ALBERT

Description: TOPO-EUROPE addresses the 4-D topographic evolution of the orogens and intra-plate regions of Europe through a multidisciplinary approach linking geology, geophysics, geodesy and geotechnology. TOPO-EUROPE integrates monitoring, imaging, reconstruction and modelling of the interplay between processes controlling continental topography and related natural hazards. Until now, research on neotectonics and related topography development of orogens and intra-plate regions has received little attention. TOPO-EUROPE initiates a number of novel studies on the quantification of rates of vertical motions, related tectonically controlled river evolution and land subsidence in carefully selected natural laboratories in Europe. From orogen through platform to continental margin, these natural laboratories include the Alps/Carpathians–Pannonian Basin System, the West and Central European Platform, the Apennines–Aegean–Anatolian region, the Iberian Peninsula, the Scandinavian Continental Margin, the East-European Platform, and the Caucasus–Levant area. TOPO-EUROPE integrates European research facilities and know-how essential to advance the understanding of the role of topography in Environmental Earth System Dynamics. The principal objective of the network is twofold. Namely, to integrate national research programs into a common European network and, furthermore, to integrate activities among TOPO-EUROPE institutes and participants. Key objectives are to provide an interdisciplinary forum to share knowledge and information in the field of the neotectonic and topographic evolution of Europe, to promote and encourage multidisciplinary research on a truly European scale, to increase mobility of scientists and to train young scientists. This paper provides an overview of the state-of-the-art of continental topography research, and of the challenges to TOPO-EUROPE researchers in the targeted natural laboratories.

Description: Dataset

Description: This dataset provides friction data from ring-shear tests (RST) on an iron powder – quartz sand mixture (weight ratio 1:3). This material is used in particular as marker material in analogue experiments that are monitored with CT-scanners in the Tectonic Laboratory (TecLab) at Utrecht University (NL) (Pueyo et al., 2017; 2018). The material has been characterized by means of internal friction coefficients µ and cohesions C as a remote service by the Helmholtz Laboratory for Tectonic Modelling (HelTec) at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam in the framework of the EPOS (European Plate Observing System) Transnational Access (TNA) call of the Thematic Core Service (TCS) Multi-scale Laboratories (MSL) in 2017. According to our analysis the material behaves as a Mohr-Coulomb material characterized by a linear failure envelope. Peak, dynamic and reactivation friction coefficients are µP = 0.65, µD = 0.53, and µR = 0.62, respectively. Cohesions C are in the range of 70 to 100 Pa. A minor rate-weakening of ~3% per ten-fold change in shear velocity v is evident.

Description: Many vertical seismic velocity anomalies observed below different parts of the Eurasian plate are rooted in the transition zone between the upper and lower mantle (410–660 km), forming so-called secondary plumes. These anomalies are interpreted as the result of thermal effects of large-scale thermal upwelling (primary plume) in the lower mantle or deep dehydration of fluid-rich subducting oceanic plates. We present the results of thermo-mechanical numerical modelling to investigate the dynamics of such small-scale thermal and chemical (hydrous) anomalies rising from the lower part of the Earth's upper mantle. Our objective is to determine the conditions that allow thermo-chemical secondary plumes of moderate size (initial radius of 50 km) to penetrate the continental lithosphere, as often detected in seismo-tomographic studies. To this end, we examine the effect of the following parameters: (1) the compositional deficit of the plume density due to the presence of water and hydrous silicate melts, (2) the width of the weak zone in the overlying lithosphere formed because of plume-induced magmatic weakening and/or previous tectonic events, and (3) a tectonic regime varied from neutral to extensional. In our models, secondary plumes of purely thermal origin do not penetrate the overlying plate, but flatten at its base, forming “mushroom”-shaped structures at the level of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. On the contrary, plumes with enhanced density contrast due to a chemical (hydrous) component are shown to be able to pass upwards through the lithospheric mantle to shallow depths near the Moho when (1) the compositional density contrast is ≥ 100 kg m−3 and (2) the width of the lithospheric weakness zone above the plume is ≥ 100 km. An extensional tectonic regime facilitates plume penetration into the lithosphere but is not mandatory. Our findings can explain observations that have long remained enigmatic, such as the “arrow”-shaped zone of low seismic velocities below the Tengchong volcano in south-western China and the columnar (“finger”-shaped) anomaly within the lithospheric mantle discovered more than two decades ago beneath the Eifel volcanic fields in north-western Germany. It appears that a chemical component is a characteristic feature not only of conventional hydrous plumes located over presently downgoing oceanic slabs, but also of upper mantle plumes in other tectonic settings.