Two main Sedimentary cycles and two different rift system during the Pangea break-up in the Alps

Leonsevero Passeri (a)
(a) Strada Bardoney, 10. 11021 Breuil-Cervinia (AO), Italy. Corresponding email: leonsevero.passeri@gmail.com

Two main sedimentary cycles are recognized in the Alps during the Pangea Break-up. 1) The first one began in the Early Permian with an intense magmatic activity (oldest radiometric age around 280 Ma) and ended in the Carnian not for an orogenesis, but solely because extension and subsidence stopped. This sedimentary cycle reflects the evolution of the northern branch of the Tethys. 2) The second cycle was connected to the oceanic rifting that split Adria from Europe, generating the Alpine or Ligurian – Piedmont Ocean. This rifting began in the Norian together with the opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean that, around the Triassic/Jurassic boundary, was affected by an intense magmatic activity (CAMP 200 Ma).

Alps, Alpine Ocean, Apennines, Paleogeography, Tethys branches.