Control of inherited structures on deformation and uplift in the European eastern Southern Alps: a multi-scale analogue modelling study

Neogene to ongoing N(W)-directed continental indentation of the Adriatic microplate into Europe controls the evolution of the European eastern Southern Alps (ESA). The Adriatic microplate, traditionally considered as a rigid indenter, demonstrates significant internal deformation, with mostly Miocene shortening being accommodated within a WSW-ENE striking, S-vergent fold-and-thrust belt. The latter overprints a compositionally heterogeneous upper crust linked to Permian intrusives and extrusives and a pre-existing platform-basin geometry related to Jurassic extension.

We present new, multi-scale physical analogue experiments, to address the effect of lateral crustal heterogeneities on strain localization and deformation geometries of the ESA, which is key for establishing causal relations between crustal and lithospheric deformation and surface uplift patterns associated with Miocene basin inversion.

Brittle crustal-scale analogue experiments with inversion of pre-scribed platform-basin geometries, indicate that variations in thickness, shape, and basement structure have impact on timing and uplift of the ESA’s upper crust. Our modelling results demonstrate that experiments with a stronger upper crustal domain (representing Permian volcanic rock on Jurassic platforms) show a smaller number of thrust sheets, being in line with thrust sheet geometries across the natural example of the ESA, and continuous uplift patterns. The latter is supported by continuous exhumation within the last 15 Ma documented by low-temperature thermochronology data between Mauls and Bassano east of the Giudicarie belt (see contribution of Klotz et al., this session). The topographic evolution of the experiments is sensitive to a variation in crustal composition; additional, e.g., basement structures (modelled using a fixed and rigid basal plate whose boundaries represent Permian faults) result in limited uplift of northern model parts, which is consistent with documented little vertical movement of the western ESA north of the Valsugana fault system between Jurassic and Neogene times.

On the scale of the lithosphere, new analogue experiments with pre-scribed platform and basin geometries in the upper crust show similar lateral variations in thrust fault orientation across transfer zones as crustal-scale experiments (Sieberer et al., 2023). Variations in lithospheric strength lead to increasing wavelengths between thrust sheets in models with stronger rheologies, pre-existing heterogeneities in the upper crust to strain localisation at boundaries of strong domains. Additionally, lateral variability of ductile lower crustal thickness predicts stronger uplift in areas of thicker lower crust. A similar relationship has been documented for the northwestern ESA, where Miocene thickening of the lower crust is expected to correlate with higher uplift in the Tauern window (Jozi Najafabadi et al., 2022).

Jozi Najafabadi, A., Haberland, C., Le Breton, E., Handy, M. R., Verwater, V. F., Heit, B., and Weber, M.: Constraints on Crustal Structure in the Vicinity of the Adriatic Indenter (European Alps) From Vp and Vp/Vs Local Earthquake Tomography, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 127, 10.1029/2021jb023160, 2022.

Sieberer, A.-K., Willingshofer, E., Klotz, T., Ortner, H., and Pomella, H.: Inversion of extensional basins parallel and oblique to their boundaries: inferences from analogue models and field observations from the Dolomites Indenter, European eastern Southern Alps, Solid Earth, 14, 647-681, 10.5194/se-14-647-2023, 2023.