Stress fields in the European platform at the time of Africa‐Eurasia collision

Abstract

An analysis of Cenozoic brittle deformation in the European platform has been carried out between the Bohemian Massif to the east and the Western Mediterranean Sea to the west. A succession of four main paleostress fields has been defined: (1) N‐;S compression of late Eocene age. This event induced the formation of the “German‐Czech triangle,” bounded on the east by the NW‐SE dextral strike‐slip faults of Pfahl and Franconia and on the west by the NNE‐SSW sinistral strike‐slip faults along the axis of the future west European Rift, (2) E‐W Oligocene extension that opened the west European Rift. (3) NE‐SW compression, early Miocene in age, that reactivated the Pfahl fault line (as a reverse fault) and the main faults of the Rhinegraben (as dextral strike‐slip faults). (4) Finally, since the end of the Miocene, a fan‐shaped distribution of directions of compression has developed at the periphery of the Alpine arc. However, farther from the Alpine chain, a more consistent direction of compression has dominated (first NW‐SE, then NNW‐SSE). A comparison with plate tectonic data demonstrates that this succession of tectonic events is compatible with the reconstruction of relative movements between Africa and Eurasia during the Cenozoic collision. However, some local stress patterns, close to the Alps, are clearly related to the local evolution of the Alpine arc.