Along-strike variations of structural style in the external Western Alps (France): Review, insights from analogue models and the role of salt

Abstract

The European Alps result from the closure of a former Triassic to Cretaceous rifting system in which significative accumulation of Upper Triassic salt deposited. The thickness and spatial distribution of these salts had a major impact on the morphology and dynamic of the Alpine orogen all over the Western Alps. Following a bibliographical review, four regional cross-sections are revisited over the External Western Alps to emphasise along-strike variations of the orogenic wedge influenced by the presence or absence of Triassic salts. Each section is then compared with analogue models to examine the controlling factors explaining the structural styles variations. In the Northern Subalpine Chains, the absence of salt favoured a frictional decollement which promoted a narrow and thick orogenic wedge in the Bornes, Chartreuse, and Vercors massifs. Discrepancies in the spacing between the thrusts and the number of folds were however influenced by the thickness of incompetent layers in the sedimentary column. In the Jura and the SW Alps, the occurrence of Triassic salts promoted a viscous decollement and thus a wide and relatively thin orogenic wedge. However, in the SW Alps, thicker salt deposits allowed the development of pre-orogenic salt structures. These later constituted vertical heterogeneities having exerted a strong structural inheritance during the following compression, by accommodating a substantial part of the Alpine shortening, in squeezed diapirs especially. Triassic salt remobilization during the orogeny also locally promoted the development of syn-orogenic minibasins. This review highlights the significant role played by Triassic salt in shaping the Western Alps, and paves the way for possible new interpretations of the dynamics of the Alps regarding the exhumation of crystalline basement blocks, or new structural interpretations of Alpine domains, such as the Vocontian Domain.