Plate interactions at the southern end of the Rhine graben

Laubscher, H. P.

doi:10.1016/s0040-1951(01)00193-7

Cited by 46 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…It probably pre-dated thin-skinned Jura tectonics and was possibly coeval with some sinistral reactivation of NNEtrending normal faults such as the Ferrette normal fault. Interestingly, such a first episode of compressive reactivation of URG-parallel basement faults was postulated by Laubscher (2001) to have occurred in Aquitanian to Burdigalian times in the case of Rheintal flexure located east of our working area. Moreover, on the seismic line portrayed in Fig.…”

Section: Kinematic Framework Of Neotectonic Activity In the Southern Urgmentioning

confidence: 90%

Latest Pliocene to recent thick-skinned tectonics at the Upper Rhine Graben – Jura Mountains junction

2007

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The southernmost Upper Rhine Graben and adjacent Jura experienced basement-rooted shortening that occurred after the deposition of the Pliocene fluvial "Sundgau gravels". Folds affecting the base of these gravels systematically trend NE to ENE. Combined evidence from reflection seismic lines and contour maps of the base-Tertiary and base-Pliocene levels indicates that these folds probably formed by thick-skinned reactivation of both NNE-SSW and WSW-ENE-striking faults. This thick-skinned shortening is NW-SE oriented, i.e. parallel to the maximum horizontal stresses inferred from seismotectonics. NNE-SSW-striking faults (paralleling the Upper Rhine Graben) have been reactivated in sinistral strike-slip mode. However, dextrally transpressive reactivation of the WSW-ENE-trending faults that belong to the Rhine-Bresse Transfer Zone is interpreted to predominate.Deflections of recent river courses around the crests of en-échelon-aligned surface anticlines suggest that the deformation is ongoing at present.Retro-deformation of the folds affecting the base of the Sundgau gravels indicates horizontal displacement rates of about 0.05 mm/a. This corresponds to a minimum strain rate in the order of 2·10 -16 s -1 , given the maximum time span of 2.9 Ma for this deformation, i.e. the biostratigraphically determined minimum age of the gravels. A change from thin-skinned tectonics, that prevailed during the main phase of Jura folding, to very probably still ongoing thick-skinned tectonics is inferred to have occurred in the Late Pliocene. We speculate that this change might be linked to the incipient inversion of Permo-Carboniferous troughs within the Alpine foreland in general. This inversion in dextrally transpressive or purely compressive mode along a WNW-ESE-trending basement fault, that is part of the Rhine-Bresse Transfer Zone, which in turn was prestructured during the formation of the Permo-Carboniferous troughs, could have triggered the 1356 Basel earthquake.

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Section: Kinematic Framework Of Neotectonic Activity In the Southern Urgmentioning

confidence: 90%

Latest Pliocene to recent thick-skinned tectonics at the Upper Rhine Graben – Jura Mountains junction

2007

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“…the axial parts of this shallow depression coincide with the valley-and-ridge province of the Jura Mountains and were controlled by tensional fault systems that extend from the UrG sW-ward (Laubscher 1981(Laubscher , 1998(Laubscher , 2003. In this area, the middle and late Aquitanian corresponds to an erosional hiatus, which has been variably attributed to the development of an Alpine flexural forebulge (Laubscher 1992(Laubscher , 2001 or to the build-up of intraplate compressional stresses causing transpressional reactivation of pre-existing basement disconti-nuities (Laubscher 2003;Ziegler & Dèzes 2007). In response to these deformations, the conglomeratic "older Jura Nagelfluh" (upper Aquitanian?)…”

Section: Oligocene To Early Miocene Rhine Graben Stage Of the Jura Domentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the conglomeratic fans of the Jura Nagelfluh and bois de raube formations were apparently channelled by fault systems that extended southward from the rhine Graben into the area of the future Jura Mountains, such as the Wehratal-Zeiningen fault, the rhine Valley Flexure and the Allschwil, Ferrette-caquerelle, Illfurth and belfort faults (Figs. 2 & 4;Liniger 1966;Kälin 1997;Laubscher 2001;Kemna & becker-Haumann 2003). similarly, the "younger Jura Nagelfluh" fans of the Hegau were apparently channelled by reactivated basement faults of the Hegau-bodensee Graben (schreiner 1965;Hofmann 1996;Müller et al 2002).…”

Section: Late Burdigalian Uplift Of the Vosges-black Forest Archmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the Jura Nagelfluh and its equivalents are clearly involved in the structures of the Eastern JFtb (Liniger 1966;Laubscher 1998Laubscher , 2001Diebold et al 2006), and as there is no evidence for their syn-depositional deformation (Kälin 1997), it is unlikely that the main parts of the JFtb were activated before the middle tortonian (10-9 Ma). Nevertheless, in the southernmost parts of the JFtb, which branch off from the subalpine chains near chambéry, thrusting had commenced already during the burdigalian (Deville et al 1994).…”

Section: Late Miocene To Early Pliocene Folding Phase Of the Jura Moumentioning

confidence: 99%

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Response of drainage systems to Neogene evolution of the Jura fold-thrust belt and Upper Rhine Graben

Ziegler

Fraefel

2009

Swiss J. Geosci.

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the eastern Jura Mountains consist of the Jura fold-thrust belt and the autochthonous tabular Jura and Vesoul-Montbéliard Plateau. they are drained by the river rhine, which flows into the North sea, and the river Doubs, which flows into the Mediterranean. the internal drainage systems of the Jura fold-thrust belt consist of rivers flowing in synclinal valleys that are linked by river segments cutting orthogonally through anticlines. the latter appear to employ parts of the antecedent Jura Nagelfluh drainage system that had developed in response to Late burdigalian uplift of the Vosgesback Forest Arch, prior to Late Miocene-Pliocene deformation of the Jura fold-thrust belt.the following stages are recognized in the evolution of the Jura Mountain drainage systems: 1) middle to late tortonian (10-7.2 Ma) folding-related overpowering and partial reversal of the south-directed Jura Nagelfluh drainage system, 2) Messinian to early Pliocene (7.2-4.2 Ma) Aare-Danube and protoDoubs stage, 3) early to middle Pliocene (4.2-2.9 Ma) Aare-Doubs stage, 4) late Pliocene to early Quaternary (2.9-1.7 Ma) Aare-rhine and Doubs stage and 5) Quaternary (1.7-0 Ma) Alpine-rhine and Doubs stage.Development of the thin-skinned Jura fold-thrust belt controlled the first three stages of this drainage system evolution, whilst the last two stages were essentially governed by the subsidence of the Upper rhine Graben, which resumed during the late Pliocene. Late Pliocene and Quaternary deep incision of the Aare-rhine/Alpine-rhine and its tributaries in the Jura Mountains and black Forest is mainly attributed to lowering of the erosional base level in the continuously subsiding Upper rhine Graben. Incision of the Doubs and Dessoubre canyons reflects uplift of the Franches-Montagnes and Franche-comté in response to thick-skinned deformation of the Jura fold-thrust belt, which had commenced around 3 Ma.Geodetic data indicate that uplift of the Jura Mountains, relative to the tabular Jura, presently continues at very low strain rates whilst the Upper rhine Graben subsides very slowly and the black Forest is relatively stable. Introductionthe Jura fold-thrust belt (JFtb), forming the core of the Jura Mountains, is the youngest and most external element of the central Alpine orogenic system. It has accounted for up to 30 km of essentially thin-skinned shortening since late Miocene times (Laubscher 1961(Laubscher , 1992Philippe et al. 1996;Affolter & Gratier 2004) and is still seismotectonically active (becker 2000;Lacombe & Mouthereau 2002;Edel et al. 2006). the JFtb is flanked to the sE by the flexural swiss Molasse foreland basin of the Alps whilst its most external elements encroach on the bresse and Upper rhine grabens ( Fig. 1; chauve et al. 1980;Dèzes et al. 2004).Evolution of the JFtb combined with the development of the Upper rhine Graben (UrG) and the bresse Graben, exerted strong control on the location of the repeatedly shifting watersheds between the rivers Danube, Doubs and rhine, which flow into the black sea, the Mediterran...

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“…[19] Between points 3 and 4 the position of the décolle-ment surface is subjected to the model constraint that it follows a regional dip of approximately 2.5°. Although regional dip in the eastern Jura varies somewhat because of irregularities in the basement deformation due to older phases of the Alpine orogeny [e.g., Noack, 1995;Laubscher, 2001a], these irregularities are small and, within the Jura, not clearly defined even on seismic sections [cf. Diebold et al, 1991] (for the central Jura see Sommaruga [1999]).…”

Section: Observational and Model Constraints In Balancing A Jura Sectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Balanced sections and the propagation of décollement: A Jura perspective

Laubscher

2003

Tectonics

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[1] The propagation of thrusting is an important problem in tectonics that is usually approached by forward (kinematical) modeling of balanced sections. Although modeling techniques are similar in most foreland fold-thrust belts, it turns out that in the Jura, there are modeling problems that require modifications of widely used techniques. In particular, attention is called to the role of model constraints that complement the set of observational constraints in order to fully define the model. In the eastern Jura, such model constraints may be inferred from the regional geology, which shows a peculiar noncoaxial relation between thrusts and subsequent folds. This relation implies changes in the direction of translation and the mode of deformation in the course of the propagation of décollement. These changes are conjectured to be the result of a change in partial decoupling between the thin-skinned fold-thrust system (nappe) and the obliquely subducted foreland. As a particularly instructive case in point, a cross section through the Weissenstein range is discussed. A two-step forward (kinematical) model is proposed that uses both local observational constraints as well as model constraints inferred from regional data. As a first step, a fault bend fold is generated in the hanging wall of a thrust of 1500 m shortening. As a second step, this structure is transferred by flexural slip into the actual fold observed at the surface. This requires an additional 1600 m of shortening and leads to folding of the original thrust. Thereafter, the footwall is deformed so as to respect the constraint that this deformation must fit into the space defined by the folded thrust as the upper boundary and the décollement surface as the lower boundary, and that, in addition, should be confined to the area immediately below the fold. In modeling the footwall deformation a mix of balancing methods is used: fault propagation folds for the competent intervals of the stratigraphic column and area balancing for the incompetent ones. Further propagation of décollement into the foreland is made possible by the folding process, which is dominated by a sort of kinking and which is the main contribution to structural elevation and hence to producing a sort of critical taper of the moving thin-skinned wedge.

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Plate interactions at the southern end of the Rhine graben

Cited by 46 publications

References 21 publications

Latest Pliocene to recent thick-skinned tectonics at the Upper Rhine Graben – Jura Mountains junction

Latest Pliocene to recent thick-skinned tectonics at the Upper Rhine Graben – Jura Mountains junction

Response of drainage systems to Neogene evolution of the Jura fold-thrust belt and Upper Rhine Graben

Balanced sections and the propagation of décollement: A Jura perspective

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