Alpine geodynamic evolution of passive and active continental margin sequences in the Tauern Window (eastern Alps, Austria, Italy): a review

Abstract

The Penninic oceanic sequence of the Glockner nappe and the foot-wall Penninic continental margin sequences exposed within the Tauern Window (eastern Alps) have been investigated in detail. Field data as well as structural and petrological data have been combined with data from the literature in order to constrain the geodynamic evolution of these units. Volcanic and sedimentary sequences document the evolution from a stable continent that was formed subsequent to the Variscan orogeny, to its disintegration associated with subsidence and rifting in the Triassic and Jurassic, the formation of the Glockner oceanic basin and its consumption during the Upper Cretaceous and the Paleogene. These units are incorporated into a nappe stack that was formed during the collision between a Penninic Zentralgneis block in the north and a southern Austroalpine block. The Venediger nappe and the Storz nappe are characterized by metamorphic Jurassic shelf deposits (Hochstegen group) and Cretaceous flysch sediments (Kaserer and Murtorl groups), the Eclogite Zone and the Rote Wand–Modereck nappe comprise Permian to Triassic clastic sequences (Wustkogel quartzite) and remnants of platform carbonates (Seidlwinkl group) as well as Jurassic volcanoclastic material and rift sediments (Brennkogel facies), covered by Cretaceous flyschoid sequences. Nappe stacking was contemporaneous to and postdated subduction-related (high-pressure) eclogite and blueschist facies metamorphism. Emplacement of the eclogite-bearing units of the Eclogite zone and the Glockner nappe onto Penninic continental units (Zentralgneis block) occurred subsequent to eclogite facies metamorphism. The Eclogite zone, a former extended continental margin, was subsequently overridden by a pile of basement-cover nappes (Rote Wand–Modereck nappe) along a ductile out-of-sequence thrust. Low-angle normal faults that have developed during the Jurassic extensional phase might have been inverted during nappe emplacement.