Tectonostratigraphy of the North Alpine Foreland Basin: correlation of Tertiary depositional cycles and orogenic phases

Abstract

Tectonostratigraphic analysis of the depositional history of the North Alpine Foreland Basin indicates that temporal relationships exist between short-term events in the foredeep and the adjacent Alpine orogen. The foredeep can be divided stratigraphically into an Alpine Foredeep (Thanetian-Bartonian), ‘Pre-Molasse’ Basin (latest Bartonian-earliest Rupelian) and Molasse Basin (Rupelian-Tortonian). Their general and tectonostratigraphic development includes time-significant cycle sets and so-called Cenozoic rift and foredeep (CRF) sequences which are apparently correlative to both foreland and orogen deformation events, as well as to changes in global sea-level. Individual basin-fill sequences and, consequently, general stratigraphic and palaeogeographical aspects of the evolving basin system are thus found to be frequently defined by contemporaneous widely distributed tectonics and eustasy. Successive dominant depositional states (underfilled, steady-state and overfilled episodes) and facies (flysch, Molasse) are correlated with different, concurrently progressing phases of the convergence and subduction history of the European and Apulian plates.