Geology and basement structure of Europe. (a) Main Alpine tectonic elements and synthetic geology of Europe, redrawn after the 1:5 Million International Geological Map of Europe (CCGM). (a) Present-day topography and main geotectonic features of western Europe (A/RM: Ardennes/Rhenish Massif; GB: German Basin; BM: Bohemian Massif; MC: Massif Central; Carp.: Carpathian Mountains; Pyr.: Pyrenees). (b) Ages of the continental lithosphere defined by timing of the last main tectono-magmatic event. We also mapped within the so-called East European Craton (EEC) and Western African Craton (WAC), Neo-Proterozoic Belts, including the Sveconorwegian abbreviated SVC (1 Ga) and Pan-African (0.6 Ga) orogenies (Ennih and Liégeois, 2008; Artemieva and Meissner, 2012; Liégeois et al., 2013).