Tertiary paleogeographic and tectonostratigraphic evolution of the Rhenish Triple Junction

At the perimeter of the North Alpine Foreland, temporal and causal relationships existed between the Tertiary tectono-sedimentary sequences, paleogeographic and paleoenvironmental changes and rifting phases of the Rhenish Triple Junction and the tectonomagmatic periods of uplift and volcanism of the Rhenish Massif. However, a correlation of phases of uplift and volcanic activity in the area of the Rhenish Massif could not be established. The inferred interrelationship is based on sequence stratigraphic analyses and subsequent paleogeographic reconstructions. It indicates that a common kinematic framework existed for the polyphase development of the Rhenish Triple Junction and the Rhenish Massif from the Middle Eocene onwards. This system included essentially coeval changes in the regional tectonics, which repeatedly modified the tectono-sedimentary and paleogeographic setting of the graben system.