CELEBRATION 2000

Abstract

One of the major tectonic questions in Europe centers on the structure and evolution of the southwest margin of the East European craton (Baltica) and the role that this margin played in the evolution of the Carpathian Mountains / Pannonian basin. In general, this margin is assumed to be the Tornquist- Teisseyre Zone (TTZ) that extends across Europe approximately from northwest to southeast. The Polish segment of the TTZ is a part of Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ), a first order tectonic feature that extends from the Black Sea to the British Isles. The structural relationships between the Eastern Alps and Carpathian Mountains is also a major tectonic question. In order to investigate these features, a new program of deep geological and geophysical investigations is being be undertaken primarily in Poland, the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, and Italy and is an extension of the EUROPROBE TESZ and PANCARDI projects. This new program includes an extensive network of seismic refraction and wide angle reflection profiles and is called CELEBRATION 2000 (Central European Lithospheric Experiment Based on Refraction 2000). The profiles cross several prominent tectonic features including the SW margin of Baltica, Holy Cross Mountains, Malapolska massif, Carpathian Mountains, the eastern Alps, and Pannonian basin.

The data acquisition phase of this ambitious project was completed during June of 2000. It involved 3 deployments with the final one extending from Austria to Belarus. By pooling resources, 1167 seismic stations were available for this experiment and more than 140 seismic sources were detonated. Some sources were small, so we estimate that about 100,000 useable vertical component seismograms were obtained. In addition, about 10% of the stations occupied by 3-component recorders and included two horizontal seismometers. The layout of the experiment was a network of interlocking profiles whose total length was about 8900. The station spacing varied along the profiles, so that in addition to a 3-D array, about 5400 km of 2-D profiles was obtained.

CELEBRATION is led by an experiment team from the geophysical and geological communities in Poland, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, Denmark, and the USA with additional contributions from the geophysical communities in Canada, Germany, Finland, Belarus, and Sweden. This project builds on the productive collaborations established during the highly successful POLONAISE'97 project. As demonstrated by POLONAISE'97, it is only by pooling the expertise, instrumentation, and human resources of the partner countries that a project of this magnitude can be undertaken.