Tertiary tectonics of the Dannemarie Basin, upper Rhine graben, and regional implications

Recently released seismic reflection data, together with previous seismic and well data, are used to describe the development of the Dannemarie basin, in the SW end of the Upper Rhine Graben. The Dannemarie Basin was formed during the main rifting phase of the Upper Rhine Graben as an asymmetrical graben trending NE–SW. Post-rift tectonism shifted the depocenter southward and changed the overall shape of the basin. Miocene Jura compression did not result in the formation of folds, as in the adjacent Mulhouse Horst. Strike slip faulting was dominant in the post-rift period and new faults were created, most notably the north trending and transpressional Belfort Fault. The boundary of the Dannemarie Basin with the Vosges Mountains is part of a restraining bend, which may account for the uplift of the southernmost part of the Vosges Mountains.