The Mesozoic and Tertiary basins of the Bohemian Massif and their evolution

Abstract The Bohemian Massif is a major, positive element within the structural framework of the Alpine-Carpathian foreland. Its basement became consolidated during the Variscan orogeny. Crustal thicknesses range between 32.5 km and 40 km. During the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian the Bohemian Massif became dissected by a conjugate system of wrench faults which controlled the accumulation of a continental, coal-bearing series. Late Permian red beds were deposited on intramontane topographic depressions. In Triassic to mid-Jurassic times the Bohemian Massif formed a high from which clastics were shed into adjacent basins. During the Late Jurassic and Late Cretaceous it became transected by NW-SE trending sedimentary basins. The sub-Hercynian and Laramide phases of foreland compression resulted in deformation and uplift of the Bohemian Massif. The Eger Graben, a 350 km long volcanotectonic zone cutting across the Bohemian Massif in an ENE-WSW direction, came into evidence during the Oligocene and is at present inactive. The crust of the Bohemian Massif forms the autochthonous substratum of the outer Carpathians, which are paralleled by the Neogene Carpathian foredeep. The Neogene, intramontane, neo-autochthonous Vienna Basin is superimposed on the Alpine-Carpathian nappe systems and developed under a tensional setting.