- journal_title：Geology
- Contributor：Uwe Ring ; Lothar Ratschbacher ; Wolfgang Frisch
- Publisher：Geological Society of America
- Date：1988-
- Format：text/html
- Language：en
- Identifier：10.1130/0091-7613(1988)016<0696:PBKITA>2.3.CO;2
- journal_abbrev：Geology
- issn：0091-7613
- volume：16
- issue：8
- firstpage：696
The Arosa zone forms a melange complex along the Penninic/Austroalpine boundary and belongs to the main Alpine suture zone. Accretion and plate collision occurred during Cretaceous and lower Tertiary time. A mixture of ophiolitic rocks and pelagic sediments is imbricated with flysch and blocks of Austroalpine (continental) derivation. We present a description of deformation structures, an analysis of strain, and a kinematic interpretation based on structural work. Deformation histories of imbricates show a translation path that was west-directed between ca. 110 and 50 Ma and north-directed thereafter. The kinematics of the Arosa zone agrees with the recently deduced displacement history of the Austroalpine units in the Eastern Alps during the Cretaceous orogeny. This calls for a predominantly top-to-the-west imbrication of Austroalpine and Penninic units and is in contradiction to what is inferred in most models of the Eastern Alps. A direct relation between the deformation along the Austroalpine margin and relative plate motion existed.