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The eastern Jura Mountains consist of the Jura fold-thrust belt and the
autochthonous Tabular Jura and Vesoul-Montbéliard Plateau. They are
drained by the river Rhine, which flows into the North Sea, and the river
Doubs, which flows into the Mediterranean. The internal drainage systems
of the Jura fold-thrust belt consist of rivers flowing in synclinal valleys that
are linked by river segments cutting orthogonally through anticlines. The latter
appear to employ parts of the antecedent Jura Nagelfluh drainage system
that had developed in response to Late Burdigalian uplift of the Vosges-
Back Forest Arch, prior to Late Miocene-Pliocene deformation of the Jura
fold-thrust belt.
The following stages are recognized in the evolution of the Jura Mountain
drainage systems: 1) middle to late Tortonian (10–7.2 Ma) folding-related overpowering
and partial reversal of the south-directed Jura Nagelfluh drainage
system, 2) Messinian to early Pliocene (7.2–4.2 Ma) Aare-Danube and proto-
Doubs stage, 3) early to middle Pliocene (4.2–2.9 Ma) Aare-Doubs stage, 4)
late Pliocene to early Quaternary (2.9–1.7 Ma) Aare-Rhine and Doubs stage
and 5) Quaternary (1.7–0 Ma) Alpine-Rhine and Doubs stage.
Development of the thin-skinned Jura fold-thrust belt controlled the first
three stages of this drainage system evolution, whilst the last two stages were
essentially governed by the subsidence of the Upper Rhine Graben, which
resumed during the late Pliocene. Late Pliocene and Quaternary deep incision
of the Aare-Rhine/Alpine-Rhine and its tributaries in the Jura Mountains and
Black Forest is mainly attributed to lowering of the erosional base level in the
continuously subsiding Upper Rhine Graben. Incision of the Doubs and Dessoubre
canyons reflects uplift of the Franches-Montagnes and Franche-Comté
in response to thick-skinned deformation of the Jura fold-thrust belt, which
had commenced around 3 Ma.
Geodetic data indicate that uplift of the Jura Mountains, relative to the
Tabular Jura, presently continues at very low strain rates whilst the Upper
Rhine Graben subsides very slowly and the Black Forest is relatively stable.
