Các nhánh chính bao gồm khoáng vật học, thạch học, địa hóa học, cổ sinh vật học, địa tầng học, địa chất cấu tạo, kỹ thuật địa chất và trầm tích học. | 160 F. Roure et al. Fig. 9 Thickness of the European lithosphere as determined by a seismic tomography b surface wave tomography c geothermics d magnetotellurics after Artemieva et al. 2006 250 Km 100 150 200 200 Km 100 150 Surface I waves deeper crust and mantle rocks depends on their chemical composition temperature and pressure conditions combination of burial and regional heat flow and their water content. Furthermore the crust and lithospheric mantle may be locally weakened by the occurrence of pre-existing discontinuities related to earlier deformation phases Ziegler et al. 1998 Ziegler and Cloetingh 2004 . Such inherited weakness zones represented by . crustal scale faults or eclogitized continental crust inserted into the sub-crustal mantle may be characterized by considerably reduced strengths as compared to surrounding crustal and mantle domains. Analogue modelling techniques were first developed and are now routinely used by many laboratories to simulate thin-skinned deformation of sedimentary rocks see Colletta et al. 1991 and references therein but also of the lithosphere as a whole Sokoutis et al. 2005 2007 and references therein using specific analogue materials for modelling either brittle or ductile sediments the crust or the mantle. Further numerical developments are however required when investigating the effects of other parameters during basin evolution such as porefluid pressure temperature and mineralogical phase transitions. In the following paragraphs we shall summarize some recent advances achieved in documenting and understanding the rheology and long term behaviour of the European lithosphere as well as a few dedicated case studies outlining 1 the incidence of deep active décollements on surface topography 2 the respective effects of coupling and strain partitioning between the foreland and hinterland during the development of selected intramontane basins as well as the overall dynamics of 3 intracratonic basins and 4 passive margins.
