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Alpine Workshop

The Alps have always fascinated travellers because of the extraordinary variety of its stunning landscapes. The beauty of this mountain belt is the result of several geological processes that have modelled throughout time the Alpine region. Understanding the geological history of this belt, in the past as well as in the present, is fundamental to unravel mechanisms leading to mountain building and its subsequent erosion, but also to civil engineering (for tunneling) as well as to resource management (for hydroelectricity). This collection covers contributions across multiple disciplines (tectonics and structural geology, petrology and geochemistry, sedimentology and basin analysis, geophysics and geomorphology), relevant to the history and present dynamics of the Alpine belt.

Special Issue Editors:


Paola Manzotti, University of Stockholm

Othmar Muentener, Université de Lausanne,

Daniel Marty, Naturhistorisches Museum Basel

Stefan Schmid, Institut für Geophysik ETH



  1. The thermo-kinematic evolution of the eastern Aar Massif, Swiss Alps, was investigated using peak temperature data estimated from Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material and detailed field analyses. New an...

    Authors: Lukas Nibourel, Alfons Berger, Daniel Egli, Stefan Heuberger and Marco Herwegh
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2021 114:9
  2. The Voirons Flysch (Caron in Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae 69:297–308, 1976), is a flysch sequence aggregated into the sedimentary accretionary prism of the Chablais and Swiss Prealps. Its palaeogeographic loca...

    Authors: Jérémy Ragusa, Lina Maria Ospina-Ostios, Pascal Kindler and Mario Sartori
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2021 114:8
  3. The Rocca Canavese Thrust Sheets Unit (RCTU) is a subduction-related mélange that represents the eastern-most complex of the Sesia–Lanzo Zone (SLZ), bounded by the Periadriatic (Canavese) Lineament that separa...

    Authors: Manuel Roda, Michele Zucali, Luca Corti, Roberto Visalli, Gaetano Ortolano and Maria Iole Spalla
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2021 114:6
  4. Exhumation of basement rocks on the seafloor is a worldwide feature along passive continental margins and (ultra-) slow-spreading environments, documented by dredging, drilling or direct observations by diving...

    Authors: Thierry Decrausaz, Othmar Müntener, Paola Manzotti, Romain Lafay and Carl Spandler
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2021 114:3
  5. Microscale dating of distinct domains in minerals that contain relics of multiple metamorphic events is a key tool to characterize the polyphase evolution of complex metamorphic terranes. Zircon and allanite f...

    Authors: Alice Vho, Daniela Rubatto, Pierre Lanari and Daniele Regis
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:24
  6. A revision of late Palaeozoic tectonics recorded in Tuscany, Calabria and Corsica is here presented. We propose that, in Tuscany, upper Carboniferous-Permian shallow-marine to continental sedimentary basins, c...

    Authors: Giancarlo Molli, Andrea Brogi, Alfredo Caggianelli, Enrico Capezzuoli, Domenico Liotta, Amalia Spina and Ivan Zibra
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:23
  7. Many metamorphosed basement complexes in the Alps are polymetamorphic and their origin and geological history may only be deciphered by detailed geochronology on the different members including oceanic element...

    Authors: Franz Neubauer, Yongjiang Liu, Ruihong Chang, Sihua Yuan, Shengyao Yu, Johann Genser, Boran Liu and Qingbin Guan
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:21
  8. The pre-Alpine history of the Venaco-Ghisoni Unit, a continental unit belonging to the Alpine Corsica (France), was reconstructed on the basis of U–Pb dating of zircon and allanite. Zircon was separated from a...

    Authors: Maria Di Rosa, Federico Farina, Pierre Lanari and Michele Marroni
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:19
  9. The Grobgneis complex, located in the eastern Austroalpine unit of the Eastern Alps, exposes large volumes of pre-Alpine porphyric metagranites, sometimes associated with small gabbroic bodies. To better under...

    Authors: Sihua Yuan, Franz Neubauer, Yongjiang Liu, Johann Genser, Boran Liu, Shengyao Yu, Ruihong Chang and Qingbin Guan
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:18
  10. In the Western Alps, different shear zones acting at different depths have been investigated for explaining multistage exhumation of (U)HP units, and several exhumation models have been proposed for explaining...

    Authors: Stefano Ghignone, Gianni Balestro, Marco Gattiglio and Alessandro Borghi
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:17
  11. Metamorphic olivine formed by the reaction of antigorite + brucite is widespread in serpentinites that crop out in glacier-polished outcrops at the Unterer Theodulglacier, Zermatt. Olivine overgrows a relic ma...

    Authors: Elias D. Kempf, Jörg Hermann, Eric Reusser, Lukas P. Baumgartner and Pierre Lanari
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:16

    The Correction to this article has been published in Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:20

  12. Ion probe 208Pb/232Th fissure monazite ages from the Argentera External Massif and from the high-pressure units of the Western Alps provide new insights on its Cenozoic tectonic evolution. Hydrothermal monazite c...

    Authors: Emmanuelle Ricchi, Edwin Gnos, Daniela Rubatto, Martin John Whitehouse and Thomas Pettke
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:15

    The Correction to this article has been published in Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:22

  13. This study presents geochronological and geochemical data from newly dated Permian granitic orthogneisses associated with the Eclogite-Gneiss unit (EGU) from the southernmost part of the Austroalpine nappe sta...

    Authors: Ruihong Chang, Franz Neubauer, Yongjiang Liu, Johann Genser, Wei Jin, Sihua Yuan, Qingbin Guan, Qianwen Huang and Weimin Li
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:14
  14. The Mont Fort nappe, former uppermost subunit of the Grand St-Bernard nappe system, is an independent tectonic unit with specific structural and stratigraphic characteristics (Middle Penninic, NW Italy and SW ...

    Authors: Adrien Pantet, Jean-Luc Epard and Henri Masson
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:13
  15. The Briançonnais Domain (Western Alps) represented the thinned continental margin facing the Piemonte-Liguria Ocean, later shortened during the Alpine orogeny. In the external part of the External Briançonnais...

    Authors: Michel Ballèvre, Audrey Camonin, Paola Manzotti and Marc Poujol
    Citation: Swiss Journal of Geosciences 2020 113:12