Linking Gondwana inheritance to Alpine paleogeography in the Northern Dora-Maira Massif (Western Alps)

Inherited structures in rifted continental margins strongly influence the architecture and evolution of collisional orogens. The northern Dora-Maira Massif in the Western Alps (NW Italy) preserves records of such inheritances, capturing the transition from Gondwana inheritance to Alpine convergence. New lithostratigraphic and structural data, together with U–Pb zircon dating, reveal a long-lasting tectonostratigraphic and/or magmatic evolution during (i) pre-Permian, (ii) Permian, (iii) Triassic and (iv) Jurassic time intervals. The heterogeneous Paleozoic basement consists of pre-Variscan micaschist and metabasite, and was intruded by Permian igneous bodies now corresponding to the Borgone metagranite and Luserna augen gneiss. The basement was later overlain by a Mesozoic cover made up of Lower Triassic siliciclastic sediments, a Middle to Upper Triassic carbonate platform and Lower to Middle Jurassic syn-rift deposits linked to the opening of the Ligurian–Piedmont Ocean Basin. Our results highlight that the Dora-Maira Massif was located within a transitional paleogeographic domain, emphasizing the role of pre-rift architecture in governing margin segmentation. Successive cycles of sedimentation, magmatism, and rifting created structural and rheological heterogeneities that may have localized strain during the Cenozoic Alpine-related overprinting. The Dora-Maira case illustrates that deep-time inherited structures and tectonostratigraphic settings continue to influence rifting, subduction, and collision, offering a broader framework for understanding the dynamics of orogens worldwide.