Present‐day vertical displacements in the north‐western Alps and southern Jura Mountains: Data from leveling comparisons

Abstract

Two high‐precision leveling networks were successively surveyed in France, the NGF, measured during the 1886–1907 period, and the IGN69, measured from 1965 to 1979. The accuracy of these levelings (standard deviation of 1.8mm/√km to 3.8mm/√km) allows us to compute the vertical displacements of the benchmarks between two different eras. The results indicate the occurrence of discrete zones of uplift and subsidence: (1) a regional uplift (up to 1.4 mm/yr) of the Subalpine Massifs; (2) an important uplift of the internal Jura (up to 2 mm/yr); (3) a relative subsidence of the southern part of the Jura (0.8 mm/yr); and (4) a relative subsidence of the Bresse Basin with respect to the external Jura. Comparing the spatial distribution of zones of uplift and their respective vertical displacement rates with a regional structural cross section leads to the conclusion that present‐day uplift of the Belledonne and Bornes Massifs and of the internal parts of the Jura Mountains, can be explained by crustal shortening along a major basement‐involving thrust fault. This fault ramps up under the Bornes Massif from a depth of 12 km to 7 km, turns into a flat under the Molasse Basin, ramps up to the top of the basement at the north‐eastern margin of the internal Jura Mountains, and reaches the surface in the external Jura. The Salève ramp‐anticline is carried by a bifurcation of this thrust. Horizontal displacement rates of 6 mm/yr at the Bornes ramp, 2 mm/yr at the Salève ramp, and 4 mm/yr at the internal Jura ramp have been determined by inversion of profiles of uplift rates. Whether this basement‐involving thrust fault was already active during the Miocene main folding phase of the Jura Mountains or whether it was activated only during Pliocene‐Pleistocene times is subject to debate.