Cambridge Publications |
|
The Conference Company |
April 8th - 12th, 2001 |
|
European Union of Geosciences |
Cambridge Publications |
|
The Conference Company |
April 8th - 12th, 2001 |
|
European Union of Geosciences |
(Monday April 9th 2001 at 12:15 in Room G9: Erasme Auditorium)
Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, SE-752 36, Uppsala, Sweden
The last decade has seen a widening of collaboration within the European Geoscience community to involve colleagues from all of "Greater" Europe's countries. Within the framework of a European Science Foundation programme, EUROPROBE, many hundreds of Lithosphere Scientists from about thirty countries have been collaborating on a wide range of key research targets that have all involved close integration of geological, geochemical and geophysical investigations. Understanding the lithosphere requires close interaction of the Solid Earth disciplines; in so diverse a continent as Europe, it also involves a variety of inbuilt national traditions and methodologies that are not so easily integrated. Nevertheless, this diversity is proving a strength. EUROPROBE's east-central-west collaboration has been able to exploit not only the latest technologies that sometimes tend to steer western geoscience, but also the outstanding programmes of central and eastern Europe, where deep and super-deep continental drilling and vast long range seismic profiling provide unique information on the continental crust and upper mantle.
EUROPROBE targets range from the young mountain belts of western Europe to the Archaean cores of the East European Craton. They have reached from the Iberian Peninsula to beyond the Urals. Most of the ten projects have focused on orogenic processes through time; rifting of the craton has also been a prominent component of the programme. Comprehensive deep seismic investigations have provided a foundation for many of the geological studies, for example, long deep reflection (CMP) profiles across the southern and central parts of the Urals mountains, DSS profiles across the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine (eg. EUROBRIDGE and DOBRE), and the recent acquisation of the vast CELEBRATION and POLONAISE wide-angle experiments in central Europe. Teleseismic tomography has imaged the deep lithosphere, beneath the seismically active Vrancea zona and across the boundary between the East European Craton and the Variscides; it is providing new information on the exceptionally deep (60 km) crustal roots of parts of the Fennoscandian Shield. Electrical conductivity studies (BEAR) are yielding unique information on the Fennoscandian lithosphere-asthenosphere system. Drillholes, several kilometres deep, penetrating the basement beneath the Phanerozoic cover of the craton and marginal orogens, for example, beneath the Pechora Basin, have provided critical geological and geochemical evidence for interpreting the deep crustal structure. Xenoliths are yielding geochemical constraints for interpreting geophysical data on the lower crust and upper mantle, both beneath the Fennoscandian Shield and the young orogens. Integrated analysis of the late Palaeozoic orogens along the eastern (Uralides) and western (Variscides) margins of the East European Craton is providing new insight into the processes of subduction and accretion of ophiolites and island-arc terranes and the growth of continental crust. Palaeomagnetic and palaeontological data are defining Early Palaeozoic Baltica and its movement in relation to other continents. EUROPROBE's interdisciplinary workshops have been essential for integration of the science.
A platform has been established for expanding our European cooperation across the entire Eurasian continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, far north into the basins of the high Arctic and south into the mountains of the Balkan States. Partnership in science is both the prerequisite and the recipe for success. Earth Science thrives on this continent-wide collaboration.
