The Alps and Apennines contain major thrust-associated hydrocarbon reserves and unexplored deep prospects in Mesozoic platform carbonate rocks and in Tertiary foredeep fill. The belts contain an S-curved, originally west-facing plate stack composed of the European craton, a sandwiched ophiolite belt, and the Africa-derived Adria plate, in turn overridden by the Tethyan Dinarides. The Vienna basin and the Calc-Alpine contain hydrocarbon reserves and prospects in upper-plate carbonate rocks, in overridden foredeep fill (Molasse) and shelf (Helveticum). Swiss and French lower-plate prospects depend on depth to foreland basement and on structure of allochthonous massifs. On the back side of the orogene, thrusts antithetic to collision loop around the Po basin (with its major il and gas deposits), involving reworked arc-trench sediments and shelf carbonate rocks. In the southern and central Apennines, the detached shelf unit is exposed. In the northern Apennines, it is thrusted and covered beneath resediments. Refraction seismic data indicate the limits of the thrust configuration. In Calabria and Sicily, antithetic thrusting becomes predominant, outlining a subduction flip with a deep Benioff zone, a volcanic-island arc, and prospects on south-facing shelf carbonate thrust sheets beneath chaotic trench fill. In the Dinarides, surface structure, dimensions, some reflection seismic data, and crustal data suggest a classic thrust belt involving similarly prospective sediments.

End_of_Article - Last_Page 775------------