The ancient European basement blocks—Preliminary note

The major tectonic features of our continents are generally supposed to be younger than the deformed rocks which they transgress. During the last two or three decades observations began, to accumulate which prove that several, if not all, of the main fractures or fracture zones in Europe are old and have been active practically during all the tectogenetic periods of the Earth's history. This indicates that the Earth's crust was divided into polygonal fields or blocks of considerable depth or thickness during an early stage of its history. In the following, the author will speak of “basement blocks” which are separated by “geofractures” or “geosutures.” Since the geanticlines are of later origin they are profoundly influenced by the shape and behavior of the respective basement blocks.