!!!Geologie Österreichs

Geology of Austria: The Austrian  Alps (Eastern Alps) belong to the 
Alpine mountain system. It consists of various kinds of rock from the 
Mesozoic Tethys marine strata, which separated the European plate from 
the African plate (theory of plate tectonics). Slow collision of the 
plates in a north-south direction caused multiphase mountain building 
(mainly in the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods), inner buckling and 
superimposition of the various series of rocks (polycyclic relief).

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Deeper-lying levels of the Alpine range have been revealed by erosion 
(e.g. "Tauernfenster" window), allowing a more precise analysis of the 
internal mountain structure. After the end of the principal phases of 
mountain formation, the basins developed in the Alpine range (Vienna 
Basin, Styrian Basin, Mur-Muerz channel, Klagenfurt Basin, Lavanttal 
Basin). The most important is the Vienna Basin, with its rich 
petroleum and natural gas deposits in the sedimentary rock.

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The Waldviertel and Muehlviertel regions ( Bohemian Massif) form the 
Austrian share of the Variscan mountain system; today this granite 
tableland represents the roots of a Palaeozoic mountain system with 
the oldest rock formation in Austria, the Bittesch gneiss (1.38 
billion years).

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Between the Bohemian Massif and the Alpine range to the south lie the 
plains of the  Molasse Zone; these plains are composed of the 
sediments of the latter. In the course of later mountain building 
phases (Tertiary) southern parts of the molasse zone were superimposed 
by the Alpine range. The Alps and the molasse zone were last shaped by 
the consolidated thick ice cover during the Ice Age.

!Literature
A. Tollmann, Geologie von Oesterreich, 3 vols., 
1977-1989; R. Oberhauser, Der geologische Bau Oesterreichs, 1980.


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