Alpine tethys

The evolution of the Circum-Mediterranean area and the Alpine orogeny is depicted here in a series of paleogeographic maps from Permian to Eocene.

• If you want to see geodynamic maps of this area, have a look at our page on present day stuctures.


• If your are interested in the deep structures of the Alps and their geodynamic evolution, have a look at our pages on seismic interpretation.


• If you want to know more on the Briançonnais terrain, have a look at our pages on the Préalpes.


• If you are interested in the geology of the Alps, look at our pages on Alpine research.

See list of abbreviations on the right of the page

The legends of these maps are on this page

ALAVI, M., VAZIRI, H., SEYED-EMAMI, K. & LASEMI, Y. 1997. The Triassic and associated rocks of the Nakhlak and Aghdarband areas in central and northeastern Iran as remnants of the southern Turanian active continental margin. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 109, 1563-1575.
BAILLIE, P.W., POWEL, C.M., LI, Z.X. & RYALL, A.M. 1994. The tectonic framework of western Australia's Neoproterozoic to recent sedimentary basins. In. The sedimentary basins of western Australia (Ed. by PURCELL, P.G.R.R.). P. E. S. A., Perth, 45-62.
BAUD, A. & STAMPFLI, G. 1989. Tectonogenesis and evolution of a segment of the Cimmerides. the volcano-sedimentary Triassic of Aghdarban (Kopet-Dagh, North-East Iran). In. Tectonic evolution of the Tethyan region (Ed. by SENGÖR, A.M.C.). Kluwer Acad. Publ., Amsterdam, 265-275.
BAUMGARTNER, P.O. 1985. Jurassic sedimentary evolution and nappe emplacement in the Argolis Peninsula (Peloponesus, Greece). Mémoires de la Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles, Birkhäuser, Basel, 111 p.
BONNEAU, M. 1984. Correlation of the hellenide nappe in the SE Aegean and their tectonic reconstruction. In. The geological evolution of the eastern Mediterranean, (Ed. by DIXON, J.E. & ROBERTSON, A.H.F.), Geological Soc. Spec. Publ. 17, 517-527.
BOULIN, J. 1988. Hercynian and Eocimmerian events in Afghanistan and adjoining regions. Tectonophisics 148, 253-278.
CIOFLICA, G., LUPU, M., NICOLAE, I. & VLAD, S. 1980. Alpine ophiolites of Romania. tectonic setting, magmatism and metallogenesis. An. Inst. Geol. Geofiz. 56, 79-96.
DE BONO, A., VAVASSIS, I., STAMPFLI, G.M., ZANINETTI, L., MARTINI, R. & VACHARD, D. in press. New stratigraphic data on the Pelagonian basement of Evvia. Annales géologiques des Pays Helléniques
EMBLETON, B.J.J. 1984. Continental paleomagnetism. In. Phanerozoic earth history of Australia (Ed. by VEEVERS, J.J.). Clarendon Press, Oxford, 11-38.
FLEURY, J.-J. 1980. Les zones de Gavrovo-Tripolitza et du Pinde-Olonos (Grèce continentale et Péloponèse du nord). Evolution d'une plate-forme et d'un bassin dans leur cadre alpin. Soc. géol. Nord. Pub. 4, 1-473.
GUTNIC, M., MONOD, O., POISSON, A. & DUMONT, J.F. 1979. Géologie des Taurides occidentales (Turquie). Mem. Soc. geol. de France 137 / LVIII, 1-112.
HUTCHISON, C.S. 1989. Geological evolution of South-East Asia. Oxford Monographs on Geology and Geophysics, Clarendon press Oxford, 368 p.
JURDY, D.M., STEFANICK, M. & SCOTESE, C.R. 1995. Paleozoic plate dynamics. J. Geophys. Res. B 100, 17'965-17'975.
KHAIN, V.E. 1994. Geology of Northern Eurasia. Gebrüder Borntraeger, Berlin Stuttgart, 346 p. KOZUR, H. 1991. The evolution of the Hallstatt ocean and its significance for the early evolution of the Eastern Alps and western Carpathians. In. Paleogeography and paleoceanography of Tethys (Ed. by CHANNELL, J.E.T., WINTERER, E.L. & JANSA, L.F.). Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 87, Elsevier, 109-135.
KOZUR, H.W. 1997. Pelagic Permian and Triassic of the western Tethys and its paleogeographic and stratigraphic significance. In. Berg und Hüttenmännischer Tag, Freiburg. abstract, 21-25.
KRAHL, J., KAUFMANN, G., KOZUR, H., RICHTER, D., FÖRSTER, O. & HEINRITZI, F. 1983. Neue Daten zur Biostratigraphie und zur tektonischen Lagerung der Phyllit-Gruppe und der Trypali-Gruppe auf der Insel Kreta(Griechenland). Geol. Rdsch. 72, 1147-1166.
MONOD, O. & AKAY, E. 1984: Evidence for a Late Triassic-Early Jurassic orogenic event in the Taurides. In The Geological Evolution of the Eastern Mediterranean, (ed.by J.E. DIXON & A.H.F. ROBERTSON), Geological Soc. Spec. Publ. 17, 113-122.
MORRIS, A. 1996. A review of paleomagnetic research in the Troodos ophiolite, Cyprus. In. Paleomagnetism and tectonics of the Mediterranean region (Ed. by MORRIS, A. & TARLING, D.H.), Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ. 105, 311-324.
NICOLAE, I. & SEGHEDI, A. 1996. Lower Triassic basic dyke swarm in North Dobrogea. Rom. J. Petrology 77, 31-40.
NIKISHIN, A.M., CLOETINGH, S., BRUNET, M.-F., STEPHENSON, R.A., BOLOTOV, S.N. & ERSHOV, A.V. 1997. Scythian platform, Caucasus and Black sea regions. Mesozoic-Cenozoic tectonic history and dynamics. In. Peri-Tethys (Ed. by CRASQUIN, S. & BARRIER, E.), Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. Nat. 3, Paris, in press.
NIOCAILL, C.M. & SMETHURST, M. 1994. Palaeozoic paleogeography of Laurentia and its margins. a reassessment of paleomagnetic data. Geophys. J. Int. 116, 715-725.
OKAY, A.I. & MOSTLER, H. 1994. Carboniferous and Permian radiolarite blocks from the Karakaya complex in Northwest Turkey. Tr. J. of Earth Sciences 3, 23-28.
PICKETT, E.A. & ROBERTSON, A.H.F. 1996. Formation of the late Paleozoic-Early Mesozoic Karakaya complex and related ophiolites in NW Turkey by Paleotethyan subduction-accretion. J. Geol. Soc. London 153, 995-1009.
POISSON, A. 1984. The extension of the Ionian trough into southwestern Turkey. In. The geological evolution of the eastern Mediterranean, (Ed. by DIXON, J.E. & ROBERTSON, A.H.F.), Geological Soc. Spec. Publ. 17, 241-249.
POWELL, C.M. & LI, Z.X. 1994. Reconstruction of the Panthalassan margin of Gondwanaland. Geological Society of America, Memoir 184, 5-9. ROBERTSON, A.H.F. 1993. Mesozoic-Tertiary sedimentary and tectonic evolution of Neotethyan carbonate platforms, margins and small ocean basins in the Antalya Complex, southwest Turkey. Spec. Publs Int. Ass. Sediment. 20, 415-465.
ROBERTSON, A.H.F. & PARTY, S.S. 1996. Role of the Eratothenes seamont in collisonal processes in the eastern Mediterranean. In. Proceedings of the ocean Drilling, initial reports (Ed. by EMEIS, K.C., ROBERTSON, A.H.F., RICHTER, C. & AL, E.). 160, 513-520.
SEGHEDI, I., SZAKACS, A. & BALTRES, A. 1990. Relationships between sedimentary deposits and eruptive rocks in the Consul unit (North Dobrogea) - implications on tectonic interpretations. D. S. Inst. Geol. Geofiz., 74, 125-136.
SENGÖR, A.M.C., YIMAZ, Y. & KETIN, I. 1980. Remnants of a pre-Late Jurassic ocean in the northern Turkey. fragments of Permian-Triassic Paleo-Tethys? Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 91, 599-609.
STAMPFLI, G., MARCOUX, J. & BAUD, A. 1991. Tethyan margins in space and time. In. Paleogeography and paleoceanography of Tethys (Ed. by CHANNELL, J.E.T., WINTERER, E.L. & JANSA, L.F.). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 87, 373-410
STAMPFLI, G.M. 1989. Late Paleozoic evolution of the eastern Mediterranean region. In. IGCP 276 Paleozoic geodynamic domains and their alpidic evolution in the Tethys, Lausanne, Switzerland. Short courseI-II, Abstr.
STAMPFLI, G.M. 1993. Le Briançonnais, terrain exotique dans les Alpes? Eclogae geol. Helv. 86, 1-45.
STAMPFLI, G.M. 1996. The Intra-Alpine terrain. a Paleotethyan remnant in the Alpine Variscides. Eclogae geol. Helv. 89, 13-42.
STAMPFLI, G.M. & MARCHANT, R.H. 1997. Geodynamic evolution of the Tethyan margins of the Western Alps. In. Deep structure of the Swiss Alps - Results from NRP 20 (Ed. by PFIFFNER, O.A., LEHNER, P., HEITZMAN, P.Z., MUELLER, S. & STECK, A.). Birkhaüser AG., Basel, 223-239.
STAMPFLI, G.M., MOSAR, J., FAVRE, P., PILLEVUIT, A. & VANNAY, J.-C. in press. Permo-Triassic evolution of the western Tethyan realm. the Neotethys/East- Mediterranean connection. In. Peritethyan rift/wrench basins and passive margins, IGCP 369 (Ed. by CAVAZZA, W., ROBERTSON, A.H.F.R. & ZIEGLER, P.A.). Bull. Museum Nat. Hist. Nat, Paris.
STAMPFLI, G.M., MOSAR, J., MARCHANT, R., MARQUER, D., BAUDIN, T. & BOREL, G. 1998. Subduction and obduction processes in the western Alps. Tectonophysics in press.
STAMPFLI, G.M. & PILLEVUIT, A. 1993. An alternative Permo-Triassic reconstruction of the kinematics of the Tethyan realm. In. Atlas Tethys Palaeoenvironmental Maps. Explanatory Notes (Ed. by DERCOURT, J., RICOU, L.-E. & VRIELINCK, B.). Gauthier-Villars, Paris, 55-62.
THIÉBAULT, F. 1982. Evolution géodynamique des hellénides externes en Péloponèse méridional (Grèce). Soc. Géol. Nord 6, 574p.
Torsvik, T.H. & Smethurst, M.A. (1994). Geographic mapping and paleoreconstruction package (GMAP). Software description and examples of paleoreconstructions., vers. GMAP for Windows v.1.0.
TORSVIK, T.H., SMETHURST, M.A., VAN DER VOO, R., TRENCH, A., ABRAHAMSEN, N. & HALVORSEN, E. 1992. Baltica. A synopsis of Vendian-Permian paleomagnetic data and their paleotectonic implications. Earth-Sc. Rev. 33, 133-152.
TÜYSÜZ, O. 1990. Tectonic evolution of a part of the Tethys orogenic collage. the Kargi massif, northern Turkey. Tectonics 9, 141-160.
VAN DER VOO, R. 1993. Paleomagnetism of the Atlantic, Tethys and Iapetus Oceans. Cambridge University Press, 411 p.
WALDRON, J.W.F. 1984. Structural history of the Antalya complex in the Isparta angle, southwest Turkey. In. The geological evolution of the eastern Mediterranean, (Ed. by DIXON, J.E. & ROBERTSON, A.H.F.), Geological Soc. Spec. Publ. 17, 273-286.
WORTEL, M.J.R. & SPAKMAN, W. 1992. Structure and dynamics of subducted lithosphere in the Mediterranean region. Proc. k. nederl. Akad. Wetensch. Ser. B 95, 325-347.
YANEV, Y. & BARDINTZEFF, J.-M. 1997. Petrology, volcanology and metalogeny of Paleogene collision related volcanism of the eastern Rhodope. Terra Nova 9, 1-8.
ZIEGLER, P.A. 1988. Post-Hercynian plate reorganisation in the Tethys and Arctic - North Atlantic domains. In. Triassic-Jurassic rifting (Ed. by MANSPEIZER, W.). 22, Developments in Geotectonics, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 711-755.
ZIEGLER, P.A. 1990. Geological Atlas of Western and Central Europe - 2nd Ed. Shell Int. Petroleum Mij., Den Haag, 239 p.
ZONENSHAIN, L.P., KUZMIN, M.I. & KONONOV, M.V. 1985. Absolute reconstructions of the Paleozoic oceans. Earth planet. Sci. Lett. 74, 103-116.
ZONENSHAIN, L.P., KUZMIN, M.I. & NATAPOV, L.M. 1990. Geology of the USSR. a plate tectonic synthesis. AGU Geodynam. Ser. Monogr. 21.

Most of the paelogegraphic maps from this page are updated versions from the following publications:

Stampfli, G.M. and Borel, G.D., 2002. A plate tectonic model for the Paleozoic and Mesozoic constrained by dynamic plate boundaries and restored synthetic oceanic isochrons. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 196: 17-33.

Stampfli, G.M., Borel, G., Marchant, R. and Mosar, J., 2002a. Western Alps geological constraints on western Tethyan reconstructions. Journal Virtual Explorer, 8: 77-106.

Stampfli, G.M. (Editor), 2001. Geology of the western Swiss Alps, a guide book, 36. Mémoires de Géologie (Lausanne), 195 pp.