Chapter 1 - Permo-Triassic Basins and Tectonics in Europe, North Africa and the Atlantic Margins: A Synthesis

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief overview of the contents and organization of this book. A detailed chronostratigraphic scale for the Permian and Triassic systems is presented, including an updated chronology of the Zechstein, Buntsandstein, Muschelkalk and Keuper groups, together with a review of the age of the different evaporite levels identified in the Upper Permian (Zechstein) and Triassic series in Europe, North Africa and the Atlantic margins. The paleogeographic evolution of these regions during the Permian to Triassic epochs with the distribution of evaporites and other lithologies is summarized in various maps merging various data sets and interpretations. A synthetic chronostratigraphic section for the different salt basins is documented by lithostratigraphic columns of 44 basins. These basins include the Barents Sea (Pennsylvanian to Cisuralian salt), the North and South Permian Basins (Zechstein Basin, with Lopingian salt intervals), the Triassic evaporites (Muschelkalk and Keuper groups; i.e., Middle and Upper Triassic) involved in different segments of the Alpine fold-and-thrust belt in South Europe and North Africa (Betics-Rif, Atlas, Tell, Pyrenees, Alps, Adriatic, Albanides, and Balkans) and in the Atlantic margins (East Greenland, Scotian margin, offshore Portugal, offshore N Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, and Senegal).