Southern Alps (geology)
Encyclopedia : S : SO : SOU : Southern Alps (geology)
| Geology of the Alps |
|---|
|
| Tectonic subdivision |
| Helvetic nappes |
| Penninic nappes |
| Austroalpine nappes |
| Southern Alps |
| Formations & rocks |
| Bündner slate | flysch | molasse |
| Geological structures |
| Aarmassif | Dent Blanche klippe | Engadine window | Flysch zone | Giudicárie line | Greywacke zone | Hohe Tauern window | Molasse basin | Penninic thrustfront | Periadriatic Seam | Ivrea zone | Lepontin dome | Rechnitz window | Rhône-Simplon line | Sesia unit |
| Paleogeografic terminology |
| Valais Ocean |
| Briançonnais microcontinent |
| Piemont-Liguria Ocean |
| Apulian or Adriatic plate |
- This article is about the geology of the (European) Alps. For the main article see: geology of the Alps
The rocks of the Southern Alps gradually go over in the Dinarides or Dinaric Alps to the southeast. In the southwest they disappear below recent sediments of the Po basin that are laying discordant on top of them.
Lithology
The Southern Alps are composed of material from the Adriatic or Apulian tectonic plate, the area is a part of this plate. These are mainly Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, most of them limestones.Tectonics
In contradiction to the Central Eastern Alps north of the Periadriatic Seam, the geology of the Southern Alps is not characterized by nappes. Neither are high grade metamorphic rocks common in the region. The Southern Alps are tectonically characterized by large scale thrusting and folding to the south, the dominant vergence (direction of fold asymmetry) in the region is southward. As is also the case in the southern foreland of the Pyrenees, thrusts in the Southern Alps are oriented along listric fault planes with relatively shallow decollement horizons.To the west, south of the Valle d'Aosta, the Southern Alps form a huge monocline, up until the point that mantle material of the Apulian plate crops out in what is called the Ivrea zone.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.