Thermal and tectono-sedimentary record in the French part of the Upper Rhine Graben (Cretaceous to Oligocene): Oblique rifting development influenced by pre-rift thermal evolution and far-field stress

The tectono-sedimentary evolution of the French of the Upper Rhine Graben (URG) has been investigated through a detailed basin analysis including a revision of the stratigraphy, sedimentology, subsidence distribution and structural network during rifting. The relationship with its western margin (Vosges) is examined through the history of its uplift, as defined by low temperature thermochronology. Five time thickness, structural and Source to Sink (S2S) maps detail the tectono-sedimentary evolution during rifting, including 1) the generation of isolated subsiding basins during the Lutetian to Bartonian and 2) the widening of the rift from the Bartonian to Rupelian to reach its present-day spatial extension. During rift growth, the fault pattern (N010-N020, and N040 to N070) and the thickness distribution highlighted limited change, indicating the development of an oblique rift under a broadly continuous stress regime. A new thermal history of the Vosges Massif is proposed, comprised of 1) a complex pre-rift history with two periods of cooling, (150 to 110 Ma) and (100 to 70 Ma), and 2) a syn -rift local uplift of rift shoulders around 40 Ma, followed by northward tilting associated with the Alpine collision (20 Ma). We tentatively relate the Late Cretaceous thermal event in the URG to the development of a large volcanic province, and possibly to a finger of NNE-ward flowing hot asthenospheric mantle. This episode might have influenced the rift location. We propose that the onset of rifting (around 40 Ma) was also related to the transmission of far-field stresses, particularly during the initiation of the European Continental Rift System, and that rifting developed over crustal anomalies related to mantle flow before rifting.