Abstract The Alps and Western Carpathians constitute that part of the Alpine-Mediterranean orogenic belt which advances furthest to the north into Central Europe. They were formed by a series of Jurassic to Tertiary subduction and collision events affecting several Mesozoic ocean basins, continental margins, and continental fragments. The Western Alps form a pronounced, westward-convex arc around which the strike of the tectonic units changes by almost 180° ( Fig. 18.1 ). The Western Carpathians are a northward-convex arc of similar size but with minor curvature. The two arcs are connected by an almost straight, WSW-ENE striking portion including the Eastern Alps Stresses produced by tectonic processes in the Alps also influenced the tectonics of large parts of central and northern Europe, leading, for example, to basin inversion and strike-slip faulting. In this chapter, we will discuss the present-day structure of the different tectonic units in the Alps and Western Carpathians in relation to their palaeotectonic history in order to illustrate the plate tectonic evolution using geological data. Many tectonic problems of the Alps and Western Carpathians are still unsolved, although dramatic progress has been made, especially over the last c. 20 years. Therefore, some of the interpretations presented below are still controversial and do not always express the opinion of all three authors. Given that the main theme of this book is Central Europe, the Southern and Western Alps are discussed in less detail than those parts of the Alps which belong to Central Europe: the Central Alps, the Eastern Alps and the Western Carpathians.

Abstract Major discoveries in metamorphic petrology, as well as other geological disciplines, have been made in the Alps. The regional distribution of Late Cretaceous–Tertiary metamorphic conditions, documented in post-Hercynian metasediments across the entire Alpine belt from Corsica–Tuscany in the west to Vienna in the east, is presented in this paper. In view of the uneven distribution of information, we concentrate on type and grade of metamorphism; and we elected to distinguish between metamorphic paths where either pressure and temperature peaked simultaneously, or where the maximum temperature was reached at lower pressures, after a significant temperature increase on the decompression path. The results show which types of process caused the main metamorphic imprint: a subduction process in the western Alps, a collision process in the central Alps, and complex metamorphic structures in the eastern Alps, owing to a complex geodynamic and metamorphic history involving the succession of the two types of process. The western Alps clearly show a relatively simple picture, with an internal (high-pressure dominated) part thrust over an external greenschist to low-grade domain, although both metamorphic domains are structurally very complex. Such a metamorphic pattern is generally produced by subduction followed by exhumation along a cool decompression path. In contrast, the central Alps document conditions typical of subduction (and partial accretion), followed by an intensely evolved collision process, often resulting in a heating event during the decompression path of the early-subducted units. Subduction-related relics and (collisional/decompressional) heating phenomena in different tectonic edifices characterize the Tertiary evolution of the Eastern Alps. The Tuscan and Corsica terrains show two different kinds of evolution, with Corsica resembling the western Alps, whereas the metamorphic history in the Tuscan domain is complex owing to the late evolution of the Apennines. This study confirms that careful analysis of the metamorphic evolution of metasediments at the scale of an entire orogen may change the geodynamic interpretation of mountain belts.