ALBERT

Description: In the area of the Cenozoic Rhine rift system, crustal and lithospheric thicknesses range between 24 and 35 km, and 60 and 120 km, respectively. This rift system transects the deeply truncated Variscan Orogen and superimposed Permo-Carboniferous wrench-induced troughs, and Late Permian and Mesozoic thermal sag basins. At the time of its Westphalian consolidation, the Variscan Orogen was probably characterized by 45-60 km deep-crustal roots that were associated with its Rheno-Hercynian-Saxo-Thuringian, Saxo-Thuringian-Bohemian and Bohemian-Moldanubian sutures, all of which are transected by the Cenozoic Rhine rift system. During the Stephanian-Early Permian wrench-induced disruption of the Variscan Orogen, subducted lithospheric slabs were detached causing upwelling of hot mantle material. During the resulting thermal surge, partial delamination and/or thermal thinning of the continental mantle-lithosphere induced regional uplift. At the same time the Variscan orogenic roots were destroyed and crustal thicknesses reduced to 28-35 km in response to the combined effects of mantle-derived melts interacting with the lower crust, regional erosional unroofing of the crust and, on a more local scale, by its mechanical stretching. Towards the end of the Early Permian, the potential temperature of the asthenosphere returned to ambient levels. With this, regional, long-term thermal subsidence of the lithosphere commenced, controlling the development of a new system of Late Permian and Mesozoic thermal sag basins. However, the evolution of these basins was repeatedly overprinted by minor short-term subsidence accelerations that reflect the build-up of far-field stresses related to rifting in the Tethyan and Atlantic domains. Comparison of observed and modelled subsidence curves suggests that in the area of the Rhine rift system the lithosphere had equilibrated with the asthenosphere at the end of the Cretaceous at depths of 100-120 km, before it became thermally destabilized again by Cenozoic rifting and plume-related magmatism. Modelled subsidence curves indicate that by the end of Early Permian times the thermal thickness of the remnant mantle-lithosphere ranged between 10 and 50 km in areas that were later incorporated into Mesozoic thermal sag basins; this corresponds to mid-Permian thermal lithosphere thicknesses of 40-80 km.