The Alpine Mountain-building and the Later Tertiary

Abstract

After the Carboniferous no geosynclinal rocks were formed in Britain. The European geosyncline during the Mesozoic was a complex one situated approximately along the line of the Mediterranean and the Alps, occupied by the geosynclinal sea known to geologists as Tethys. This geosyncline underwent several preliminary folding movements, culminating in a main phase in the mid- or late Oligocene when the Alpine fold mountains were formed.