Upper Rhine Graben: Role of preexisting structures during rift evolution

The evolution of the Cenozoic Upper Rhine Graben was controlled by a repeatedly changing stress field and the reactivation of a complex set of crustal discontinuities that had come into evidence during Permo‐Carboniferous times. A comparison of the spatial and temporal thickness distribution of synrift deposits with preexisting fault patterns permits to infer a sequence of distinct basin subsidence phases that can be related to changes in the ambient stress field. Reactivation of a system of late Palaeozoic fault systems, outlining troughs and highs, controlled the nucleation of initially separated middle and late Eocene basins, the depocenters of which coincided with a preexisting WSW‐ENE trend. During Oligocene crustal extension the individual basins coalesced, resulting in the development of the SSW‐NNE striking Upper Rhine Graben. During the late Oligocene (Chattian) change in stress field, the Upper Rhine Graben was probably reactivated as a dextral strike‐slip system with the central graben segment forming a releasing bend. During the early Miocene (Aquitanian), a major reorientation of the regional stress field is held responsible for the main subsidence phase of the northern parts of the Upper Rhine Graben. This is reflected by a counterclockwise rotation and northeastward shift of the depocenter axis and later by the middle Miocene uplift and erosion of the southern parts of the Upper Rhine Graben. During the Plio‐Quaternary, the Upper Rhine Graben was reactivated as a sinistral strike‐slip system with the central graben segment forming a restraining bend.