OROGEN-PARALLEL EXTENSION AND TOPOGRAPHIC GRADIENTS EAST OF THE TAUERN WINDOW: A POSSIBLE INDICATION OF INTRA-OROGENIC RAFT TECTONICS?

N S shortening in front of the Adriatic indenter, surface uplift and exhumation of the Tauern window area characterize the Late Oligocene to recent tectonic evolution of central sectors of the Eastern Alps. The resulting structures are typified by eastward tilted blocks, separated by extensional corridors. The eastward retreat of the subduction zone in front of the Carpathians induced strong Miocene E--W extension and basement subsidence in the Pannonian basin realm; surface uplift in the Tauern window area created E--W topographic and exhumation gradients, allowing the brittle upper crust to move along the mid-crustal ductile decollément level towards the east. Subject of research is the area between the viscous Penninic zone of the eastern Tauern Window and the overlying brittle Austroalpine basement units with deeply eroded/inverted basins on top. We use published apatite fission track (AFT) and apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He (AHe, ZHe) data from two sections of the Hohe Tauern to the east to constrain the E--W exhumation gradient. A W--E section along the southern Northern Calcareous Alps and sections along the Mur-Mürz fault zones are included for comparison, too. Based on AFT, ZHe and AHe data and assuming a thermal gradient of 30 °C/km, a tilt angle of ca. 4° is found similar for both basement sections. This low gradient is close to a gradient typical for viscous material with low shear strength. These relationships imply that a gravitational collapse alone might be sufficient to explain the eastward motion of the brittle Austroalpine crust over a thick viscous Penninic layer. Flow above a low-friction viscous layer also explains the eastward tilting of blocks, including the Saualpe and Koralpe blocks, along ca. N--S antithetic high-angle dextral transtensional faults. The present-day structure east of the Tauern window within the Eastern Alps could be explained, therefore, by intra-orogenic raft tectonics, which represents the motion of an inclined brittle upper layer on a highly ductile, plastically deformed lower layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]