The transition from passive to active margin tectonics: a case study from the zone of Samedan (eastern Switzerland) |
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| Authors: | M R Handy |
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| Institution: | 1. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Justus-Liebig-Universit?t, Senckenbergstr. 3, D-35390, Giessen, Germany
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| Abstract: | The Zone of Samedan is part of a fossil, early Mesozoic rift system originally situated in the distal, Lower Austro-Alpine
domain of the Adriatic passive continental margin. An early Mesozoic configuration of asymmetrical rift basins bounded by
relative structural highs compartmentalized Late Cretaceous active margin tectonics; Jurassic half-grabens were folded into
arcuate synclines, whereas relative structural highs engendered thin, imbricated thrust sheets. West-directed thrusting and
folding initiated at the surface and continued to depths favoring mylonitization under lower greenschist-facies conditions.
At this time Liguria-Piemontese ophiolites were accreted to Lower Austro-Alpine units directly underlying the Zone of Samedan.
Late Cretaceous orogenic collapse of the Adriatic active margin involved the reactivation of west-directed thrusts as low-angle,
top-to-the-east, normal faults. These faults accommodated extensional uplift of Liguria-Piemontese ophiolites and Lower Austro-Alpine
units beneath and within the Zone of Samedan. During Paleogene collision, some Late Cretaceous faults in the Zone of Samedan
were reactivated under lower anchizonal conditions as north-directed thrusts. The latter stages of this early Tertiary thickening
were transitional to brittle, high-angle normal faulting associated with top-to-the-east extension and spreading above the
warm, uplifting Lepontine dome. |
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| Keywords: | Rifting Basin inversion Active margin Passive margin Austro-Alpine Alpine tectonics Tethys |
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