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- Title
Continuity and Episodicity in the Early Alpine Tectonic Evolution of the Western Carpathians: How Large‐Scale Processes Are Expressed by the Orogenic Architecture and Rock Record Data.
- Authors
Plašienka, Dušan
- Abstract
Abstract: The early Alpine tectonic evolution of the Western Carpathian orogenic system is differentiated into four main periods: (i) Middle‐Late Triassic rifting and spreading of the Meliata Ocean, but its relationships to the Tethyan realm remain uncertain; (ii) Jurassic subduction of the Meliata oceanic lithosphere and coeval rifting of the Carpathian lower plate and oceanic breakup and spreading of the Atlantic‐related Piemont‐Váh Ocean, as well as short‐term back‐arc rifting of the Adriatic upper plate; (iii) Early Cretaceous slow and continuous but intermittent growth of the asymmetric, doubly vergent orogenic wedge still driven by the Meliata slab, concurrently with expansion of the outer Pennine oceanic zones; and (iv) Late Cretaceous to Middle Eocene northward drift of the Adriatic microplate with Austroalpine domains appended at its front that eliminated the external oceanic zones with intervening continental ribbons and sequentially accreted the Carpathian Penninic units. While dynamics of the periods (i) and (iv) was governed by the large‐scale plate motions, periods (ii) and (iii) are interpreted as driven by the self‐generated forces exerted by the subduction pull of oceanic and lower continental lithosphere. Tectonic evolution of particularly the latter two periods is documented in detail by rich structural, sedimentary, metamorphic, and magmatic rock records. It is inferred that periods of accelerating activity of the orogenic wedge progradation, distinguished as the regional tectonic phases, resulted from interactions between buildup of tectonic stresses and their structural realization dependent on the rheological properties of crustal rocks.
- Publication
Tectonics, 2018, Vol 37, Issue 7, p2029
- ISSN
0278-7407
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2017TC004779