Structural evolution in thrust belts and relative plate motion: The Upper Pennine Piemont Zone of the internal Alps, southwest Switzerland and northwest Italy

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Abstract
The earliest (Ll) extension lineation of the polyphase deformation sequence in the Combin and Zermatt‐Saas Fee Units of the Piemont Zone of the upper Pennine nappes trends roughly NW‐SE and the geochronological and stratigraphical constraints indicate that the nappe transport and the associated stretching lineation occurred between about 100 and 70 Ma. This accords in a general way with the relative motion of the African Plate to the European Plate during the late Cretaceous as determined from reconstructions of the opening of the Atlantic Ocean and suggests that late Cretaceous thrusting in the Swiss Alps was driven fairly directly by the Africa/Europe plate motion.