Abstract
The European Molasse basin is a foreland basin situated at the northern front of the European Alps and has formed as a consequence of the Euro–Adriatic continental collision since the Tertiary. Today, it is underlain by Mesozoic sedimentary successions on top of a Paleozoic crust. To investigate the deep structure, the isostatic state, as well as the load distribution in the basin and the adjacent Alpine area, we constructed a lithospheric-scale 3D structural model by implementing available surface, well and seismic data. Subsequently, the structure of the model was constrained by means of 3D gravity modelling. Complementary, the isostatic state has been assessed based on the calculation of the 3D load distribution. Our results show that the Molasse basin is not in isostatic equilibrium and that the gravity field of the area is strongly controlled by the configuration of the crystalline crust. Furthermore, we show that the area is influenced by significant lateral load variations down to a depth of −150 km, which are considerably larger than commonly assumed for this level. Furthermore, our results allow a first-order assessment of the minimum compensating horizontal stress required to prevent gravitational collapse.
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