The role of structural inheritance in continental break-up and exhumation of Alpine Tethyan mantle (Canavese Zone, Western Alps)

The Canavese Zone (CZ) in the Western Alps represents the remnant of the distal passive margin of the Adria microplate, which was stretched and thinned during the Jurassic opening of the Alpine Tethys. Through detailed geological mapping, stratigraphic and structural analyses, we document that the continental break-up of Pangea and tectonic dismemberment of the Adria distal margin, up to mantle rocks exhumation and oceanization, did not simply...