The Western Alps, from Rift to Passive Margin to Orogenic Belt

London, UK

• 1: From geosynclinal theory to plate tectonics in understanding folded belts2/3 The birth of the Alpine fold belt at the expense of the now vanished Tethyan Ocean and its continental margins4: The permanence of Hercynian heritage in Tethyan then Alpine structures5 et 6: The initiation of Tethyan rifting on the future European margin7: The evolution of Tethyan rifting on the future European margin and the transition to oceanic spreading8: The Valais Ocean controversy and the change from Tethyan spreading to Alpin shortening9: The Tethyan margin in Corsica10: A brief summary of the Apulian margin in the Eastern Alps in Italy and in the Grisons of Switzerland11: Alpine ophiolites in the Western Alps. Reconstruction of the Tethyan oceanic crust12: Recapitulation et overview13: From extension to shortening ; inversion on the European Tethyan margin and th start of orogenesis in the Western and Central Alps14: The birth of the Western and Central Alps : subduction, obduction, collision15: The Alps – Neotectonics16: Summary, discussion. Interpretation of Alpine stratigraphic sections in terms of Sequence Stratigraphy