Penninic

The Penninic is one of the main geological units of the Alps. Its rocks belonged to the greater part of the depositional area of the Tethys, the north west tip of the Jurassic ( 206-144 mya ) between the European continental crust and the calculated to the African continent Apulian continental plate was. In the Alpine folding, the rocks of the Penninikums were pushed together and pushed far beyond to the north and west of the European continental margin. So from the Penninic created the Pennine ceilings.

• 2.1 clip ceiling

Structure and content of rock

The structural framework of the Penninic Alps above the Helvetic ( sheared sediments of the European continent ) and the Austroalpine / Southern Alps ( components of the upper continental plate ).

Among the rocks of the Penninikums can be divided into three parts in the Upper, Middle and Lower Penninic make, which in turn consist of a complicated deformed tectonic stacking blankets, which are attributed to a common room of origin. Commonly used is also the same major subdivision in North, Central and Südpenninikum, alternatively, high-, medium - and Tiefpenninikum.

Upper Penninic (Piedmont zone)

The rocks of this unit are from the Piedmont - Ligurian ocean, a sub-basin of the Tethys oceanic front of the edge of the Apulian plate. For superior or high - Penninic (Piedmont, Liguria) include the südpenninischen ophiolites that occur together with Grisons shales and radiolarites (a typical deep sea sediment). Another characteristic of the rock Penninikums is the helminthoids flysch. The ophiolites are not the subduction fallen victim remains of a larger ocean, consequently, have great importance as evidence of the existence of oceanic Lithosphärenmaterials to. Such larger Opholithmassen form in the Alps also some peaks, the most famous is the Großglockner in the Hohe Tauern in Austria. For the Upper Penninic include the rocks of the Préalpes and the tectonic mélange of the Matrei zone scales.

Middle Penninic ( Briançonnais zone)

The rocks of the Middle Penninikums come from a high area in the Alpine ocean, referred to as Briançonnais. It represented a " continental" high zone during the south to Piedmont Zone and the northern Valais zone were deeper depositional areas. The exact geological position of Briançonnais is further subject of research. It is discussed the origin than the rest of Terrans or former eastern tip of the Iberian Peninsula today. It is clear that the threshold Briançonnais the Valais trough ( Valais zone) separated in the north from Piedmont Ocean in the south.

The Middle Penninic contains crystalline ceiling, coal bearing strata of the Paleozoic (Zone Houillière ) and it sheared Mesozoic sedimentary covers, consisting of sandstones, mudstones and Kalksanden ( in the Valais trough ) and shallow marine limestones and marls (on the Briançonnais threshold).

Lower Penninic ( Valais zone)

The Lower Penninic contains, among other oceanic sediments and ophiolites, Bündnerschiefer and the Rhenodanubian flysch. It is now regarded as a remnant of an accretionary prism from the open to the Atlantic nordpenninischen Valais Ocean, are mixed from the ocean and from the outermost edge of the European continent together in the rocks. Limestone and shale of the Lower Penninikums today form the mountains between Brig and Prättigau.

The classical example for Penninikum calculated deepest units of the Penninic ceiling stack contain rocks that originate from the transition between ocean and the outer regions of the European continental shelf. These are collectively known today as the Subpenninikum.

Tectonic construction

The Penninic is often claimed strong tectonic in its entirety as the average wholesale unit between the Adriatic upper plate and the European lower plate. Unlike the Helvetic not only the sedimentary overburden, but also the crystalline basement was involved in the nappe with. Typical of its construction are large, set wrinkles with gneiss cores as well as the frequently occurring, large-scale shearing of the covering sediments from their original base, especially on Evaporitserien the Triassic. The sheared sediments were generally transported further north than its sub-camps, so that the crystalline basement remained in the south. Narrow remnants of sediments make there a distinction between the different ceiling units possible.

The Penninic was pushed back over at a late stage of the Alpine orogeny at the Periadriatic seam south and southwest to the Southern Alps, so that the nappe stack was verfaltet in a complicated manner. In addition, it came in Ticino to a profound upheaval. The complete Penninikum was to raised in a north-south - trending structure, the Lepontine Dom up to 16 km. For this reason, the units of Tiefpenninikums there are open to the surface.

On the Penninic nappe stack of Switzerland and France, a large residual is preserved Eastern Alps rocks in the area of the Dent Blanche, the Dent Blanche Blanket. Approximately at the border between Switzerland and Austria, the Pennine ceiling are almost completely overshadowed by the Austroalpine nappes. They occur ( Gargellenfenster, Engadine window, Tauern window and Rechnitz window ) only in the Penninic Flysch of the Alps to the northern edge accompanying Flyschzone days and in some tectonic windows in the east.

Clip ceiling

High and Mittelpenninische sediments have been sheared from their crystalline surface and pushed far beyond to the north. They are now considered by the rest of the Penninic front isolated tectonic cliffs. The ceilings of the Préalpes lie on the tectonically deeper Helvetic ceiling, in the far north even to run over molasse. This form tectonically highly stressed ultrahelvetische sediments the mediating layer between the Préalpes and its sub-camps.

The ceiling clip form a long series of individual deposits, which stretch in a wide arc up to Annecy in France ( Anne - ceiling) between the East of Lucerne ( myths - ceiling) in Switzerland. The largest contiguous deposits are two large, on the eastern tip of Lake Geneva merging units: in the southwest of the Chablais Prealps, south of Lake Geneva in the Chablais, and in the northeast the Préalpes Romandes in the Fribourg Alps.

The Préalpes be divided from bottom to top in the following units:

• The sneezing ceiling, which only occurs in the Préalpes Romandes and there the southernmost unit of the clip ceiling forms
• Préalpes the median, they are divided into the Préalpes Plastique (especially soft, plastic flysch rocks ) and the overlying Préalpes rigid (especially hard, rigid limestones )
• The breccia blanket, which is found only on the southern part of the Préalpes median
• The Nappe Supérieure, she is once again divided the Gets ceiling, the Simmen - ceiling, the ceiling and the Dranses Gurnigel ceiling.

Occurrence

Larger parts of the Alpine region consist of rocks of Penninikums, especially in the Western Alps and the Swiss Alps. The Western Alps south of the Rhône- Simplon line consist almost entirely of rocks of Pennikums, which are upstream to the west external crystalline massifs and tectonically deformed overburden. In the Swiss region, the areas are south of the Aare Massif and north of the Periadriatic seam attributed to the Penninic. In the cliffs ceiling east of Lucerne and the Dent- Blanche- ceiling Penninkum the store here remains the unity of the Austroalpine on. The western Alpine Penninic immersed in Liechtenstein and Graubünden from under the Austroalpine. East of the Rhine, the Penninkum is almost complete overlay the Eastern Alpine ceilings.

In the Eastern Alps it is developed under these ceilings only in some areas on the surface. The Pennine ceiling heard the flysch (sandstone zone ), which follows the Alpine northern border in Bavaria and Austria on long distances. In the Alps the Penninic even with crystalline rocks appear in geological windows, for example in Gargellenfenster in Vorarlberg, in the Engadine window, the incoming enough to Prutz in Tyrol; in the Tauern window between the burner and furrow Liesertal and Rechnitz window at the east end of the Alps.

Origin of the name

The term derives from the Latin name Penninikum Mons Penninus or Summus Penninus for the Great St. Bernard Pass and Vallis Penninus ( Vallis Poeninus ) for the Valais from. Originally, the name probably based on a Celtic or pre-celtic word for pass or mountain ( cf. Gaelic ben, Welsh pen ), but was later with a Celtic and then Roman deity equated ( Jupiter Jupiter Poeninus Penninus or after a reference wanted to connect to the Carthaginians ( Poenus ) Hannibal ).