Articles | Volume 12, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-885-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-885-2021
Research article
 | 
21 Apr 2021
Research article |  | 21 Apr 2021

Kinematics and extent of the Piemont–Liguria Basin – implications for subduction processes in the Alps

Eline Le Breton, Sascha Brune, Kamil Ustaszewski, Sabin Zahirovic, Maria Seton, and R. Dietmar Müller

Data sets

A Global Plate Model Including Lithospheric Deformation Along Major Rifts and Orogens Since the Triassic R. D. Müller, S. Zahirovic, S. E. Williams, J. Cannon, M. Seton, D. J. Bower, M. G. Tetley, C. Heine, E. Le Breton, S. Liu, S. H. J. Russel, T. Yang, J. Leonard, and M. Gurnis https://www.earthbyte.org/webdav/ftp/ Data_Collections/Muller_etal_2019_Tectonics/

Download
Short summary
The former Piemont–Liguria Ocean, which separated Europe from Africa–Adria in the Jurassic, opened as an arm of the central Atlantic. Using plate reconstructions and geodynamic modeling, we show that the ocean reached only 250 km width between Europe and Adria. Moreover, at least 65 % of the lithosphere subducted into the mantle and/or incorporated into the Alps during convergence in Cretaceous and Cenozoic times comprised highly thinned continental crust, while only 35 % was truly oceanic.