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Swiss Journal of Geosciences
Fig. 5 | Swiss Journal of Geosciences

Fig. 5

From: Swiss and Alpine geologists between two tectonic revolutions. Part 1: from the discovery of nappes to the hypothesis of continental drift

Fig. 5

Illustrations from La Tectonique de l’Asie (Argand 1924b), showing a detailed reconstruction of the structure and kinematics of the Central Alps (upper profile) and two more generalised crustal profiles across the Alps and the Mediterranean Sea (lower profiles). In the general profiles, the suture between Africa (1) and Europe (2) is marked by the occurrence of basic rocks (ophiolites) derived (intruded) from the ancient ocean Tethys. Fig. 19 ter.: Basic rocks (in black) present at the base of the Austroalpine system (Africa) and in the Mesozoic of the Piedmont trough—these and some sediments led to Argand’s concept of “embryonic tectonics”. These rocks are wrapped into the large Pennine folds, with sills and laccolites forming in the inverted limb of the Dent Blanche nappe, prior to the Oligocene paroxysm. Fig. 19bis, locates, in the middle of the Ionian Sea, the beginning of oceanisation by distension brought about by the northward drift of Europe

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