Cretaceous deposits in Northern Switzerland are either eroded or have not been deposited. However, Cretaceous times saw the development of the Alps. The Alps can be subdivided into two domains. The Eastern Alps and the Western Alps. The Eastern Alps are the result of two orogenies (Eo-Alpine and Alpine) and the Western Alps only of the Alpine orogeny. The Alps evolved in response to collision of the Adriatic promontory of the African plate with the European continent. Collision involved the decoupling of the subducting European slab from the Alpine nappe stack and tectonic underplating / accretion of the European upper crust to the Alpine wedge (Schmid et al. 1996, Escher et al. 1997, Schmid et al. 2004, Schlunegger & Mosar 2011). N- to NNE-directed convergence of the Adriatic plate started during the Cretaceous, leading to the progressive closure of the Piemont – Liguria and Valais Oceans (Stampfli et al. 1998).