caa a22 4500 60614899X CHVBK 20210128100532.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150101xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00531-014-1060-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00531-014-1060-3 Reconstructing the Alps-Carpathians-Dinarides as a key to understanding switches in subduction polarity, slab gaps and surface motion [Elektronische Daten] [Mark Handy, Kamil Ustaszewski, Eduard Kissling] Palinspastic map reconstructions and plate motion studies reveal that switches in subduction polarity and the opening of slab gaps beneath the Alps and Dinarides were triggered by slab tearing and involved widespread intracrustal and crust-mantle decoupling during Adria-Europe collision. In particular, the switch from south-directed European subduction to north-directed "wrong-way” Adriatic subduction beneath the Eastern Alps was preconditioned by two slab-tearing events that were continuous in Cenozoic time: (1) late Eocene to early Oligocene rupturing of the oppositely dipping European and Adriatic slabs; these ruptures nucleated along a trench-trench transfer fault connecting the Alps and Dinarides; (2) Oligocene to Miocene steepening and tearing of the remaining European slab under the Eastern Alps and western Carpathians, while subduction of European lithosphere continued beneath the Western and Central Alps. Following the first event, post-late Eocene NW motion of the Adriatic Plate with respect to Europe opened a gap along the Alps-Dinarides transfer fault which was filled with upwelling asthenosphere. The resulting thermal erosion of the lithosphere led to the present slab gap beneath the northern Dinarides. This upwelling also weakened the upper plate of the easternmost part of the Alpine orogen and induced widespread crust-mantle decoupling, thus facilitating Pannonian extension and roll-back subduction of the Carpathian oceanic embayment. The second slab-tearing event triggered uplift and peneplainization in the Eastern Alps while opening a second slab gap, still present between the Eastern and Central Alps, that was partly filled by northward counterclockwise subduction of previously unsubducted Adriatic continental lithosphere. In Miocene time, Adriatic subduction thus jumped westward from the Dinarides into the heart of the Alpine orogen, where northward indentation and wedging of Adriatic crust led to rapid exhumation and orogen-parallel escape of decoupled Eastern Alpine crust toward the Pannonian Basin. The plate reconstructions presented here suggest that Miocene subduction and indentation of Adriatic lithosphere in the Eastern Alps were driven primarily by the northward push of the African Plate and possibly enhanced by neutral buoyancy of the slab itself, which included dense lower crust of the Adriatic continental margin. The Author(s), 2014 Alps nationallicence Carpathians nationallicence Dinarides nationallicence Adria nationallicence Subduction polarity switch nationallicence Slab tearing nationallicence Slab gaps nationallicence Crust-mantle decoupling nationallicence Surface uplift nationallicence Handy Mark Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany aut Ustaszewski Kamil Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena, Jena, Germany aut Kissling Eduard Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich, Switzerland aut International Journal of Earth Sciences Springer Berlin Heidelberg 104/1(2015-01-01), 1-26 1437-3254 104:1<1 2015 104 531 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-014-1060-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 review-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-014-1060-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Handy Mark Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Ustaszewski Kamil Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena, Jena, Germany aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Kissling Eduard Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich, Switzerland aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- International Journal of Earth Sciences Springer Berlin Heidelberg 104/1(2015-01-01), 1-26 1437-3254 104:1<1 2015 104 531