Abstract The voluminous continental margin volcanic arc of the Antarctic Peninsula is one of the major tectonic features of West Antarctica. It extends from the Trinity Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands in the north to Alexander Island and Palmer Land in the south, a distance of c. 1300 km, and was related to east-directed subduction beneath the continental margin. Thicknesses of exposed volcanic rocks are up to c. 1.5 km, and the terrain is highly dissected by erosion and heavily glacierized. The arc was active from Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous times until the Early Miocene, a period of climate cooling from subtropical to glacial. The migration of the volcanic axis was towards the trench over time along most of the length of the arc. Early volcanism was commonly submarine but most of the volcanism was subaerial. Basaltic–andesitic stratocones and large silicic composite volcanoes with calderas can be identified. Other rock associations include volcaniclastic fans, distal tuff accumulations, coastal wetlands and glacio-marine eruptions. Other groups of volcanic rocks of Jurassic age in Alexander Island comprise accreted oceanic basalts within an accretionary complex and volcanic rocks erupted within a rift basin along the continental margin that apparently predate subduction.

Abstract The Miocene of the Western Alpine foreland basin were deposited in a north–south seaway along the active alpine orogenic front. In the subalpine massifs and the southern Jura mountains, the revised Miocene stratigraphy documents a detailed chronology of thrust propagation at the western alpine front, where tectonic activity had a primary influence on seaway palaeogeographical evolution. Here we propose nine palaeogeographical maps during the Miocene, the first of which depicts the initial Miocene transgression at c. 21.0 Ma. Between c. 18.05 and c. 12.0 Ma, a westward retreat of the Miocene Sea occurred in response to activation of the basal thrust of the Belledonne massif, which in turn triggered successive fault zones from east to west. At c. 10.0 Ma, a major uplift phase intervened and induced a rapid southward retreat of the Miocene Sea. The reconstructed palaeogeographical maps outline the main controls on the foreland basin seaway evolution: (1) the timing of the main thrusts; (2) the inherited palaeotopography; and (3) eustatic sea-level changes during the Miocene. These reconstructions are integrated at the basin scale, highlighting the southward- to westward-directed seaway migration in response to the Belledonne thrust activity that deeply shaped the palaeogeographical evolution during the early to middle Miocene.

Abstract A concise history of the discipline of metamorphic petrology is presented, from the eighteenth-century concepts of Werner and Hutton to the end of the twentieth century.

Abstract Synthesis of structural, petrological and geochronological data for the Maures–Tanneron Massif and its integration in the framework of adjacent massifs (i.e. Sardinia and Corsica) has allowed us to propose a new model of evolution for the southern Variscan belt. After Siluro-Devonian subduction associated with high-pressure–low-temperature (HP/LT) metamorphism M 0 (c. 10–15 °C km −1) and subsequent Carboniferous nappes stacking, the belt underwent strong reworking related to back-thrusting. Nappes stacking and back-thrusting were associated with typical Barrovian metamorphism M 1 (c. 20–30 °C km −1) starting at 360 Ma that progressively evolved to higher temperature metamorphisms M 2 (c. 40–60 °C km −1) and M 3 (c. 60–80 °C km −1) during 330–300 Ma in the internal part of the belt. Progressive increase of the thermal gradient is interpreted as a consequence of gravitational instabilities triggered in the partially molten orogenic root. Continuous compressive forces applied to the belt allowed vertical extrusion of the orogenic root in fold-dome structures. The mass transfer is accommodated by orogen-parallel transpressive shearing synchronous with M 3 during Late Carboniferous time. The orogenic wedge is characterized by two main tectono-metamorphic units decoupled by a major shear belt: an Internal Zone with migmatites and syntectonic granitoids, where HP relicts have been exhumed, and an External Zone that escaped the late HT event and preserved precious structures.