Permo-Mesozoic Tatric cover sediments in the Male Karpaty Mts. suffered an early Alpine (Cretaceous) low-T metamorphic imprint mostly at an estimated temperature of 250–300 °C (illite-crystallinity, composition of authigenic micas, deformation mechanisms). The source of the metamorphic temperature is tentatively interpreted as an increased heat flow inherited from a previous period of crustal thinning and probable shear heating as well. Synkinematic metamorphic recrystallization is a consequence of basement thrust stacking and thermal equilibration between cold footwall sediments and hot hangingwall basement rocks detached at mid-crustal levels.