scholarly journals Density distribution across the Alpine lithosphere constrained by 3-D gravity modelling and relation to seismicity and deformation

Solid Earth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 2073-2088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Spooner ◽  
Magdalena Scheck-Wenderoth ◽  
Hans-Jürgen Götze ◽  
Jörg Ebbing ◽  
György Hetényi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Density Distribution ◽  
Gravity Field ◽  
Southern Alps ◽  
Density Model ◽  
Gravity Modelling ◽  
Tauern Window ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Crustal Heterogeneity

Abstract. The Alpine orogen formed as a result of the collision between the Adriatic and European plates. Significant crustal heterogeneity exists within the region due to the long history of interplay between these plates, other continental and oceanic blocks in the region, and inherited crustal features from earlier orogenies. Deformation relating to the collision continues to the present day. Here, a seismically constrained, 3-D structural and density model of the lithosphere of the Alps and their respective forelands, derived from integrating numerous geoscientific datasets, was adjusted to match the observed gravity field. It is shown that the distribution of seismicity and deformation within the region correlates well to thickness and density changes within the crust, and that the present-day Adriatic crust is both thinner and denser (22.5 km, 2800 kg m−3) than the European crust (27.5 km, 2750 kg m−3). Alpine crust derived from each respective plate is found to show the same trend, with zones of Adriatic provenance (Austro-Alpine unit and Southern Alps) found to be denser and those of European provenance (Helvetic zone and Tauern Window) to be less dense. This suggests that the respective plates and related terranes had similar crustal properties to the present-day ones prior to orogenesis. The model generated here is available for open-access use to further discussions about the crust in the region.

scholarly journals Density distribution across the Alpine lithosphere constrained by 3D gravity modelling and relation to seismicity and deformation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Spooner ◽  
Magdalena Scheck-Wenderoth ◽  
Hans-Jürgen Götze ◽  
Jörg Ebbing ◽  
György Hetényi
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Density Distribution ◽  
Gravity Field ◽  
Southern Alps ◽  
Density Model ◽  
Gravity Modelling ◽  
Tauern Window ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps ◽  
3D Gravity

Abstract. The Alpine Orogen formed as a result of the collision between the Adriatic and European plates. Significant crustal heterogeneity exists within the region due to the long history of interplay between these plates, other continental and oceanic blocks in the region, and inherited crustal features from earlier orogenys. Deformation relating to the collision continues to the present day. Here, a seismically constrained, 3D, structural and density model of the lithosphere of the Alps and their respective forelands, derived from integrating numerous geoscientific datasets, was adjusted to match the observed gravity field. It is shown that the distribution of seismicity and deformation within the region correlates strongly to thickness and density changes within the crust, and that the present day Adriatic crust is both thinner and denser (22.5 km, 2800 kg/m3) than the European crust (27.5 km, 2750 kg/m3). Alpine crust derived from each respective plate is found to show the same trend with zones of Adriatic provenance (Austro-Alpine and Southern Alps) found to be denser and those of European provenance (Helvetic Zone and Tauern Window) to be less dense suggesting the respective plates and related terrains had similar crustal properties to the present day prior to orogenesis. The model generated here is available for open access use to further discussions about the crust within the region.

scholarly journals The emplacement age of the Muntele Mare Variscan granite (Apuseni Mountains, Romania)

2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 495-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ioan Balintoni ◽  
Constantin Balica ◽  
Monica Cliveţi ◽  
Li-Qiu Li ◽  
Horst Hann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inductively Coupled Plasma ◽  
Variscan Orogeny ◽  
Weighted Mean ◽  
Apuseni Mountains ◽  
Inductively Coupled ◽  
Icp Ms ◽  
Plasma Mass Spectrometry ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Last Stage

The emplacement age of the Muntele Mare Variscan granite (Apuseni Mountains, Romania)Like the Alps and Western Carpathians, the Apuseni Mountains represent a fragment of the Variscan orogen involved in the Alpine crustal shortenings. Thus the more extensive Alpine tectonic unit in the Apuseni Mountains, the Bihor Autochthonous Unit is overlain by several nappe systems. During the Variscan orogeny, the Bihor Unit was a part of the Someş terrane involved as the upper plate in subduction, continental collision and finally in the orogen collapse and exhumation. The Variscan thermotectonic events were marked in the future Bihor Unit by the large Muntele Mare granitoid intrusion, an S-type anatectic body. Zircon U-Pb laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) dating yielded a weighted mean age of 290.9 ± 3.0 Ma and a concordia age of 291.1 ± 1.1 Ma. U-Pb isotope dilution zircon analyses yielded a lower intercept crystallization age of 296.6 + 5.7/-6.2 Ma. These two ages coincide in the error limits. Thus, the Muntele Mare granitoid pluton is a sign of the last stage in the Variscan history of the Apuseni Mountains. Many zircon grains show inheritance and/or Pb loss, typical for anatectic granitoid, overprinted by later thermotectonic events.

scholarly journals The Evolutionary History, Diversity, and Ecology of Willows (Salix L.) in the European Alps

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Natascha D. Wagner ◽  
Li He ◽  
Elvira Hörandl
Keyword(s):  
Habitat Preferences ◽  
Introgressive Hybridization ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Secondary Contact ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
History Of ◽  
European Mountain ◽  
The Alps

The genus Salix (willows), with 33 species, represents the most diverse genus of woody plants in the European Alps. Many species dominate subalpine and alpine types of vegetation. Despite a long history of research on willows, the evolutionary and ecological factors for this species richness are poorly known. Here we will review recent progress in research on phylogenetic relationships, evolution, ecology, and speciation in alpine willows. Phylogenomic reconstructions suggest multiple colonization of the Alps, probably from the late Miocene onward, and reject hypotheses of a single radiation. Relatives occur in the Arctic and in temperate Eurasia. Most species are widespread in the European mountain systems or in the European lowlands. Within the Alps, species differ ecologically according to different elevational zones and habitat preferences. Homoploid hybridization is a frequent process in willows and happens mostly after climatic fluctuations and secondary contact. Breakdown of the ecological crossing barriers of species is followed by introgressive hybridization. Polyploidy is an important speciation mechanism, as 40% of species are polyploid, including the four endemic species of the Alps. Phylogenomic data suggest an allopolyploid origin for all taxa analyzed so far. Further studies are needed to specifically analyze biogeographical history, character evolution, and genome evolution of polyploids.

scholarly journals Dialektik der Erschließung: The German–Austrian Alps between Exploration and Exploitation

Humanities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Sean Ireton
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Travel Narratives ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Exploration And Exploitation ◽  
Nördliche Kalkalpen ◽  
Austrian Alps ◽  
Limestone Alps ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps

Focusing on the so-called Nördliche Kalkalpen or Northern Limestone Alps of Germany and Austria, I will discuss how human interaction with these mountains during the age of the Anthropocene shifts from scientific and athletic exploration to commercial and industrial exploitation. More specifically, I will examine travel narratives by the nineteenth-century mountaineers Friedrich Simony and Hermann von Barth, juxtaposing their respective experiences in diverse Alpine subranges with the environmental history of those regions. This juxtaposition harbors a deeper paradox, one that can be formulated as follows: Whereas Simony and Barth both rank as historically important Erschließer of the German and Austrian Alps, having explored their crags and glaciers in search of somatic adventure and geoscientific knowledge, these very sites of rock and ice were about to become so erschlossen by modernized tourism that one wonders where the precise boundaries between individual-based discovery and technology-driven development lie. In other words, during the nineteenth century a kind of Dialektik der Erschließung (a variation on Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialektik der Aufklärung) manifests itself in the increasing anthropogenic alteration of the Alps.

scholarly journals Welcome to a new, international open-access research journal with a particular focus on the development of theoretical and experimental techniques and methodology

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. e1
Author(s):  
Fulvio Melia
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Open Access Journal ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Past Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Journal ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mathematical Techniques ◽  
Instrumental Development ◽  
Astronomy And Astrophysics

I have recently had the privilege of being appointed Editor-in-Chief of this very exciting and innovative Open Access Journal, and hereby extend a warm welcome to everyone as we launch Astronomy Studies Development, which will seek to publish high quality, peer-reviewed, original manuscripts in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics, though with a particular focus on mathematical techniques and methodology and innovative ideas for instrumental development and modeling in astronomy and astrophysics. The journal will also seek to publish simulations in all areas, including cosmology, particle astrophysics, accretion, and diffuse media. Our journal will include both full length research articles and letter articles, and its coverage extends over solar, stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy and astrophysics, and will report original research in all wavelength bands. Astronomy and Astrophysics are rather mature disciplines, with a history of quality journals over the past century or more. So one may reasonably ask why a new journal such as this is needed. Obviously, I myself have answered this question in the affirmative. After a long career in research and publishing, I have the perspective to provide several good reasons for helping to promote the evolution of publishing in Astronomy and Astrophysics to a place more in line with present technology..........

scholarly journals New constraints on the exhumation history of the western Tauern Window (European Alps) from thermochronology, thermokinematic modeling, and topographic analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard Wolff ◽  
Ralf Hetzel ◽  
István Dunkl ◽  
Aneta A. Anczkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Hanging Wall ◽  
Thermal Relaxation ◽  
Slip Rate ◽  
Normal Fault ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Valley Bottom ◽  
Topographic Analysis ◽  
Tauern Window ◽  
History Of ◽  
Exhumation History

AbstractThe Brenner normal fault bounds the Tauern Window to the west and accommodated a significant portion of the orogen-parallel extension in the Eastern Alps. Here, we use zircon (U–Th)/He, apatite fission track, and apatite (U–Th)/He dating, thermokinematic modeling, and a topographic analysis to constrain the exhumation history of the western Tauern Window in the footwall of the Brenner fault. ZHe ages from an E–W profile (parallel to the slip direction of the fault) decrease westwards from ~ 11 to ~ 8 Ma and suggest a fault-slip rate of 3.9 ± 0.9 km/Myr, whereas AFT and AHe ages show no spatial trends. ZHe and AFT ages from an elevation profile indicate apparent exhumation rates of 1.1 ± 0.7 and 1.0 ± 1.3 km/Myr, respectively, whereas the AHe ages are again spatially invariant. Most of the thermochronological ages are well predicted by a thermokinematic model with a normal fault that slips at a rate of 4.2 km/Myr between ~ 19 and ~ 9 Ma and produces 35 ± 10 km of extension. The modeling reveals that the spatially invariant AHe ages are caused by heat advection due to faulting and posttectonic thermal relaxation. The enigmatic increase of K–Ar phengite and biotite ages towards the Brenner fault is caused by heat conduction from the hot footwall to the cooler hanging wall. Topographic profiles across an N–S valley in the fault footwall indicate 1000 ± 300 m of erosion after faulting ceased, which agrees with the results of our thermokinematic model. Valley incision explains why the Brenner fault is located on the western valley shoulder and not at the valley bottom. We conclude that the ability of thermokinematic models to quantify heat transfer by rock advection and conduction is crucial for interpreting cooling ages from extensional fault systems.

Magmatic history of the Alps—A short summary

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 119-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Niggli
Keyword(s):  
Short Summary ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Magmatic History

Interdynastic Marriage, Religious Conversion, and the Expansion of Diplomatic Society

After Lavinia ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Watkins
Keyword(s):  
Religious Conversion ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Regular Feature ◽  
Northern European ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Historia Ecclesiastica ◽  
Royal Women ◽  
History Of Marriage

This chapter focuses on interdynastic marriage in Roman successor states beyond the Alps, the kingdoms of the Merovingian Franks and the Anglo-Saxons during the northern European conversions to Christianity. It considers religious conversion stories that document the expansion of a Latin-based, premodern diplomatic society, beginning with a discussion of Historiae, Gregory of Tours's account of the Burgundian princess Clothilde's conversion of her Frankish husband, Clovis, and its place in the history of marriage diplomacy. The chapter proceeds by analyzing Bede's Historia ecclesiastica, which suggests that clerics may have supplanted royal women as actors in the expansion of diplomatic society after the great conversions. Gregory of Tours and Bede both advocated interdynastic marriage as a vehicle for the Christianization of Europe. Clerical marriage was a regular feature of diocesan life in sixth-century Francia, and Gregory frequently refers to the wives of priests and of his brother bishops.

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