AUSTRIA CANADA CROATIA CZECH
REPUBLIC DENMARK FINLAND GERMANY HUNGARY POLAND SLOVENIA
USA |
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MAIL: contact@alp2002.info |
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ABSTRACT |
The Alps are one of the most famous and interesting
mountain belts in the world and have intrigued geoscientists for
centuries. They can be thought of as the southern boundary of the
relatively stable lithosphere of western and central Europe. The
western Alps have been the target of many lithospheric scale
geophysical experiments, but such data are very sparse in the
eastern Alps.
The CELEBRATION
2000 seismic experiment was a massive effort and included
some observations in the northeastern Alps. However, the focus of
this effort was further north. Thus, the ALP 2002 project was
organized to build on the CELEBRATION 2000 effort and provide
comprehensive seismic coverage in the eastern Alps. http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/nuggets/037/nugget.htm
The
ALP 2002 project was organized to build on the CELEBRATION
2000 effort and to provide comprehensive seismic coverage in the
eastern Alps. In a technical sense, the two experiments are tied
together, and thus, a joint interpretation of the data from them
will produce a 3-D model of the crust and mantle lithosphere that
will resolve the major plate tectonic features. Furthermore, it will
support the planning and interpretation of future deep seismic
reflection lines in this area and will aid in our understanding of
earthquake activity.
During ALP 2002, over 1000 portable
seismograph recorders were deployed to record earthquakes and 26
specially designed explosions. We employed the same methodology of
deploying instruments along a series of interlocking profiles as was
used during CELEBRATION 2000.
Including the data from the
first large experiment conducted by our group (POLONAISE
97), a broad network of seismic refraction information now
extends along the Trans-European Suture Zone region from the Baltic
Sea, through the Carpathians and Alps to the Adriatic Sea and the
Dinarides. We are using these data to construct 2-D and 3-D models
of the lithosphere containing structural and compositional
information derived from P- and S-wave travel times and amplitudes.
ALP 2002 includes the collection of more data in the complex
Bohemian massif, which is one of the primary structural blocks in
Western Europe that lies primarily in the Czech Republic. In the
Alps and adjacent areas to the east and south (Carpathians,
Pannonian basin, Dinarides), we are dealing with a plate tectonic
regime that is very active and complex.
In the western Alps
(TRANSALP),
we have a collisional regime whereas the Pannonian basin represents
an unconstrained plate margin that is extending. Although there is
much debate about the details of the processes at work, the
lithosphere east of the Alps was extruded laterally eastward in the
Miocene and Oligocene as indicated by many types of data including
present day
seismicity. | |