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Abstract:
The Brianconnais series in the French Western Alps near Briancon bear evidence of extensional deformation preceding Alpine shortening. Most of these structures have been ascribed to Tethyan rifting processes. However, many of them are younger than the initial opening of the Ligurian Tethys ocean (Late Bajocian-Early Bathonian) and have a different orientation than the syn-rift faults. The combined use of sedimentological, stratigraphic, paleostructural and structural methods allows to distinguish the features related to the Tethyan rifting (Early to early Middle Jurassic) from the younger extensional deformation (Late Jurassic) which in part overprinted them: The Tethyan rifting is marked by a subaerial erosional surface (breakup unconformity), bearing karsts which developed along syn-rift faults. The continental to shallow marine diagenetic inprints are analysed (diagenetic log method). The Tethyan syn-rift uplift occurred as pulses from the early Late Triassic (Champcella type units) to the late Early Liassic (Peyre-Haute unit), whereas Tethyan post-rift drowning was synchronous (Late Bathonian thermal subsidence). We propose that the post-break-up extensional deformation (Late Jurassic) is linked with intracontinental rifting of the Atlantic realm (Bay of Biscay and/or Valais rifts). Therefore, the pre-Alpine deformations recorded in the Brianconnais series may result from the interference between different Mesozoic rifting-spreading cycles. Alpine inversion processes are more complex than previously thought since (1) the pre-Alpine structural grain was made of at least two, nearly perpendicular trends, (2) convergence changed in orientation through time, making it possible to reactivate preferentially either one or the other trend, and (3) significant nappe rotations are expected, which may be considered for palinspastic restoration. This has important paleogeographic implications, i.e. the present-day upper units of the Brianconnais pile are not necessarily derived from more distal parts of the Tethyan margin than the lower ones since they may have suffered important lateral, possibly northward, transport before final outward stacking