2003/09/01 by Giorgio Vittorio Dal Piaz, Giorgio V. Dal Piaz, Andrea Bistacchi +1 · 197 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Earth science #Geography #Geological Modeling and Analysis #Geology #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Landslides and related hazards #Physical geography
paper · pdf · doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2003/v26i3/004
published in Episodes 26(3), 175-180 (International Union of Geological Sciences)
crossref issued 2003/09/01 · crossref published 2003/09/01 · crossref published-print 2003/09/01 · openalex publication_date 2003/09/01 · crossref created 2019/09/18 · crossref deposited 2019/09/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/08/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
The Alps were developed from the Cretaceous onwards by subduction of a Mesozoic ocean and collision between the Adriatic (Austroalpine-Southalpine) and European (Penninic-Helvetic) continental margins. The Austroalpine-Penninic wedge is the core of the collisional belt, a fossil subduction complex which floats on the European lower plate. It consists of continental and minor oceanic nappes and is marked by a blueschist-to-eclogite-facies imprint of Cretaceous-Eocene age, followed by a Barrovian overprint. The collisional wedge was later accreted by the Helvetic basement and cover units and indented by the Southalpine lithosphere, which in turn was deformed as an antithetic fold-and-thrust belt.