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This contribution analyses the structural architecture and tectono-metamorphic evolution of Briançonnais units in the southern French-Italian Western Alps. The studied area extends from a virtually non-metamorphic area adjacent to the Helvetic-Dauphinois External Domain in the west to the Monviso-Queyras ocean-derived units in the east, where metamorphism increases up to eclogite-facies. Mapping at the scale 1:10.000 of a mountainous part of the Ubaye-Maira transect was performed, which portrays in detail the Briançonnais units over ~ 100 km2. The lithologies include meta-andesite, meta-siliciclastics, marbles, turbiditic calcschists and flysch whose age spans from Late Carboniferous to Eocene. Metamorphism is low-grade greenschist-facies in the west but reaches the blueschist-facies to the east. Structures related to four phases of deformation are identified. The first two generations of structures (D1–D2), related to the original top-to-the-west nappe stacking, are associated with conditions close to the peak of Alpine metamorphism. Previous tectonic surfaces are transposed by the dominant deformation structures (D3), developed under retrograde/decompression conditions. This D3 corresponds to a backfolding and back-thrusting event with a top-to-the-E transport. A fourth phase (D4) developed during late low-grade metamorphic conditions and deforms the previous surfaces by locally developing a crenulation cleavage, followed by brittle tectonics. An updated metamorphic map is presented, backed on published estimates and new thermometric data obtained by Raman Spectroscopy of Carbonaceous Material (RSCM). The TRSCM values range from ~ 295 °C to > 350 °C, moving from the most external Briançonnais unit to the internal Queyras "Schistes Lustrés" units. Suspected Upper Cretaceous palaeofaults have been documented, allowing us to group the classic Aiguille de Mary and Ceillac (sub-) units into a single tectonic unit, here referred to as Maurin unit. The palaeogeographical reconstruction of the evolution of the studied transect highlights the importance of the Marinet and Maurin axial units in the feeding of the Late Cretaceous-Eocene breccias deposited on the more internal Acceglio-type units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we describe the structure, the high-pressure, low-temperature (HP-LT) metamorphism and tectonic evolution of the Briançonnais distal margin units from the south Western Alps. The studied area extends southwest of the Dora-Maira (U)HP basement units and east-southeast of the classical Briançonnais nappes. A new structural map accompanied by geological profiles shows the thrusting of the oceanic nappes (Monviso and Queyras units) onto the distal Briançonnais units (D1 and D2 late Eocene deformation phases) under blueschist-facies conditions. Subsequent deformation during the Early Oligocene (D3 deformation phase) took place under greenschist-facies conditions and was associated with back-folding and -thrusting in the units overlying the Dora-Maira massif and with exhumation related to normal reactivation of former thrusts within the latter massif. Two large cover units, detached from their former distal Briançonnais basement, are redefined as the Maira-Sampeyre and Val Grana Allochthons (shortly: Maira-Grana Allochthons = MGA) including, (i) the Val Maira-Sampeyre unit involving Lower and Middle Triassic formations, seemingly detached from the Dora-Maira units during the subduction process, and (ii) the Val Grana unit with Middle-Upper Triassic and Early-Middle Jurassic formations, which was probably detached from the Maira-Sampeyre unit and correlates with the "Prepiemonte units" known from the Ligurian Alps to the Swiss Prealps. Three major shear zones involving tectonic mélanges of oceanic and continental rocks at the base of the Val Grana, Maira-Sampeyre and Dronero units testify to an early phase of exhumation within the subduction channel in front of the Adria plate. We present a new metamorphic map based on published and new petrological data, including new thermometric data obtained by Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material (RSCM). The TRSCM values range from ~ 400 °C to > 500 °C, going from the most external Val Grana unit and overlying Queyras schists to the uppermost Dora-Maira unit. During the Late Triassic, the width of the Briançonnais s.l. domain can be restored at ~ 100 km, whereas it reached ~ 150 km after the Jurassic rifting. A significant, second rifting event affected the Briançonnais domain during the Late Cretaceous-Paleocene, forming the Longet-Alpet chaotic breccias, which deserve further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ophiolitic mélange of Avala Mountain located south of Belgrade was studied to obtain age data from blocks of radiolarian cherts and to enable better understanding of age and nature of this mélange. The studied area is located south of Avala Mt. and its geotectonic position is rather obscure. The obtained data allow us to determine radiolarians from five samples; one is of Late Anisian to Early Ladinian, and four of them are of Middle Jurassic (Late Bathonian-Early Callovian) age. The finding of Triassic as well as Jurassic age radiolarians in one and the same mélange suggests that this mélange formed during obduction of the Western Vardar ophiolites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

regional tectono-geomorphic analysis indicates a Pliocene to recent rock uplift of the outermost segment of the Jura fold-and-thrust belt, which spatially coincides with the intra-continental Rhine-Bresse Transfer Zone. Elevated remnants of the partly eroded Middle Pliocene Sundgau-Forêt de Chaux Gravels identified by heavy mineral analyses allow for a paleo-topographic reconstruction that yields minimum regional Latest Pliocene to recent rock uplift rates of 0.05 ± 0.02 mm/year. This uplift also affected the Pleistocene evolution of the Ognon and Doubs drainage basins and is interpreted as being tectonically controlled. While the Ognon River was deflected from the uplifted region the Doubs deeply incised into it. Focused incision of the Doubs possibly sustained ongoing deformation along anticlines which were initiated during the Neogene evolution of the thin-skinned Jura fold-and-thrust belt. At present, this erosion-related active deformation is taking place synchronously with thick-skinned tectonics, controlling the inversion of the Rhine-Bresse Transfer Zone. This suggests local decoupling between seismogenic basement faulting and erosion-related deformation of the Mesozoic cover sequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the original version of this article, one reference was incorrect. The following change was necessary: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]