The European Alps are dissected by north-south trending normal fault systems which are the surface expression of orogen-parallel extension during convergence between European and Adriatic plates. However, the slip rate and time when normal faulting proceeded remain debated. Here I present thermochronological data and thermokinematic modelling on the most prominent normal faults of the European Alps, the Simplon, Brenner, and Katschberg normal fault. This allows us to constrain the time when they were active as well as their fault slip rates. Our results indicate that east-west extension in the Eastern Alps decreases towards the east in concert with decreasing north-south extension.

To the east of the Katschberg fault, the topography comprises a low-relief surface at an elevation of 2000-2200 m which has been formed in the Early Miocene. To decipher the exhumation history of this remarkable landscape we employ thermochronology on elevation profiles in this area and we compare the results to our profiles from the Ötztal which has one of the highest topographies of the European Alps.

In the last part I will compare the long-term erosion rates derived above to erosion rates on a millennial time scale derived by cosmogenic nuclides. Cosmogenic nuclides also allow us to calculate exposure ages, e.g. from glacially polished quartz veins. Our exposure ages on quartz veins are in concert with the model predictions for the timing of ice retreat after the last glacial maximum.

The nappes of the Tauern Window (TW) in the European Eastern Alps were formed by the southward subduction of the European plate beneath the Adriatic plate. These nappes were stacked during the Late Eocene and refolded during the Miocene due to the northward push of the Dolomites Indenter. This study focuses on the Miocene deformation history of the western TW using 2-D, 3-D, and 4-D approaches, while we concentrate only on the core of the western TW. We first restore a N-S oriented cross-section along the trace of the Brenner Base Tunnel using published zircon fission-track and P-T data. Restoration reveals two deformation phases: upright folding of the nappe stack began to wane around 17 Ma, followed by thrusting of the entire nappe stack along the Sub-Tauern ramp. The hanging-wall nappes experienced 25-48% thinning due to W–E extension. Subsequently, we restore the western TW in 4-D using the same method as for our 2-D reconstruction. We displace the nappe stack downwards along the Sub-Tauern ramp, followed by unfolding under high-temperature conditions. We found that 21 – 23 Ma ago, indentation began in N to NE direction, which was followed by anticlockwise rotation during the Miocene, resulting in a NNW-NW indentation direction. During indentation, the lower crust of the Dolomites Indenter probably detached in the vicinity of the TRANSALP section. Volumetric differences of the gneiss cores are most likely primary and not due to lateral extrusion.

The architecture of a foreland basin records the adjacent mountain range's tectonic evolution and climatic history. The Northern Alpine Foreland Basin, also known as the Molasse Basin, has a non-cylindrical architecture, hinting at along-strike variations in Alpine tectonics and climate history. Previous studies suggest that slab tearing, a process by which slab breakoff propagates along-strike, is the primary driver of the foreland basin’s non-cylindrical evolution. However, a quantitative assessment of the slab tearing on the evolution of Molasse Basin architecture is lacking. Moreover, the heterogeneity present in the European passive margin architecture can add further complexity to the slab tear evolution and associated foreland basin evolution. Here, we integrate geodynamic and stratigraphic (depositional) forward models to evaluate the effect of potential drivers and compare them to Molasse Basin architecture. In the geodynamic models, we vary along-strike passive margin age, initial obliquity of the passive margin with respect to the upper plate, and presence of microcontinent. We quantify the effects of these processes on the slab tear evolution, subsequent continental collision and resulting along‐strike variable foreland basin development. Our results highlight that the subduction of the irregular European passive margin caused a cascade of regional tectonic events leading to the heterogeneous architecture of the Molasse Basin. More specifically, the lateral propagation of slab tearing was the dynamic response to the collision of the irregular passive continental margin. The resultant along-strike variations in slab pull controlled the contrasting evolution of depositional environments in the Molasse Basin along the strike.

The Southern Steep Belt (SSB), an E–W-striking, north-block-up mylonite zone, juxtaposes high-grade metamorphic Europe-derived basement nappes and the unmetamorphic Southern Alps. At its eastern end in the upper Valle dei Ratti, the SSB apparently terminates at the calc-alkaline Bergell pluton (BP). There, a large antiform at the base of the BP translates the intrusive rocks and underlying gneisses into the SSB. However, the relationship between the SSB and the units farther north (Gruf complex, Adula nappe) remains unclear.

We present a new geological map of this critical area. An alternating sequence of Bt-rich gneisses and schists adjacent to more leucocratic gneisses, as well as metasedimentary and meta-ultramafic rocks, clearly represents a single basement unit beneath the BP. This contradicts previous maps, which assigned different tectonic units to the two limbs of the antiform. Stretching lineations and fold axes consistently plunge eastward. Structural, microstructural, and EBSD data indicate upper-unit-to-the-east shearing, which transitions into north-block-up, left-lateral shearing within the SSB. We propose that the mylonitic shear zone of the SSB is folded together with the base of the BP and continues into the right-lateral, south-block-up shear zone at the northern border of the Gruf complex. Hence, top-to-the-east shearing beneath the BP would exhume the entire Lepontine, not just the Gruf complex. This scheme would explain the metamorphic gap on the northern and southern sides of the Gruf complex as well as the absence of the SSB east of the BP.

The Ograzhden Unit, a part of the Serbo-Macedonian Massif (SMM), comprises a suite of ortho- and paragneisses with lenses of amphibolites, intruded by the Triassic Igralishte granite (Peytcheva et al., 2009, Geol. Balcanica 38, 5-14). The orthometamorphic suite, representing the bulk of the basement, consists of different migmatized granites to granodiorites and unmigmatized granites with ages from 440 to 480 Ma. Amphibolites have slightly younger ages of 430-440 Ma (Peytcheva et al., 2015, Geol. Balcanica 44, 51-84). An eclogite lens locally preserved in the amphibolites was reported to be recording a Variscan ultra-high pressure metamorphic event (Trapp et al., 2021, Terra Nova 33, 174-183).

Although Alpine Cretaceous amphibolite-facies imprint was reported from the Vertiskos unit in the Greek part of the SMM (Kilias et al., 1999, Int. J. Earth Sci. 88, 513-531), the Ograzhden Unit is considered to be largely unaffected by it (Kounov & Gerdjikov, 2024, Geol. Balcanica 53, 29-85). However, new data suggest that also the Ograzhden Unit, including the Igralishte pluton, was deformed under upper greenschist- to lower amphibolite-facies conditions. We present new data for the age of the Nikudin pluton (445 Ma), previously assumed to be of Triassic age like the Igralishte pluton. Both plutons record similar deformation patterns, and both plutons as well as their host rocks record top-to-SE shearing. Thus, we suggest a ductile Alpine deformation with top-to-E thrusting (rotated by later extension to top-to-SE), probably associated with thrusting of the Circum-Rhodope Belt onto the European margin in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous.