{"doi":"10.5194/se-2018-122","title":"Control of increased sedimentation on orogenic fold-and-thrust belt structure – Insights into the evolution of the Western Alps","abstract":"<jats:p>Abstract. We use two-dimensional thermo-mechanical models to investigate the potential role of rapid filling of foreland basins in the development of orogenic foreland fold-and-thrust belts. We focus on the extensively studied example of the Western European Alps, where a sudden increase in foreland sedimentation rate is well documented during the mid-Oligocene. Our model results indicate that such an increase in sedimentation rate will temporarily disrupt the formation of an otherwise regular, outward-propagating basement thrust-sheet sequence. The basement thrust active at the time of a sudden increase in sedimentation rate remains active for a longer time and accommodates more shortening than the previous thrusts. As the propagation of deformation into the foreland fold-and-thrust belt is strongly connected to basement deformation, this transient phase appears as a period of slow migration of the distal edge of foreland deformation. The predicted pattern of foreland-basin and thrust-front propagation is strikingly similar to that observed in the North Alpine Foreland Basin and provides an explanation for the coeval mid-Oligocene filling of the Swiss Molasse Basin, due to increased sediment input from the Alpine orogen, and a marked decrease in thrust-front propagation rate. We also compare our results to predictions from critical-taper theory and we conclude, that they are broadly consistent, although, when sedimentation is included, critical-taper theory cannot be used to predict the timing and location of the formation of new basement thrusts. The evolution scenario explored here is common in orogenic foreland basins; hence our results have broad implications for orogenic belts other than the Western Alps.</jats:p>","journal":"Biogeosciences (European Geosciences Union)","year":null,"id":29640,"datarank":0.30428893672439905,"base_score":1.9459101490553132,"endowment":1.9459101490553132,"self_citation_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citation_network_contribution":0.012402414366101991,"self_endowment_contribution":0.29188652235829704,"citer_contribution":0.012402414366101991,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":5,"citers_with_citation_signal":3,"citers_with_endowment":3,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":162941,"name":"Ritske S. Huismans","orcid":"0000-0003-0548-6591","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":162985,"name":"Peter van der Beek","orcid":"0000-0001-9581-3159","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":162984,"name":"Zoltán Erdős","orcid":"0000-0002-7974-7179","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":1.9459101490553132,"endowment":1.9459101490553132,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"18998881","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4243290776","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":1.0571,"citation_percentile":0.75448357,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2018,"count":1},{"year":2020,"count":1},{"year":2021,"count":3},{"year":2024,"count":1}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.5194/se-2018-122","host_type":""},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.5194/se-2018-122","host_type":""},{"url":"https://www.solid-earth-discuss.net/se-2018-122/se-2018-122.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.solid-earth-discuss.net/se-2018-122/","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Geological and Geochemical Analysis","Geology and Paleoclimatology Research","High-pressure geophysics and materials"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Foreland basin","Geology","Fold and thrust belt","Basement","Sedimentation","Thrust","Fold (higher-order function)","Paleontology","Nappe","Geomorphology","Structural basin","Tectonics","Sediment"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Life below water"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-06-09T00:21:58.259483Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}