Abstract Based on the sediment budget of the Eastern, Swiss and Western Alps since the Oligocene the regional tectonic evolution has been identified as the dominant factor. It is superimposed on the influence of both re- gional and global climate change and global sea-level change. During late Pliocene and Pleistocene times, cli- mate became the dominant factor because of cyclic gla- ciations. The early post-collisional history of the Alps is characterized by a doubling of sediment discharge rates around the Rupelian/Chattian boundary. This increase is attributed to isostatic re-adjustment either after large- scale thermal reorganization of the lithosphere related to slab break-off, or to crustal thickening as continental crust became subducted. From Middle Oligocene to Late Miocene times, the overall trend of sediment discharge rates in the entire Alps was modified only during rela- tively short-lived phases. These are characterized by an increase in Aquitanian (ca. 23–21 Ma) and late Burdigal- ian times (ca. 18–16.4 Ma), and a decrease in early to middle Burdigalian (21–19 Ma) and Langhian to Serra- valian times (16.4–12 Ma). An important, still ongoing period of uplift, reflected by rapidly increasing sediment discharge rates, started in latest Miocene times in the Swiss and Western Alps and affected the Eastern Alps some 2 million years later. The reason for this uplift is not clear, but deep-seated lithospheric processes appear to be likely. Keywords Alps · Climate · Sediment budget · Tectonic events · Tertiary Introduction High mountain ranges are generally created by the colli- sion of continental lithosphere (e.g., Molnar and England 1990). Collisional processes lead to crustal thickening, followed by isostatic uplift, erosion, and the formation of relief (e.g., Beaumont et al. 1996; Tucker and Slingerland 1996). Denudation rates accelerate until a steady state of crustal thickening, denudation, and relief is reached (Ahnert 1970; Tucker and Slingerland 1996). The mass of the erosional products represents integrated denudation rates with low spatial, but high temporal resolution. Denudation rates have been shown to be proportional to relief in many settings, among other parameters such as precipitation, erodibility (lithology), and vegetation cover (Einsele 1992). The reconstruction of the ancient relief of an orogen and surface uplift through time has turned out to be very difficult and imprecise (Mercier et al. 1987; Fielding 1996) because no direct method of determination exists for Alpine-type mountain ranges. The rates of denudation in a global scale are directly related to climate by a great number of factors (see Hay 1996), and thus a discussion of the basic causes of cli- mate change will benefit from a better understanding of the causes of mountain uplift and the rates of denudation (Summerfield and Hulton 1994). Moreover, there is an ongoing discussion whether the tectonically induced up- lift of mountain ranges essentially forced the climate system into the glacial mode (Raymo et al. 1988; Raymo and Ruddiman 1992), or if global cooling and repeated glaciations forced uplift of the mountain ranges (Molnar and England 1990). In this respect, the reconstruction of the denudation history of young mountain ranges con- tributes to the perspectives of global climatic change. Aim of this study This study of the Alps (Fig. 1), one of the most inten- sively studied mountain ranges in the world, is intended to evaluate the causes of mountain uplift. Because of the J. Kuhlemann ( ✉ ) · W. Frisch · B. Székely · I. Dunkl Institute of Geology and Paleontology, University of Tübingen, Sigwartstr. 10, 72076 Tübingen, Germany e-mail: kuhlemann@uni-tuebingen.de M. Kázmér Department of Paleontology, Eötvös University, Ludovika tér 2, 1083 Budapest, Hungary Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) (2002) 91:818–837 DOI 10.1007/s00531-002-0266-y ORIGINAL PAPER J. Kuhlemann · W. Frisch · B. Székely · I. Dunkl M. Kázmér Post-collisional sediment budget history of the Alps: tectonic versus climatic control Received: 7 March 2001 / Accepted: 19 January 2002 / Published online: 16 March 2002 © Springer-Verlag 2002