Growing folds and sedimentation of the Gosau Group, Muttekopf, Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria

Abstract

Analysis of the three-dimensional geometry of Upper Cretaceous clastics in the Muttekopf area (Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria) indicate fold and fault structures active during deposition. Coniacian continental to neritic sedimentation (Lower Gosau Subgroup) was contemporaneous with displacements on NW-trending faults and minor folding along NE-trending axes. From the Santonian onwards (sedimentation of the deep-marine Upper Gosau Subgroup) the NW-trending faults were sealed and large folds with WSW-trending axes developed. The direction of contraction changed to N-S after the end of Gosau deposition in the Danian (Paleocene). Synorogenic sedimentation patterns indicate continuous contraction from the Coniacian to the Late Maastrichtian/?Danian. Therefore, large-scale extension as observed in the central part of the Eastern Alps cannot be documented in the western parts of the Northern Calcareous Alps. A combination of subduction tectonic erosion for the frontal parts and gravitational adjustment of an unstable orogen after nappe stacking for the internal parts possibly accounts for the different development of Gosau basins in the frontal and trailing regions of the Austroalpine wedge.