Deep controls on intraplate basin inversion - Intraplate Earthquakes - page 271

which, together with the occurrence of aseismic creep, distributed earthquake activity and
the large-scale, large-amplitude deformations such as the Indian-Asian collision, testifies
to the well-established deviation of large areas of the interior of continents from rigid plate
tectonics. The inverted sedimentary basins of central Europe represent a classic example of
this phenomenon. We have reviewed the dynamics of how inversion has occurred in these
basins, where tightly constrained observations of the timing of vertical motions reveals that
it occurs in two phases. The first phase, which in Europe begins in the early Late Cretaceous,
displays transpressional shortening involving reverse activation of former normal faults and
the creation of thrusts driven by stresses primarily derived from forces developed at the
convergent southern margin of the Europe plate. The second phase, which in Europe occurs
in the middle Paleocene, displays generally non-ruptural uplift of the earlier developed
inversion ridge and the formation of shallow marginal troughs in more distal positions and
is related to the lithosphere's response to the relaxation of the stress field responsible for the
first inversion phase. The cause and effect relationship of intraplate stresses and intraplate
deformation in Europe in the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene has been indirectly illuminated
by considering a model of that part of the present-day stress field of Europe (and the North
Atlantic) caused by potential energy variations in the present-day lithosphere. An important
feature of intraplate basin inversion in Europe is that the causative stress field must have
been favourably orientated with respect to pre-existing structures in the lithosphere and,
further, that the stresses derived from plate boundary forces have not been destructively
interfered with by the stresses derived from potential energy variations.
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