Paleogene and Neogene kinematics of the Alpine-Carpathian fold-thrust belt at the Alpine-Carpathian transition

doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2016.09.002

Tectonophysics

Volume 690, Part B, 28 October 2016, Pages 263-287

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2016.09.002 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Kinematic data and interpretations are in line with data from the Eastern Alps.
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A three-stage model for Paleogene to Neogene tectonics is proposed.
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The Pieniny Klippen Belt does not appear to be affected by crustal-scale wrenching.
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Vertical-axis rotation questioned by consistence of data between Alps and Carpathians.

Abstract

In this study we analyze a ~ 300 km long segment of the Alpine-Carpathian orogen using novel outcrop data and regional seismic profiles from the West Carpathians to unravel the kinematics and timing of Eocene to Late Miocene deformation of the fold-thrust belt. Comparison with data from the Eastern Alps and the Vienna Basin leads to an updated tectonic model for the Paleogene and Neogene of the Alpine-Carpathian transition, which includes three stages:

(1) Eocene to Early Oligocene NNW-directed foreland-propagating thrusting. Thrusts are directed perpendicular to the strike of the European foreland in the Outer West Carpathians (OWC) and sub-parallel to thrusts observed in the Eastern Alps west of the Vienna Basin.

(2) Continued Late Oligocene to Early Miocene NNW-directed foreland-propagating thrusting simultaneous with sinistral strike-slip reactivation of former nappe boundaries in the hinterland of the active thrusts. This deformation corresponds to the early stage of eastward lateral extrusion of the Eastern Alps. The ENE-striking sinistral faults in the OWC are kinematic equivalents of the SEMP fault system in the Eastern Alps, which was active at the same time. The latest stage of thrusting is characterized by SSE-directed out-of-sequence thrusts in the hinterland of the OWC and the reactivation of Variscan basement thrusts in the European foreland as SSE-directed backthrusts.

(3) Formation of (N)NE-striking sinistral strike-slip faults which are kinematically linked to (N)NE-directed out-of-sequence thrusts post-dating NNW-directed thrusting. The sinistral faults formed coeval with the opening of the Vienna pull-apart basin during the Middle to Late Miocene stage of lateral extrusion.

Unlike proposed in previous studies the West Carpathians do not appear to be affected by Oligocene to Early Miocene crustal-scale wrenching of the Pieniny Klippen Belt. Our data show that the deformation of the PKB is in line with the Eocene to Late Miocene tectonic evolution reconstructed for the OWC.

Introduction

In this study we assess the Eocene to Late Miocene deformation at the front of the upper colliding plate of the Alpine-Carpathian orogen at the Alpine-Carpathian transition, which experienced complex deformation during post-collisional thrust shortening (Jiřiček, 1979, Decker and Peresson, 1996, Meulenkamp et al., 1996, Wessely, 2006) and the lateral extrusion of crustal wedges from the Eastern Alps towards the West Carpathian-Pannonian area (e.g., Ratschbacher et al., 1991b; Fig. 1). Starting with the interpretation of novel outcrop data and integrating with regional 2D seismic from the West Carpathians we arrive at a comprehensive kinematic description of the external West Carpathian fold-thrust belt that leads us to an updated model for the Paleogene and Neogene tectonic evolution of this peculiar ~ 300 km long segment of the Alpine-Carpathian orogen.

Eocene to Miocene shortening at this part of the orogen resulted in the accretion of the Rhenodanubic and Outer Carpathian Flysch units (Decker and Peresson, 1996, Nemčok et al., 1998, Oszczypko, 2006, Picha et al., 2006), thrusting of the sedimentary successions of the Waschberg-Zdanice unit, which were detached from the European foreland (Beidinger and Decker, 2014), and thrusting of parts of the foreland basin (Jiřiček, 1979, Meulenkamp et al., 1996, Zámolyi et al., 2008). During the Oligocene and Miocene folding and thrusting occurred contemporaneously with the lateral extrusion of strike-slip fault bounded crustal wedges extruding from the central Eastern Alps (e.g., Ratschbacher et al., 1991b).

The time overlap of both processes led to a highly complex structural evolution analyzed in numerous previous studies, which focused either on the Outer West Carpathian flysch units (OWC, Jiřiček, 1979, Nemčok et al., 1998, Oszczypko, 2006), or the adjacent Pieniny Klippen Belt to the SE (PKB, Birkenmajer, 1986, Nemčok and Nemčok, 1994, Kováč and Hók, 1996, Plašienka and Jurewicz, 2006, Bučova et al., 2010, Plašienka, 2011). These studies resulted in a variety of different concepts to explain Paleogene and Neogene deformation. All of these interpretations consider the PKB as an exceptional tectonic unit with a structural evolution, which is considered to be fundamentally distinct from the adjacent units (e.g., Birkenmajer, 1986, Plašienka and Jurewicz, 2006). Due to this exceptional position the PKB is further considered to play a key role in the tectonic development of the fold-thrust belt (Birkenmajer, 1986; see discussion below).

Nemčok et al. (1998) considered NNW-directed thrusting and concurrent sinistral strike-slip faulting to result from strain partitioning during oblique NE-directed convergence. Their interpretation is mainly based on kinematic data from the Biele Karpaty nappe (Fig. 2). From a comprehensive dataset from the Vienna Basin margins, Fodor (1995) described changes in Oligocene to Early Miocene shortening directions, which were interpreted as the results of counterclockwise block rotations. He further related sinistral strike-slip faults in the OWC to the Middle Miocene opening of the Vienna Basin. Decker et al. (1997) suggested that these faults link up with NE-directed out-of-sequence thrusts in the Polish OWC further east. Such a linkage of Miocene thrusting in the eastern OWC to extension in the Eastern Alps was further proposed by a quantitative restoration by Behrmann et al. (2000). Csontos et al. (1991) explained the Miocene evolution of the Pannonian area by a combination of complex block rotations and stress changes. From a study in North Hungary, Márton and Fodor (1995) further concluded that Miocene stress field changes in the North Pannonian unit are minor when compared to Miocene block rotations and only occur in the Middle to Late Miocene. A distinct rotation model was proposed by Márton et al., 2009, Márton et al., 2013 who explain changing paleo-stresses directions as the exclusive results of Late Miocene (“post-fold-and-thrust”) block rotation of the West Carpathians.

The PKB was interpreted as a crustal-scale wrench fault and/or flower structure with either sinistral (Birkenmajer, 1986, Kováč and Hók, 1996) or dextral shear sense (Ratschbacher et al., 1993, Nemčok and Nemčok, 1994, Plašienka and Jurewicz, 2006, Froitzheim et al., 2008, Bučova et al., 2010, Plašienka, 2011). In both cases, authors claimed a deformation history of the PKB, which is fundamentally different from both, the adjacent OWC and Central West Carpathians (CWC). However, Plašienka and Jurewicz (2006) and Bučova et al. (2010) linked NE-striking sinistral faults in the PKB with extrusion tectonics.

In the light of the many different views and controversial interpretations it appeared promising to conduct a structural analysis covering both, the OWC and the PKB and to analyze their structural relationships in order to derive a comprehensive dataset describing the Paleogene to Neogene kinematics of the Alpine-Carpathian thrust belt. A particular focus was set to the contact between the OWC and the PKB to resolve the tectonic nature of the PKB which is considered as a crustal-scale shear zone or flower structure by some authors (Ratschbacher et al., 1993, Bučova et al., 2010, Plašienka, 2011). We consequently present a novel set of structural data, which tightly constrains the kinematics and timing of both, thrusting and wrench faulting between the Eocene and the Late Miocene. Deformations are well dated by the identification of Eocene and Oligocene structures that formed prior, during and after nappe decollement and large-scale fold-thrusting, and by correlating Oligocene to Miocene faults to the Eastern Alps and the Vienna Basin where the Miocene deformation sequence is excellently dated by syn- and post-tectonic sediments (Zámolyi et al., 2008, Hölzel et al., 2010).

Based on these data we provide a comprehensive kinematic analysis of the OWC and the PKB. Outcrop data are supplemented by a regional, previously unpublished dataset consisting of a grid of 2D seismic reflection profiles covering the OWC (data by courtesy of the Czech Geological Survey-Geofond, Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic). Seismic images the large-scale architecture of the fold-thrust belt and provides insight into the subsurface geometries of the OWC.

Section snippets

Geological framework

The West Carpathians form a northward convex arc extending from the Alpine-Carpathian transition towards the NE, which is subdivided by the PKB into the Central West Carpathians (CWC) and the OWC (Fig. 1). Their tectonic evolution is characterized by distinct orogenic stages during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic times (Birkenmajer, 1986, Plašienka et al., 1997). While the CWC south of the PKB experienced Cretaceous folding and thrusting (e.g., Plašienka, 1998), no such deformation is evident in

Seismic data

Seismic data and data from deep hydrocarbon exploration wells is provided by the Czech Geological Survey-Geofond (Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic). A grid of 53 seismic profiles covering an area of some 1700 km² and including both, dip- and strike lines is available in the time domain (Fig. 4). The sections were recorded between 1973 and 1994 with recording times mostly between 5 and 6 seconds TWT. Analogue data is available in both, the pre-migrated and post-migrated state.

Seismic data from the OWC flysch units

The results of seismic interpretation are shown in horizon surface maps (Fig. 4) and a ~ 50 km long composite seismic profile crossing the Molasse foredeep, the Silesian-, Foremagura-, and Rača units (Section 1) as well as Rača and Bystrica unit further south (Section 2) perpendicular to the regional strike (Fig. 5, Fig. 6). The selected profile provides best information on the architecture of the nappe pile of the OWC.

Structures of the European basement include thick-skinned thrust sheets with

Kinematic data from the OWC flysch units

Kinematic analyses of 38 outcrops in the OWC (Fig. 2; Table 1) define four different deformation events, which partly overlap in time and are referred to as D_F1, D_F2, D_F3, and D_F4.

Kinematic data from the PKB

Structures recorded from the PKB prove a polyphase deformation history, which appears more complex than the deformation sequence observed in the OWC. Multiple folding, tilting and refolding of ramp-flat structures as well as the overturning of strata and the partial dismembering of units causes severe problems for structural interpretations as the observed present-day orientation of key structures are not necessarily identical with the orientations during their formation. These circumstances

NNW-directed thrusting of the OWC and PKB

NNW-directed shortening and NNW-directed thrusting is observed in outcrops of all tectonic units between the Silesian- and Biele Karpaty superunit (Fig. 16a). Thrust ages are constrained by the ages of the youngest overthrust sediments of the individual tectonic units proving that thrusting occurred in a foreland-propagating sequence between the Early Eocene and the late Early Miocene or early Middle Miocene (see Fig. 3; Jiřiček, 1979, Zytko et al., 1989, Meulenkamp et al., 1996, Nemčok et al.,

Conclusions

Structural analyses in the OWC prove four Paleogene and Neogene deformations (D_F1 to D_F4), which all but one are clearly correlated into the adjacent PKB and the Eastern Alps. Due to the complexity of heteroaxial deformation in the PKB, the correlation of structures and deformations between the two tectonic units exclusively relies on kinematic compatibility and the relative ages of the deformations obtained from cross-cutting relations observed in the field.

NNW-directed shortening,

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the Czech Geological Survey (Vladimír Kolejka and Eva Hudečková) and the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic (Martin Holý and Jaroslav Česnek) for providing seismic and well data, and Michal Potfaj for consultancy on the stratigraphy of the flysch units. We are indebted to Christoph Eichkitz who helped us referencing and loading seismic data. Many thanks to Andras Zámolyi, Eun Young Lee, Maria Hoprich and Michael Praschak for discussions and support

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Citation Excerpt :
Late Miocene NNE-directed thrusting in the westernmost part of the Western Carpathians has been described (Beidinger and Decker, 2014; Fig. 8). Beidinger and Decker (2016) suggested nearly no Late Miocene-Quaternary shortening at the eastern termination of the Northern Calcareous Alps. In another study, Beidinger and Decker (2011) found evidence of a Quaternary sinistral strike-slip dominated structure within the Vienna Basin (Fig. 8) implying some N-S shortening.
Within-plate migration of alkaline basaltic centers is generally related to translation of the lithosphere with a hot spot above a largely stationary mantle plume. Here, we report, for the first time, a hitherto unrecognized migration of small-sized Late Miocene to Early Quaternary alkali-basaltic volcanic centers at the transition from Eastern Alps to Pannonian Basin. The volcanic centers migrated along the South Burgenland High in a regular sequence over a 95 km distance from NNE to SSW between 11 Ma and 1.7 Ma. The basaltic magmatism was also associated with thinning of the crust and lithosphere and an increase of the thermal gradient. In detail, three stages of migration are recognized as follows: (i) Stage 1 with a 55 km SSW-towards shift of volcanism between 11 and 5 Ma; (ii) Stage 2 with a ~ 35 km-WSW shift and enlargement of the distribution of volcanic centers between ca. 5 and 3.5 Ma; and (iii) Stage 3 with a S-directed shift of ca. 25 km between 3.5 and 1.7 Ma. The Stage 1 shift of alkali-basaltic volcanism can be also observed in the Little Hungarian Plain and South Slovakia–Nógrád volcanic fields, and the Stage 2 in the Balaton-Bakony of the Pannonian Basin (north of Lake Balaton). We propose that this pattern and mechanism of migration of the volcanic centers along the South Burgenland High resulted from thermally induced progressive thinning of the lithosphere over a mantle plume underneath the ALCAPA block, which was moving from SSW to the NNE between 11 and 1.7 Ma. The migration was interrupted by a marked eastward shift between 5 and 3.5 Ma (Stage 2). The migration of volcanic centers correlates with orientation and timing of regional shortening phases and inversion of the Alpine-Carpathian-Pannonian system although the overall amount of shortening remains uncertain. The deformation events allow to correlate Adria motion with deformation along the frontal parts of Eastern Alps, and Western and Eastern Carpathians across the western Pannonian Basin.

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