102 EUROPE/Permian to Recent Evolution Southern Alps and Sardinia (Italy): a synthesis Lithos 45: 305 328 Finger F, Roberts MP, Haunschmid B, Schermaier A, and Steyer HP (1997) Variscan granitoids of central Europe: their typology, potential sources and tectonothermal relations Mineralogy and Petrology 61: 67 96 Floyd PA, Exley CS, and Styles MT (1993) Igneous Rocks of South West England Geological Conservation Review vol London: Chapman & Hall Glennie KW (1999) Lower Permian Rotliegend In: Glennie KW (ed.) Petroleum Geology of the North Sea: Basic Concepts and Recent Advances, pp 137 173 Oxford: Blackwell Science Henk A (1999) Did the Variscides collapse or were they torn apart?: a quantitative evaluation of the driving forces for postconvergent extension in central Europe Tectonics 18: 774 792 Plein E (1995) Norddeutsches Rotliegend Becken Rotlie gend monographie, teil II Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 183: 193 Schaltegger U (1997) Magma pulses in the Central Variscan Belt: episodic melt generation and emplacement during lithospheric thinning Terra Nova 9: 242 245 Sundvoll B, Neumann E R, Larsen BT, and Tuen E (1990) Age relations among Oslo Rift magmatic rocks: implica tions for tectonic and magmatic modelling Tectonophy sics 178: 67 87 Ziegler PA (1990) Geological Atlas of Western and Central Europe The Hague: Shell Internationale Petroleum Maatschappij Permian to Recent Evolution P A Ziegler, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland ß 2005, Elsevier Ltd All Rights Reserved Introduction Large parts of Western and Central Europe (WCE) are occupied by sedimentary basins that contain up to km thick Permian to Cenozoic series (Figure 1) These basins are variably underlain by the Precambrian crust of the East-European-Fennoscandian Craton (see Europe: East European Craton) and its Late Precambrian to Early Palaeozoic sedimentary cover, by the Precambrian Hebridean Craton, by the Caledonian crust of the British Isles (see Europe: Caledonides of Britain and Ireland), the North Sea, Northern Germany and Poland and its Devonian and Carboniferous sedimentary cover, and by the Variscan fold belt in which orogenic activity had ceased at the end of the Westphalian The present crustal configuration of WCE bears little relationship to the Caledonian and Variscan orogenic belts, but is closely related to the geometry of the Late Permian, Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary basins and the Alpine orogen (Figure 2) This reflects that dynamic processes, which governed the evolution of the Late Permian and younger sedimentary basins, had a strong impact on the crustal configuration of WCE, and that the crustal roots of the Caledonian and Variscan orogens had been destroyed shortly after their consolidation During Permian to recent times, the megatectonic setting of WCE underwent repeated changes Correspondingly, dynamic processes controlling the evolution and partial destruction of sedimentary basins also changed through time Therefore, in some areas, basins of differing tectonic origin are stacked on top of one other The following main stage are recognized in the Late Permian to recent evolution of WCE, namely: (i) Late Permian–Early Cretaceous rifting during Pangaea breakup; (ii) Late Cretaceous–Paleocene rifting and early Alpine intraplate compression; and (iii) Eocenerecent opening of the Arctic–North Atlantic and collisional interaction of the Alpine Orogen with its foreland Background: Late Hercynian Wrench Tectonics and Magmatism Following its Late Westphalian consolidation, the Variscan Orogen (see Europe: Variscan Orogeny) and its northern foreland were overprinted during the Stephanian to Early Permian by a system of continent-scale dextral shears, such as the TornquistTeisseyre, Bay of Biscay, Gibraltar-Minas and Agadir fracture zones which were linked by secondary sinistral and dextral shear systems This deformation reflects a change in the Gondwana-Laurussia convergence from oblique collision to a dextral translation that was kinematically linked to continued crustal shortening in the Appalachian (Alleghanian Orogeny) and the Scythian orogens Significantly, wrench tectonics and associated magmatic activity abated in the Variscan domain and its foreland at the transition to the Late Permian in tandem with the consolidation of the Appalachian Orogen Stephanian to Early Permian wrench-induced disruption of the Variscan Orogen and its foreland was accompanied by regional uplift, wide-spread extrusive and intrusive mantle-derived magmatic activity