geneva or Lake Léman (French Lac Léman, le Léman, or Lac de Genève) is the second largest freshwater lake in Central Europe (after Lake Balaton). ...
In many spots in the central zone north of the Periadriatic seam large antiforms called anticlinoria can be found, sometimes they are displayed in the outcrops as windows. At the level of one of these windows (the Hohe Tauern window) the Periadriatic seam curves to the north, which suggests that the Apulian plate is more rigid in this particular spot, working as a so-called indentor. Anticline in a road cut-out near Fort Davis, TX. Cliff Cuffey, geologist, photographed by Eric S. Kounce on October 29, 2006. ...
Anticline in a road cut-out near Fort Davis, TX. Cliff Cuffey, geologist, photographed by Eric S. Kounce on October 29, 2006. ...
Outcrop is a geological term referring to the appearance of bedrock exposed at the surface of the Earth. ...
Schematic overview of a thrust system. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
mathematics, suppose ).C is a collection of mathematical objects (for instance sets or functions Then we say that C is rigid if every c ∈ C is uniquely determined by less information about c than one would expect. ...
In the central part of Switzerland uplift took place along a ductile north-south normal faultzone called the Rhône-Simplon line. The structure thus formed is called the Lepontin dome. Ductility is the physical property of being capable of sustaining large plastic deformations without fracture (in metals, such as being drawn into a wire). ...
Old fault exposed by roadcut near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. ...
This is an article about the geology of the Alps. ...
This is an article about the geology of the Alps. ...
Intrusions In older rocks from the lower crust intrusions are found that formed during or just after the Hercynian orogeny. These intrusions are older than the Alps and have nothing to do with their formation. Radiometric age determination yields ages around 320 Ma. Slightly younger felsic intrusions formed by Permian and Triassic extension can also be found. Earth cutaway from core to exosphere. ...
The Variscan or Hercynian orogeny is a geologic mountain-building event recorded in the European mountains and hills called the Variscan Belt. ...
Radiometric dating is a technique used to date materials based on a knowledge of the decay rates of naturally occurring isotopes, and the current abundances. ...
Annum is a Latin noun meaning year. ...
Felsic is a term used in geology to refer to silicate minerals, magmas, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silica, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. ...
The Permian is a geologic period that extends from about 299. ...
The Triassic is a geologic period that extends from about 251 to 200 Ma (million years ago). ...
In metaphysics, extension is the property of taking up space; see Extension (metaphysics). ...
Intrusions from the formation of the Alps themselves are relatively rare. The largest ones can be found along the Periadriatic seam, the largest one is the Adamello granite. In the Penninic nappes migmatites and small melts can be found. Devils Tower, an igneous intrusion exposed when the surrounding softer rock eroded away. ...
This article needs cleanup. ...
Ptygmatic folding in migmatite Migmatite on the coast of Saaremaa. ...
Metamorphism The rocks of the Helvetic and Austroalpine nappes and the southern Alps did not experience high grade metamorphism in the major Alpine phases in the Tertiary. Any high grade metamorphic rocks in these units will not have become metamorphic due to the formation of the Alps. Other possibilities are: Metamorphism can be defined as the mineralogical, chemical and crystallographic changes in a solid-state rock, i. ...
Metamorphic rock is the result of the transformation of a pre-existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means change in form, derived from the Greek words meta, change, and morphe, form. The protolith is subjected to extreme heat (>150 degrees Celsius) and pressure causing profound...
- they were originally from lower regions of the crust and got to the surface by uplift, which gives them amphibolite facies at most.
- in the Austroalpine nappes eclogites occur that were formed during the Cretaceous period, in an early phase of mountain building called the Eo-Alpine orogeny. These are high-grade metamorphic rocks, but their metamorphism is unrelated to the (later) formation of the Alps.
Tertiary eclogites do occur in the Penninic nappes, which contain material that has been through blueschist or eclogite facies. These nappes show a Barrovian field gradient. This type of metamorphism can only occur when a rock is in pressure-temperature conditions that normally occur in the Earth’s mantle. This means the Penninic nappes consist of material that was subducted into the mantle and was later obducted onto the crust. Look up uplift in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Eclogite is a coarse-grained, mafic-to-ultramafic grouping of metamorphic rocks of special interest on account of the variety of minerals they contain and their microscopic structures and geological relationships. ...
The Cretaceous Period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic Period (i. ...
Blueschist is a rock that forms by the metamorphism of sodium-rich basic rocks at high pressures and low temperatures, approximately corresponding to a depth of 15 to 30 kilometers and 200 to ~500 degrees Celsius. ...
The use of water pressure - the Captain Cook Memorial Jet in Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra. ...
Fig. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require restructuring. ...
The Juan de Fuca plate sinks below the North America plate at the Cascadia subduction zone. ...
Obduction is the overthrusting of continental crust by oceanic crust or mantle rocks. ...
Alpine (Tertiary) contact- or Buchan metamorphism is rare in the Alps, because intrusions are rare. For other uses, see Tertiary (disambiguation). ...
Metamorphism can be defined as the mineralogical, chemical and crystallographic changes in a solid-state rock, i. ...
Tectonic history The Alps are a fold and thrust belt, folding and thrusting is the expression of crustal shortening, which is caused by the convergent movements of the European and Apulian plates. In plate tectonics, a convergent boundary (convergent fault boundary, convergent plate boundary, or active margin) is where two tectonic plates slide towards each other and usually collide forming either a subduction zone with its associated island arc or an orogenic belt and associated mountain range. ...
Breakup of Pangea At the end of the Carboniferous period (300 Ma ago) the Hercynian or Variscan orogeny, in which the supercontinent Pangaea formed from Gondwana and Laurasia, was ended. East of the terranes that now form the Alps was the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. The Carboniferous is a major division of the geologic timescale that extends from the end of the Devonian period, about 359. ...
Mega-annum, usually abbreviated as Ma, is a unit of time equal to one million years. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Pangaea was formed by the merging of two continents, Laurasia and Gondwana East African and Kuungan Orogens 550 Ma reconstruction showing final stages of assembly The southern supercontinent Gondwana (originally Gondwanaland) included most of the landmasses which make up todays continents of the southern hemisphere, including Antarctica, South America...
Laurasia was a supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic era. ...
The Paleo-Tethys Ocean was an ancient Paleozoic ocean. ...
The effects of wind and water were able to chemically and mechanically erode and destroy the Hercynic mountain ranges. In the Permian the main deposits in Europe were sandstone and conglomerate, products of erosion in the Hercynic mountain range. At the same time crustal extension took place, because the mountain range was isostatically unstable (this is called orogenic collapse). Due to extension basins formed along the axis of the mountain range, and felsic volcanism occurred. This was the first phase of rifting between Europe and Africa. Due to the rising sealevel in the Triassic period, the eastern margin of Pangaea was flooded. Shallow shelf seas and epicontinental seas existed in which evaporites and limestones were deposited. Wind, tacuinum sanitatis casanatensis (XIV century) Wind is the rough horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by uneven heating of the Earths surface. ...
Impact of a drop of water. ...
Severe soil erosion in a wheat field near Washington State University, USA. For erosion as understood by materials science, see Erosion (materials science) For erosion as an English analogy, see Erosion (figurative) Erosion is the displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock and other particles) by the agents of wind, water...
The Permian is a geologic period that extends from about 299. ...
Red sandstone interior of Lower Antelope Canyon, Arizona, worn smooth due to erosion by flash flooding over millions of years Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. ...
A conglomerate with iron oxide cementing material A conglomerate (IPA: ) is a rock consisting of individual stones that have become cemented together. ...
Isostasy is a term used in Geology to refer to the state of gravitational equilibrium between the Earths lithosphere and asthenosphere such that the tectonic plates float at an elevation which depends on their thickness and density. ...
Felsic is a term used in geology to refer to silicate minerals, magmas, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silica, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. ...
This article is about volcanoes in geology. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Rift valley. ...
For considerations of sea level change, in particular rise associated with possible global warming, see sea level rise. ...
The Triassic is a geologic period that extends from about 251 to 200 Ma (million years ago). ...
Sediment Rock Mantle The global continental shelf, highlighted in cyan The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent, which is covered during interglacial periods such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas (known as shelf seas) and gulfs. ...
An epeiric sea--also known as an epicontinental sea--is a large but shallow body of salt water that lies over a part of a continent. ...
A sample of evaporite material Evaporites (IPA: ) are water-soluble, mineral sediments that result from the evaporation of bodies of surficial water. ...
Limey shale overlaid by limestone. ...
Jurassic In the early Jurassic period (180 Ma ago) a narrow ocean began to form between the northern (North America and Eurasia) and southern (Africa and South America) parts of Pangaea. The oceanic crust that was formed in the process is known as the Piemont-Liguria Ocean. This ocean is generally regarded as part of the Tethys Ocean (farther east), although it was not really connected to it, a peninsular piece of continental crust of the African plate called the Apulian plate lay in between. (Sometimes the names Alpine Tethys or Western Tethys Ocean are used to describe a number of small oceanic basins that formed southwest of the European plate, to distinguish them from the Neo-Tethys Ocean in the east) Because the Jurassic was a time with high sealevels, all these oceans were connected by shallow seas. On the continents shallow sea deposits (limestones) were formed during the entire Mesozoic. Annum is a Latin noun meaning year. ...
Age of oceanic crust Oceanic crust is the part of Earths lithosphere which underlies the ocean basins. ...
The Piemont-Liguria basin or the Piemont-Liguria Ocean (sometimes only one of the two names is used, for example: Piemonte Ocean) was a former piece of oceanic crust that is seen as part of the Tethys Ocean. ...
Tethys Ocean (here labeled Tethys Sea) divides Pangea into two supercontinents, Laurasia and Gondwana The Tethys Ocean was a Mesozoic era ocean that existed between the continents of Gondwana and Laurasia before the opening of the Indian Ocean. ...
A peninsula in Croatia A peninsula (from the latin words paene insula, almost island) is a geographical landform consisting of an extension of a body of land from a larger body of land, surrounded by water on three sides. ...
The Adriatic or Apulian Plate is a small tectonic plate that broke away from the African plate along a large transform fault in the Cretaceous period. ...
In the late Jurassic the microcontinent Iberia broke away from the European plate, the Valais Ocean was formed between the two plates. Both Piemont-Liguria and Valais Oceans were never large oceans as today’s Atlantic Ocean. What they might have been like is the opening below the Red Sea, continuing down through Africa, forming the Rift Valley. Eventually, a new ocean will cut through east Africa, dividing a large section of land from the main continent. The Valais Ocean is a disappeared piece of oceanic crust which was situated between the continent Europe and the microcontinent Iberia. ...
Location of the Red Sea The Red Sea is an inlet of the Indian Ocean between Africa and Asia. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Rift (geology). ...
When at the end of the Jurassic the Apulian plate began to move toward the European plate oceanic trenches formed in the eastern Alps, in these deep marine sediments were deposited, such as radiolarites and lutites. The oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor. ...
Basanite (IPA: ) is an igneous, volcanic (extrusive) rock with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. ...
Eo-Alpine phase in the Cretaceous The divergent movement of the European and African plates was relatively short-lived. When the Atlantic Ocean formed between Africa and South America (about 100 Ma ago) Africa began moving northeast. In plate tectonics, a divergent boundary (divergent fault boundary or divergent plate boundary), (but also known as a constructive boundary or an extensional boundary) is a linear feature that exists between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other. ...
Annum is a Latin noun meaning year. ...
As a result of this process, the soft layers of ocean sediment in the Alpine Tethys Oceans were compressed and folded as they were slowly thrust upwards. Caught in the middle of the merging continents, the area of the Tethys Sea between Africa and Eurasia began to shrink as oceanic crust subducted beneath the Apulian plate. The tremendous forces at work in the lower continental foundation caused the European base to bend downward into the hot mantle and soften. The southern (African) landmass then continued its northward movement over some one thousand kilometers. The slow folding and pleating of the sediments as they rose up from the depths is believed to have initially formed a series of long east-west volcanic island arcs. Volcanic rocks produced in these island arcs are found among the ophiolites of the Penninic nappes. An island arc is a type of archipelago formed by plate tectonics as one oceanic tectonic plate subducts under another and produces magma. ...
Ignimbrite is a deposit of a pyroclastic flow. ...
In the late Cretaceous the first continental collision took place as the northern part of the Apulian subplate collided with Europe. This is called the Eo-Alpine phase, and is sometimes regarded as the first phase of the formation of the Alps. The part of the Apulian plate that was deformed in this phase is the material that would later form the Austroalpine nappes and the Southern Alps. In some fragments of the Piemont-Liguria Ocean now in the Penninic nappes an Eo-Alpine deformation phase can also be recognized. Continental collision is a phenomenon of the plate tectonics of our solid Earth. ...
Apart from the Eo-Alpine fold and thrust belt other regions were still in the marine domain during the Cretaceous. On the southern margins of the European continent shallow seas formed limestone deposits, that would later be (in the Alps) incorporated into the Helvetic nappes. At the same time sedimentation of anoxic clay took place in the deep-marine realms of the Piemont-Liguria and Valais Oceans. This clay would later become the Bündner slates from the Penninic nappes. Anoxic sea water refers to water depleted of oxygen. ...
The Gay Head cliffs in Marthas Vineyard are made almost entirely of clay. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
Paleocene and Eocene When the Piemont-Liguria oceanic crust had completely subducted beneath the Apulian plate in the Paleocene, the Briançonnais microcontinent, according to some a piece of the Iberian plate, arrived at the subduction zone. The Briançonnais microcontinent and Valais Ocean (with island arcs) subducted beneath the Apulian plate. They stayed at around 70 km below the surface during the Eocene, reaching the eclogite facies and becoming intruded by migmatites. This material would later become the Penninic nappes, but a large part of the Briançonnais terrane subducted further into the mantle and was lost. Meanwhile, at the surface the upper crust of the Apulian plate (the later Austroalpien nappes) was thrusted over the European crust. This was the main collisional phase in the formation of the Alps. The Paleocene, early dawn of the recent, is a geologic epoch that lasted from 65 Ma to 56 Ma (million years ago). ...
The Briançonnais microcontinent or Briançonnais terrane is a piece of continental crust found in the Penninic nappes of the Alps. ...
KM, Km, or km may stand for: Khmer language (ISO 639 alpha-2, km) Kilometre Kinemantra Meditation Knowledge management KM programming language KM Culture, Korean Movie Maker. ...
The Eocene epoch (55. ...
Ptygmatic folding in migmatite Migmatite on the coast of Saaremaa. ...
Oligocene and Miocene When the subducting slab broke off (slab breakoff), slab pull fell away and the subducted crust began moving up. This led to the uplift of the thickened continental crust which led in the Miocene to extension. In the case of the Alps the extension could only take place in a west-east direction, because the Apulian plate was still converging from the south. An enormous thrustzone evolved, that would later become the Periadriatic Seam. The zone also accommodated dextral shear that resulted from the west-east extension. With the exception of the allochthon Austroalpine material this thrust evolved at the boundary of the Apulian and European plates. The central zones of the Alps rose and were subsequently eroded. Tectonic windows and domes as the Hohe Tauern window were formed in this way. Look up Slab in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Slab can refer to: Slab (computer science) - a unit of storage unique to the NCR 315. ...
The Miocene epoch is a period of time that extends from about 23 to 5. ...
Chasm redirects here. ...
Relief of the Alps, and the Periadriatic Seam The Periadriatic Seam is a distinct geologic fault in Southern Europe, running S-shaped about 1000 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea through the whole Southern Alps as far as Hungary. ...
A dextral is a horizontal movement of blocks either side of a geological fault. ...
Study of geological shear is related to the study of structural geology, rock microstructure or rock texture and fault mechanics. ...
In geology, rocks or sections or units of rocks which have been moved from their original site of formation are called allochthon (from greek allo = other, and chthon = earth). ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
Meanwhile, the thrust front of the Penninic and Austroalpine nappes moved on, pushing all material in its way northward. Due to this pressure a decollement developed over which thrusting took place. The thrusted material will become the Helvetic nappes. A décollement horizon is a tectonic surface that acts as a gliding plane between two masses in a thrust fault relationship. ...
Neogene At present, the Apulian and European plates are still converging. The process of mountain building continues to this day. Measurements in the road and railway tunnels show that the Alps continue to rise somewhere between a millimeter and a centimeter each year. This is held in an overall balance by weathering effects. Also, there are many active seismic areas under the mountains that show that stresses continue to be released along deep fault lines. In the process the core of the Alps, with the terranes that were subducted in the Paleocene and Eocene, still moves upward. Northward thrusting takes place along a line called the Penninic thrustfront. The formation of the foreland basins (Po basin and Bavarian basin) goes on with the crust subsiding in these areas. Weathering is the process of breaking down of rocks, soils and their minerals through direct, or indirect contact with the atmosphere. ...
Seismology (from the Greek seismos = earthquake and logos = word) is the scientific study of earthquakes and the movement of waves through the Earth. ...
This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. ...
A foreland basin is a depressed area of the Earths crust landward of a young mountain chain, and parallel to it. ...
Geomorphology The actual landscape we see today is a recent development -- only some two million years old. This was the period where some five known ice ages have done much to remodel the region. The tremendous glaciers that flowed out of the mountain valleys repeatedly covered all of the Swiss plain and shoved the topsoil into the low rolling hills seen today. They scooped out the lakes and rounded off the limestone hills along the northern border. Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 400 000 years For the animated movie, see Ice Age (movie). ...
A glacier is a large, long-lasting river of ice that is formed on land and moves in response to gravity and undergoes internal deformation. ...
Topsoil is the uppermost layer of soil, usually the top six to eight inches. ...
The last glacier advance ended only "yesterday" in geologic terms (some 10,000 years ago in this area) and left the large lake now known as Lake Neuchatel. The ice in this region reached some 1000 meters in depth and flowed out of the region behind Lake Geneva some 100 km to the south. Today large granite boulders are found scattered in the forests in the region. These were carried and pushed by the glaciers that filled this part of the western plain for some 80,000 years during the last ice age. From their composition it has been possible to determine the precise area from which they began their journey. As the last ice age ended, it is believed that the climate changed so rapidly that the glaciers retreated back into the mountains in only some 200 to 300 years time. Lake Neuchâtel (in French: Lac de Neuchâtel) is a lake in Western Switzerland in the cantons of Neuchâtel, Vaud, Fribourg, and Bern. ...
Lake Geneva or Lake Léman (French Lac Léman, le Léman, or Lac de Genève) is the second largest freshwater lake in Central Europe (after Lake Balaton). ...
Besides leaving an arctic-like wasteland of barren rock and gravel, the huge moraine of material that was dropped at the front of the glaciers blocked huge masses of melt water that poured onto the central plain during this period. A huge lake resulted, flooding the region to a depth of several hundred meters for many years. The old shoreline can be seen in some places along the low hills at the foot of the mountains -- the hills actually being glacial side-moraines. As the Aare River, which now drains western Switzerland into the Rhine River, eventually opened the natural dam, the water levels in the plain fell to near the present levels. Moraine at Mono Lake, California, United States Moraines clearly seen on a side glacier of the Gorner Glacier, Zermatt, Switzerland. ...
Aar (disambiguation). ...
The Rhine canyon (Ruinaulta) in Graubünden in Switzerland Length 1. ...
Scrivener Dam, in Canberra, Australia, was engineered to withstand a once-in-5000-years flood A dam is a barrier across flowing water that obstructs, directs or retards the flow, often creating a reservoir, lake or impoundment. ...
In the last 150 years man has changed the flow and levels of all the rivers and most of the extensive wetlands and small lakes have disappeared under the effects of farming and other development. Farming, ploughing rice paddy, in Indonesia Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). ...
Geologic research The Alps were the first mountain system to be extensively studied by geologists, and many of the geologic terms associated with mountains and glaciers originated there. The term "Alps" has been applied to mountain systems around the world that exhibit similar traits.
Geophysics In the 1980s and 1990s a number of teams have been mapping the structures in the lower crust by seismology. The result was a number of detailed geological cross-sections, enhancing our knowledge of the deep structures below the Alps. When seismic research is combined with insights from gravitational research and mantle tomography the subducting slab of the European plate can be mapped. Tomography also shows some older detached slabs deeper in the mantle. Seismology (from the Greek seismos = earthquake and logos = word) is the scientific study of earthquakes and the movement of waves through the Earth. ...
It has been suggested that geodetic system be merged into this article or section. ...
Tomography is imaging by sections or sectioning. ...
See also The Swiss plateau (plateau suisse in French, Schweizer Mittelland in German) constitutes one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland alongside the Jura mountains and the Alps. ...
References
External links
Literature - Frisch, W.; Dunkl, I. & Kuhlemann, J.; 2000: Post-collisional large-scale extension in the Eastern Alps in Tectonophysics v 327, p239
- Schmid, S.M.; Fügenshuh, B.; Kissling, E. & Schuster, R.; 2004: Tectonic map and overall architecture of the Alpine orogen in Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae v 97, p 93
- Schmid, S.M. & Kissling, E.; 2000: The arc of the western Alps in the light of geophysical data on deep crustal structure in Tectonics v 19, p 62
- Schmid, S.M.; Pfiffner, O.A.; Froitzheim, N.; Schönborn, G. & Kissling, E.; 1996: Geophysical-geological transect and tectonic evolution of the Swiss-Italian Alps in Tectonics V 15, p 1036
- Stampfli, G.M.; Borel, G.D.; Marchant, R. & Mosar, J.; 2002: Western Alps geological constraints on western Tethyan reconstructions in: Rosenbaum, G. & Lister, G. S.; 2002: Reconstruction of the evolution of the Alpine-Himalayan orogeny. Journal of the Virtual Explorer.
- Stampfli, G.M.; 1993: Le Briançonnais, terrain exotique dans les Alps? in Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae v 86, p 1
- P.A. Ziegler; 1988: Evolution of the Arctic-North Atlantic and the Western Tethys, American Association of Petroleum Geologists Memoir 43
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