Abstract
This work critically reviews the Eocene–Oligocene source-to-sink systems accumulating volcanogenic sequences in the basins around the Alps. Through the years, these volcanogenic sequences have been correlated to the plutonic bodies along the Periadriatic Fault System, the main tectonic lineament running from West to East within the axis of the belt. Starting from the large amounts of data present in literature, for the first time we present an integrated 4D model on the evolution of the sediment pathways that once connected the magmatic sources to the basins. The magmatic systems started to develop during the Eocene in the Alps, supplying detritus to the Adriatic Foredeep. The progradation of volcanogenic sequences in the Northern Alpine Foreland Basin is subsequent and probably was favoured by the migration of the magmatic systems to the North and to the West. At around 30 Ma, the Northern Apennine Foredeep also was fed by large volcanogenic inputs, but the palinspastic reconstruction of the Adriatic Foredeep, together with stratigraphic and petrographic data, allows us to safely exclude the Alps as volcanogenic sources. Beyond the regional case, this review underlines the importance of a solid stratigraphic approach in the reconstruction of the source-to-sink system evolution of any basin.
Highlights
The review presented here offers a first 4D model describing the evolution of the source-to-sink systems in relation to the evolution of the magmatic systems grown within the Alps across the Eo–Oligocene boundary
The progressive northward migration of the magmatic sources activated the accumulation of volcanogenic sequences in the Swiss Northern Alpine Foreland Basin (NAFB)
The acme of the volcanic activity occurred at 32 Ma, when a drainage pattern allowed the transport of the volcanogenic detritus of the Biella and Bergell plutons to the French NAFB, whereas the Provence volcanism, together with putative local sources near the Pelvoux Massif, fed the western part of the NAFB
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Thick volcanogenic deposits in the foreland basins border the belt [5,6,7,8] Within these latter sequences, some authors include the volcanogenic turbidite system of the Val d’Aveto-Petrignacola Formation (APF) in the Northern Apennine Foredeep [9]. This work reviews the large amounts of lithostratigraphic, biostratigraphic, sedimentological, petrographic, petrological, geochronological and tectonic data available from literature on these magmatic products, describing them from the plutonic and subvolcanic bodies, to the volcanic and volcanogenic sequences. It includes new WDS geochemical data on two different volcanogenic formations, one in the Adriatic Foredeep and the other in the Northern Apennine Foredeep. This work strongly highlights how solid stratigraphic constraints are fundamental in the reconstruction of the evolution of any source-to-sink system
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