Inversion tectonics in the Central European Basin and on its southern border: An approach integrating structural geology, sedimentology, and thermochronology

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Late Paleozoic to Mesozoic Central European Basin System became, in part, inverted during Late Cretaceous to Tertiary time. These compressional-transpressional intraplate stresses led to reactivation of older Variscan and/or post-Variscan NW-SE to WNW-ESE striking fault systems, producing a few major basement uplifts (e.g., Harz, Flechtingen High) and the inversion of numerous extensional faults and associated sedimentary basins. Although fundamental to the understanding of the geodynamic evolution, detailed information on timing and deformation magnitudes is lacking in many areas. The essential goals of this project are to derive ¿ along two transects ¿ quantitative estimates of the regional shortening strain and the tightest possible timing constraints for the inversion and exhumation. Methodically, we will focus on (i) thermochronology and organic maturation to date and quantify the magnitudes of burial and exhumation, (ii) kinematic restoration to constrain the geometric evolution of structures and strain magnitudes, and (iii) sediment petrography and provenance analysis of biostratigraphically and sedimentologically well-defined syntectonic sediments to identify changing source areas through time. The project aims at closing a length- and time-scale gap between the basin-wide modelling studies and detailed studies of individual structures that have been done and are currently running in the framework of SPP 1135.