Mountain-building event that affected a broad segment of southern Europe and the Mediterranean region during the middle Tertiary period .
It produced intense metamorphism , crumpling of rock strata, and uplift accompanied by faulting. It was responsible for the elevation of the present Alps, from which the name derives, the uplifting of plateaus in the Balkan Peninsula and in Corsica and Sardinia, and volcanic activity in England, France, Iceland, and parts of Italy.