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Recent geophysical campaigns in the Alps produce images with seismic property variations along the slab of sufficiently fine resolution to be interpreted as rock transformations. Since the reacting European lower crust is presumed responsible for the variations of velocities at the top of the Alpine slab, we sampled local analogs of the lower crustal lithologies in the field and modeled the evolution of equilibrium seismic properties during burial, along possible pressure‐temperature paths for the crustal portion of the slab. The results are then compared to the range of the S‐wave velocities obtained from the S‐wave velocity tomography model along the CIFALPS transect. The velocity increase from 25 to 45 km within the slab, in the tomographic model is best reproduced by the transformation of specific lithologies in the high‐pressure granulite facies along a collisional gradient (30°C/km). Although the crust is certainly not completely homogeneous, the best candidates for the rocks that make up the top of the Alpine dip crustal panel are a kinzigite from Monte San Petrone, a gneiss from the Insubric line, and blueschist mylonite from Canavese. While they may not represent the entirety of the crust, they are sufficient to explain the tomographic velocity of the Alpine slab. A lateral lithological contrast inherited from the Variscan orogeny is not required. Eclogitization, suggested as the first‐order transformation in convergence zones, could be a second‐order transformation in collisional wedges. These results also imply a partially re‐equilibrated thermal gradient, consistent with the Alpine thermal state data at depth. Plain Language Summary: Tomography, that is, imaging of deep geological structures based on seismic wave travel to time anomalies, is now so sensitive that it allows us to see changes in the properties of rocks buried at depth beneath mountain belts. In the Alps, the European plate is imaged down to 80 km and shows a sharp velocity increase close to 30 km depth. By calculating the bulk seismic wave velocities on exhumed analogs sampled throughout the Western Alps, the present study proposes to interpret the velocity jump as the consequence of the transformation of the European lower crust from amphibolite to granulite (the high‐temperature metamorphic rocks produced during a collision) rather than the usually admitted transformation to eclogite (the higher pressure metamorphic rocks produced during subduction). This has implications regarding the present‐day thermal structure of the Alps: the Western Alps are not a frozen subduction zone but a collision zone exposing subduction‐related rocks and structures at the surface only. Key Points: The lower crustal top of the European Alpine slab is mostly composed of felsic to intermediate rocksThe transformation of hydrated rocks into HP granulites along a collision gradient reproduces the slab tomographic velocity increase at 30 kmThe often‐supposed eclogitization produces velocities that are significantly higher than the crustal top of the European Alpine slab [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The rockslide systems along the Gepatsch reservoir in the Kaunertal valley are among the best investigated and monitored slopes in the Alps since TIWAG began operating the Kaunertal power plant in 1964. The rockslide systems consist of several individual slabs with variable activity. Only the deformation characteristics of the Hochmais slab shows transient behaviour and depends on external influences such as reservoir operation. No effects from heavy precipitation or snowmelt on the deformation characteristics were observed prior to 2019. The large amount of precipitation accumulated as snow in the winter of 2018/2019, combined with cool spring weather and low reservoir level, resulted in an increased deformation rate of the Hochmais slab due to excessive snowmelt in June 2019. The maximum deformation rate of several mm per week was the highest activity of the Hochmais slab since the end of the first impoundment period in 1966. In response to this exceptional situation, the engineers at TIWAG, in conjunction with external experts and the competent authorities, temporarily restricted the reservoir operation. The increased rates of deformation of the Hochmais slab decreased to the expected level in the late summer of 2019 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, Ultrahigh Pressure (UHP) oceanic units are rare and to date only three were recognized: Tianshan (China), and Lago di Cignana and Lago Superiore Unit (Western Alps, Italy). The UHP oceanic units represent the only geological object directly exhumed from mantle depth and they record fundamental information about processes occurring in the deepest portions of the subduction interface. In this work, we describe the occurrence of a new UHP oceanic unit within the Western Alps (mid Susa Valley, Internal Piedmont Zone). We here report the finding of a UHP index mineral, i.e., coesite and we provide a detailed study of garnet inclusions in metapelites and metabasites part of the meta-sedimentary cover of the meta-ophiolites cropping out in the mid Susa Valley. The samples were investigated via optical microscope, Raman spectroscopy, Elastic Geothermometry and classic thermometry (Zr-in-rutile) in order to constrain the P-T evolution of the area. The finding of a new UHP unit in the Internal Piedmont Zone, together with the already described Lago di Cignana and Lago Superiore units, points towards the possible existence of a UHP oceanic slice that reached a similar peak-P (i.e., the return point) along the same subduction gradient. This slice was then removed from the slab and dismembered during exhumation, and it is now exposed as coesite-bearing units juxtaposed with lower pressure eclogite-facies ophiolites. Moreover, the large occurrence of coesite along the entire Internal Piedmont Zone significantly increases the extension of the UHP oceanic units. Hence, the model of a localized non-lithostatic pressure is at the state of the art difficult to apply to the oceanic units of the Western Alps. • We report a new occurrence of coesite within the eclogitic meta-ophiolites (Internal Piedmont Zone) of the Western Alps. • Elastic Geobarometry and Zr-in-rutile thermometry results confirm the PT path proposed in literature with pseudosections. • We propose a unique UHP level inside oceanic slab by linking the three UHP oceanic units outcropping on the Western Alps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stratigraphic development of foreland basins has mainly been related to surface loading in the adjacent orogens, whereas the control of slab loads on these basins has received much less attention. This has also been the case for interpreting the relationships between the Oligocene to Micoene evolution of the European Alps and the North Alpine foreland basin or Molasse basin. In this trough, periods of rapid subsidence have generally been considered as a response to the growth of the Alpine topography, and thus to the construction of larger surface loads. However, such views conflict with observations where the surface growth in the Alps has been partly decoupled from the subsidence history in the basin. In addition, surface loads alone are not capable of explaining the contrasts in the stratigraphic development particularly between its central and eastern portions. Here, we present an alternative view on the evolution of the Molasse basin. We focus on the time interval between c. 30 and 15 Ma and relate the basin-scale development of this trough to the subduction processes, and thus to the development of slab loads beneath the European Alps. At 30 Ma, the western and central portions of this basin experienced a change from deep marine underfilled (Flysch stage) to overfilled terrestrial conditions (Molasse stage). During this time, however, a deep marine Flysch-type environment prevailed in the eastern part of the basin. This was also the final sedimentary sink as sediment was routed along the topographic axis from the western/central to the eastern part of this trough. We interpret the change from basin underfill to overfill in the western and central basin as a response to oceanic lithosphere slab-breakoff beneath the Central and Western Alps. This is considered to have resulted in a growth of the Alpine topography in these portions of the Alps, an increase in surface erosion and an augmentation in sediment supply to the basin, and thus in the observed change from basin underfill to overfill. In the eastern part of the basin, however, underfilled Flysch-type conditions prevailed until 20 Ma, and subsidence rates were higher than in the western and central parts. We interpret that high subsidence rates in the eastern Molasse occurred in response to slab loads beneath the Eastern Alps, where the subducted oceanic slab remained attached to the European plate and downwarped the plate in the East. Accordingly, in the central and western parts, the growth of the Alpine topography, the increase in sediment flux and the change from basin underfill to overfill most likely reflect the response to slab delamination beneath the Central Alps. In contrast, in the eastern part, the possibly subdued topography in the Eastern Alps, the low sediment flux and the maintenance of a deep marine Flysch-type basin records a situation where the oceanic slab was still attached to the European plate. The situation changed at 20 Ma, when the eastern part of the basin chronicled a change from deep marine (underfilled) to shallow marine and then terrestrial (overfilled conditions). During the same time, subsidence rates in the eastern basin decreased, deformation at the Alpine front came to a halt and sediment supply to the basin increased possibly in response to a growth of the topography in the Eastern Alps. This was also the time when the sediment routing in the basin axis changed from an east-directed sediment dispersal prior to 20 Ma, to a west-oriented sediment transport thereafter and thus to the opposite direction. We relate these changes to the occurrence of oceanic slab breakoff beneath the Eastern Alps, which most likely resulted in a rebound of the plate, a growth of the topography in the Eastern Alps and a larger sediment flux to the eastern portion of the basin. Beneath the Central and Western Alps, however, the continental lithosphere slab remained attached to the European plate, thereby resulting in a continued downwarping of the plate in its central and western portions. This plate downwarping beneath the central and western Molasse together with the rebound of the foreland plate in the East possibly explains the inversion of the drainage direction. We thus propose that slab loads beneath the Alps were presumably the most important drivers for the development of the Molasse basin at the basin scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on recent results of AlpArray, we propose a new model of Alpine collision that involves subduction and detachment of thick (∼ 180 km) European lithosphere. Our approach combines teleseismic P-wave tomography and existing local earthquake tomography (LET), allowing us to image the Alpine slabs and their connections with the overlying orogenic lithosphere at an unprecedented resolution. The images call into question the conventional notion that downward-moving lithosphere and slabs comprise only seismically fast lithosphere. We propose that the European lithosphere is heterogeneous, locally containing layered positive and negative Vp anomalies of up to 5 %–6 %. We attribute this layered heterogeneity to seismic anisotropy and/or compositional differences inherited from the Variscan and pre-Variscan orogenic cycles rather than to thermal anomalies. The lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary (LAB) of the European Plate therefore lies below the conventionally defined seismological LAB. In contrast, the lithosphere of the Adriatic Plate is thinner and has a lower boundary approximately at the base of strong positive Vp anomalies at 100–120 km. Horizontal and vertical tomographic slices reveal that beneath the central and western Alps, the European slab dips steeply to the south and southeast and is only locally still attached to the Alpine lithosphere. However, in the eastern Alps and Carpathians, this slab is completely detached from the orogenic crust and dips steeply to the north to northeast. This along-strike change in attachment coincides with an abrupt decrease in Moho depth below the Tauern Window, the Moho being underlain by a pronounced negative Vp anomaly that reaches eastward into the Pannonian Basin area. This negative Vp anomaly is interpreted as representing hot upwelling asthenosphere that heated the overlying crust, allowing it to accommodate Neogene orogen-parallel lateral extrusion and thinning of the ALCAPA tectonic unit (upper plate crustal edifice of Alps and Carpathians) to the east. A European origin of the northward-dipping, detached slab segment beneath the eastern Alps is likely since its down-dip length matches estimated Tertiary shortening in the eastern Alps accommodated by originally south-dipping subduction of European lithosphere. A slab anomaly beneath the Dinarides is of Adriatic origin and dips to the northeast. There is no evidence that this slab dips beneath the Alps. The slab anomaly beneath the Northern Apennines, also of Adriatic origin, hangs subvertically and is detached from the Apenninic orogenic crust and foreland. Except for its northernmost segment where it locally overlies the southern end of the European slab of the Alps, this slab is clearly separated from the latter by a broad zone of low Vp velocities located south of the Alpine slab beneath the Po Basin. Considered as a whole, the slabs of the Alpine chain are interpreted as highly attenuated, largely detached sheets of continental margin and Alpine Tethyan oceanic lithosphere that locally reach down to a slab graveyard in the mantle transition zone (MTZ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We perform a teleseismic P-wave travel-time tomography to examine the geometry and structure of subducted lithosphere in the upper mantle beneath the Alpine orogen. The tomography is based on waveforms recorded at over 600 temporary and permanent broadband stations of the dense AlpArray Seismic Network deployed by 24 different European institutions in the greater Alpine region, reaching from the Massif Central to the Pannonian Basin and from the Po Plain to the river Main. Teleseismic travel times and travel-time residuals of direct teleseismic P waves from 331 teleseismic events of magnitude 5.5 and higher recorded between 2015 and 2019 by the AlpArray Seismic Network are extracted from the recorded waveforms using a combination of automatic picking, beamforming and cross-correlation. The resulting database contains over 162 000 highly accurate absolute P-wave travel times and travel-time residuals. For tomographic inversion, we define a model domain encompassing the entire Alpine region down to a depth of 600 km. Predictions of travel times are computed in a hybrid way applying a fast TauP method outside the model domain and continuing the wave fronts into the model domain using a fast marching method. We iteratively invert demeaned travel-time residuals for P-wave velocities in the model domain using a regular discretization with an average lateral spacing of about 25 km and a vertical spacing of 15 km. The inversion is regularized towards an initial model constructed from a 3D a priori model of the crust and uppermost mantle and a 1D standard earth model beneath. The resulting model provides a detailed image of slab configuration beneath the Alpine and Apenninic orogens. Major features are a partly overturned Adriatic slab beneath the Apennines reaching down to 400 km depth still attached in its northern part to the crust but exhibiting detachment towards the southeast. A fast anomaly beneath the western Alps indicates a short western Alpine slab whose easternmost end is located at about 100 km depth beneath the Penninic front. Further to the east and following the arcuate shape of the western Periadriatic Fault System, a deep-reaching coherent fast anomaly with complex internal structure generally dipping to the SE down to about 400 km suggests a slab of European origin limited to the east by the Giudicarie fault in the upper 200 km but extending beyond this fault at greater depths. In its eastern part it is detached from overlying lithosphere. Further to the east, well-separated in the upper 200 km from the slab beneath the central Alps but merging with it below, another deep-reaching, nearly vertically dipping high-velocity anomaly suggests the existence of a slab beneath the eastern Alps of presumably the same origin which is completely detached from the orogenic root. Our image of this slab does not require a polarity switch because of its nearly vertical dip and full detachment from the overlying lithosphere. Fast anomalies beneath the Dinarides are weak and concentrated to the northernmost part and shallow depths. Low-velocity regions surrounding the fast anomalies beneath the Alps to the west and northwest follow the same dipping trend as the overlying fast ones, indicating a kinematically coherent thick subducting lithosphere in this region. Alternatively, these regions may signify the presence of seismic anisotropy with a horizontal fast axis parallel to the Alpine belt due to asthenospheric flow around the Alpine slabs. In contrast, low-velocity anomalies to the east suggest asthenospheric upwelling presumably driven by retreat of the Carpathian slab and extrusion of eastern Alpine lithosphere towards the east while low velocities to the south are presumably evidence of asthenospheric upwelling and mantle hydration due to their position above the European slab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbonate-silicate interaction within subduction channels influences the chemical and physical properties of subducting carbon and is crucial to understanding the fate of carbonates in subduction zones. However, geochemical evidence for such interaction is still limited. Here we investigate zinc isotopes (expressed as δ 66 Zn JMC-Lyon) to decipher potential carbonate-silicate interaction in subducting slabs given the remarkable Zn isotopic difference between silicate and carbonate components. A suite of high- to ultrahigh-pressure metasediments containing variable amounts of carbonates from the Schistes Lustrés nappe (western Alps) record subduction processes to various depths (∼15–90 km) in a cool geothermal condition (∼8 °C/km). Despite a broad range of metamorphic grades (0.8–2.9 GPa and 300–630 °C) and carbonate contents (0–49 wt%), the bulk metasediments have nearly constant δ 66 Zn values (av. 0.21 ± 0.05 ‰ , 2sd, n = 12), which are indistinguishable from their putative protoliths (0.25 ± 0.07 ‰ , 2sd, n = 5). The lack of systematic variation of bulk sediment δ 66 Zn with metamorphic grades implies a limited transfer of Zn during prograde metamorphism. Therefore, sediments will preserve their original Zn isotopic compositions after subduction into the mantle. By contrast, the carbonate components in sediments obtained by leaching exhibit a progressive decline in δ 66 Zn from 0.82 ± 0.01 ‰ to 0.20 ± 0.04 ‰ and a modest increase in Zn concentration with pressure. These variations are best interpreted as a result of prolonged closed-system Zn isotopic exchange between isotopically heavy carbonates and light silicate components in the subducting slab. Our results demonstrate that a considerable amount of carbonates in subducting sediments can be retained at least down to the depths of the sub-arc mantle (>90 km). The strong pressure-dependent Zn isotopic fractionation (R 2 = 0.87) during carbonate-silicate interaction makes Zn isotopes a novel proxy for the storage depth of subducting carbonates. • A systematic zinc isotope study on western Alpine metasediments. • Prograde metamorphism has limited impact on Zn isotopes of bulk subducting sediments. • Variation of δ 66 Zn in carbonates reflects interaction with silicates in a closed system. • Zn isotopes are an indicator for the storage depth of subducting carbonates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]