Geokinematics of Central Europe: New insights from the CERGOP-2/Environment Project

The Central European Geodynamics Project CERGOP/2, funded by the European Union from 2003to 2006 under the 5th Framework Programme, benefited from repeated measurements of thecoordinates of epoch and permanent GPS stations of the Central European GPS Reference Network(CEGRN), starting in 1994. Here we report on the results of the systematic processing of availabledata up to 2005. The analysis has yielded velocities for some 60 sites, covering a variety of CentralEuropean tectonic provinces, from the Adria indenter to the Tauern window, the Dinarides, thePannonian Basin, the Vrancea seismic zone and the Carpathian Mountains. The estimated velocitiesdefine kinematical patterns which outline, with varying spatial resolution depending on the stationdensity and history, the present day surface kinematics in Central Europe. Horizontal velocities areanalyzed after removal from the ITRF2000 estimated velocities of a rigid rotation accounting forthe mean motion of Europe: a ~2.3 mm/yr north-south oriented convergence rate between Adria andthe Southern Alps that can be considered to be the present day velocity of the Adria indenterrelative to the European foreland. An eastward extrusion zone initiates at the Tauern Window. Thelateral eastward flow towards the Pannonian Basin exhibits a gentle gradient from 1-1.5 mm/yrimmediately east of the Tauern Window to zero in the Pannonian Basin. This kinematic continuityimplies that the Pannonian plate fragment recently suggested by seismic data does not require aspecific Eulerian pole. On the southeastern boundary of the Adria microplate, we report a velocitydrop from 4-4.5 mm/yr motion near Matera to ~1 mm/yr north of the Dinarides, in the southwesternpart of the Pannonian Basin. A positive velocity gradient as one moves south from West Ukraineacross Rumania and Bulgaria is estimated to be 2 mm/yr on a scale of 600-800 km, as if the crustwere dragged by the counterclockwise rotation along the North Anatolian Fault Zone. This regimeapparently does not interfere with the Vrancea seismic zone: earthquakes there are sufficiently deep(> 100 km) that the brittle deformation at depth can be considered as decoupled from the creep atthe surface. We conclude that models of the Quaternary tectonics of Central and Eastern Europeshould not neglect the long wavelength, nearly aseismic deformation affecting the upper crust in theRomanian and Bulgarian regions

CERGOP-2/environment, completion and future aspects

The project "CERGOP-2, a multipurpose and interdisciplinary sensor array for environmental research in Central Europe" was approved by EC within the 5th Framework Program and started ApriI 1st, 2003. It was officially terminated October 31, 2006 (amendment 3 and 4) and financially closed end of 2007. The results of 17 work packages were published in the Reports of Geodesy, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland comprising altogether more than 3600 pages. On behalf of 14 contractors I give a summary of the current results which concern, for the area of investigation (15 % of Europe), a high quality GPS network operational for the next decade, velocity field and strain maps for geodynamical investigations and hazard mitigation, data for climate research and weather forecast, data for real time navigation and a seamless data bank for scientific and public access. The results are based on partly continuous GPS measurements at up to 80 permanent stations carried out during the last 14 years. In addition, I try to give a future perspective for the investigations to be done during the next decades which aim at the understanding of the internal forces being the reason for plate kinematics which formed the present shape of the earth surface during the last billion of years. Hopefully next generations will be able to forecast sudden changes of the earth surface including the necessary energy transfer leading to earth quakes and to give valuable support for risk management and mitigation procedures

CERGOP-2/Environment. Summary of the third year

The project "CERGOP-2, a multipurpose and interdisciplinary sensor array for environmental research in Central Europe" was approved by EU within the 5th Framework Program and started April 1st, 2003. The official and of the project is March 31, 2006. However we applied for a prolongation of another 6 months and we are waiting for a relevant decision of EU. In 17 work packages we extented a high quality GPS network in a region covering about 15 % of Europe. It will be operational for the next decade. Velocity field and strain maps for geodynamical investigations and hazard mitigation, data for climate research and weather forecast, data for real time navigation and a seamless data bank for scientific and public access were established. This report gives a final summary of the project was arranged in Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina ( in November 2005), which included a Governing Board Meeting of the CEGRN Consortium (CCGB). Discussions included site quality issues related to site acceptance for CEGRN - the basic reference network, and an open forum on future potential project initiatives. The ADRIA, the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), the GEO (Group on Earth Observation), the GALILEO, WEGENER and TOPO EUROPE topical project areas were identified, where the Consortium could participate/contribute significantly. Candidate coordinators were assigned for each area. We have also to think about the continuation of this project - after its termination end of March 2006 or end of September 2006. Driven by the many natural disaster during the last 2 years people expect that science will strengthen its efforts to find solutions for explaining the influence of the forces leading to crust displacement and to determine the location, magnitude and the "date" of future expected sudden displacements, a task, which may take another century of scientific investigations, if even possible

Surface kinematics in the Alpine-Carpathian-Dinaric and Balkan region inferred from a new multi-network GPS combination solution

The understanding of the intraplate tectonics of Central Europe requires a detailed picture of howstress is transferred from the interaction of the Eurasian, Nubian and Anatolian plates to the Alpine, Carpathian, Pannonian and Dinaric regions. Recent strain distribution is controlled by the Adria horizontal push, by the Vrancea vertical slab pull and associated horizontal displacements, and by the Aegean/Anatolia extension and slab-roll back. We present a horizontal velocity field for the Alpine-Carpathian-Pannonic-Dinaric and Balkan regions resulting from a new combination of seven different GPS networks formed from permanent and campaign stations. Dedicated velocity profiles in two specific regions are studied in detail. One is the Alpine Pannonian region,with a detailed picture of the NS indentation of the Adriamicroplate into the Southern Alps, inNE Italy, the deformation in the Tauern Windowand the eastwards kinematics of a Pannonian plate fragment. The second study region includes Transylvania, the Southern Carpathians upto theAegean sea and Albania, where amajor right lateral shear deformation exists as a consequence of theNE convergence of the Apulia platform towards the Dinarids, and theSSWmotion of Macedonia,Western Bulgaria and Rumania, related to theHellenic arc dynamics in the EasternMediterranean. The profiles in the Alpine\u2013Pannonian area indicate that a velocity drop of 2.5+/ 120.4 mm/yr associated with the Adria indentation concentrates on a segment of some 50 kmsouth of the Periadriatic fault. The deformation becomes extensional by a similar amount just north of the Periadriatic fault, in the Tauern Window, where the updoming of the Tauern Window implies vertical motionwhich couldwell be associatedwith surface extension. In theEWprofile,we observe a sudden velocity change of 1.5+/ 120.2 mm/yr in 20 km, corresponding to the right lateral Lavant fault, which seems to mark the border between dominant indentation kinematics to theWest and dominant extrusion kinematics to the East. Three profiles are considered in Southern and Eastern Europe: one across the lower Adriatic sea fromApulia in Italy to the southern Dinarides, which enables it to constrain the velocity drop associated with the subduction of the Adria microplate into the Dinarides to 3.2+/ 120.5 mm/yr in 140 km. The second profile is longitudinal and constrains the velocity inversion of 7.4+/ 121.0 mm/yr in 350 km associated with right lateral shear faults in Albania. The third profile crosses the Transylvania region with a shortening of 2.3+/ 121.0 mm/yr in 220 km, and the Wallachian\u2013 Moesian region up to the Chalcidic peninsula in NGreece. This lower part of the profile implies an extensional stretch of the upper crust of 3.2+/ 120.9 mm/yr in 440 km, culminating in the Hellenic arc. Strain rate maps are presented in this regional scale, showing the excellent agreement between fault plane solutions of crustal earthquakes and the eigenvectors of the GPS derived two dimensional strain rate tensor

Surface kinematics in the Alpine–Carpathian–Dinaric and Balkan region inferred from a new multi-network GPS combination solution

The understanding of the intraplate tectonics of Central Europe requires a detailed picture of how stress is transferred from the interaction of the Eurasian, Nubian and Anatolian plates to the Alpine, Carpathian, Pannonian and Dinaric regions. Recent strain distribution is controlled by the Adria horizontal push, by the Vrancea vertical slab pull and associated horizontal displacements, and by the Aegean/Anatolia extension and slab-roll back. We present a horizontal velocity field for the Alpine-Carpathian-Pannonic-Dinaric and Balkan regions resulting from a new combination of seven different GPS networks formed from permanent and campaign stations. Dedicated velocity profiles in two specific regions are studied in detail. One is the Alpine Pannonian region, with a detailed picture of the NS indentation of the Adria microplate into the Southern Alps, in NE Italy, the deformation in the Tauern Window and the eastwards kinematics of a Pannonian plate fragment. The second study region includes Transylvania, the Southern Carpathians up to the Aegean sea and Albania, where a major right lateral shear deformation exists as a consequence of the NE convergence of the Apulia platform towards the Dinarids, and the SSW motion of Macedonia, Western Bulgaria and Rumania, related to the Hellenic arc dynamics in the Eastern Mediterranean. The profiles in the Alpine–Pannonian area indicate that a velocity drop of 2.5 +/- 0.4 mm/yr associated with the Adria indentation concentrates on a segment of some 50 km south of the Periadriatic fault. The deformation becomes extensional by a similar amount just north of the Periadriatic fault, in the Tauern Window, where the updoming of the Tauern Window implies vertical motion which could well be associated with surface extension. In the EW profile, we observe a sudden velocity change of 1.5 +/- 0.2 mm/yr in 20 km, corresponding to the right lateral Lavant fault, which seems to mark the border between dominant indentation kinematics to the West and dominant extrusion kinematics to the East.Three profiles are considered in Southern and Eastern Europe: one across the lower Adriatic sea from Apulia in Italy to the southern Dinarides, which enables it to constrain the velocity drop associated with the subduction of the Adria microplate into the Dinarides to 3.2 +/- 0.5 mm/yr in 140 km. The second profile is longitudinal and constrains the velocity inversion of 7.4 +/- 1.0 mm/yr in 350 km associated with right lateral shear faults in Albania. The third profile crosses the Transylvania region with a shortening of 2.3 +/- 1.0 mm/yr in 220 km, and the Wallachian–Moesian region up to the Chalcidic peninsula in N Greece. This lower part of the profile implies an extensional stretch of the upper crust of 3.2 +/- 0.9 mm/yr in 440 km, culminating in the Hellenic arc. Strain rate maps are presented in this regional scale, showing the excellent agreement between fault plane solutions of crustal earthquakes and the eigenvectors of the GPS derived two dimensional strain rate tensor.Three profiles are considered in the Balkan and SE Carpathians: one across the lower Adriatic sea from Apulia in Italy to the southern Dinarides, which enables to constrain the velocity drop associated to the subduction of the Adria microplate into the Dinarides to 3.2 +/- 0.5 mm/yr in 140 km. The second profile is longitudinal and constrains the velocity inversion of 7.4 +/- 1.0 mm/yr in 350 km associated to right lateral shear faults in Macedonia, a highly seismic region. The third profile crosses the Transylvania with a shortening2.3 +/- 1.0 mm/yr in 220 km, and the Wallachian–Moesian region up to the Chalcidic peninsula in N Greece. This lower part of the profile implies an extensional stretch of the upper crust of 3.2 +/- 0.9 mm/yr in 440 km, culminating in the Hellenic arc