Post-collisional tectonics in the northern Cottian Alps (Italian western Alps).

ield mapping and structural analysis have allowed us to characterise the fault geometry and the post-metamorphic tectonics of an area located in the Northern Cottian Alps (inner Western Alps). Two main faulting stages were distinguished here. The first (Oligocene?-Early Miocene) is related to the development of an E-W-striking left-normal shear zone. This shear zone is interpreted as an antithetical of two regional, N-S right-lateral structures: the Col del Lis-Trana Deformation Zone (LTZ) and the Colle delle Finestre Deformation Zone (CFZ). The second faulting stage (post-Early Miocene) is related mainly to the development of N-S normal faults, coeval with the extensional reactivation of the LTZ and the CFZ. We discuss this kinematic evolution in the framework of the geodynamic evolution of the Western Alps.