Imaging the western mediterranean margins: a key target to understand the interaction between deep and shallow processes

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ernst R. Flüh, since 9/2006
• Subject Area: Geophysics
• Term: from 2003 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5396042

This is a process-oriented multidisciplinary project that integrates geological and geophysical studies to investigate the structure and evolution of the continental margins surrounding the Western Mediterranean. The coverage of available data differs noticeably from the Alboran margins (good coverage) to the South Balearic and North Algerian margins and deep basin (almost no data). Several collaborative marine and onland surveys are proposed in the frame of this project. A combined wide-angle and multichannel seismic survey, with onland data acquisition in the northern margins, is planned to unravel the structure of the crust and the uppermost mantle along selected profiles. Marine surveys based on high-resolution seismics and acoustic data acquisition will be undertaken in selected parts of the Algerian and the SE Iberian margin to investigate the sediment dynamics in along-strike and conjugate margins. Experimental analyses on collected offshore and onshore rock samples to determine their petrophysical and geochemical characteristics will allow for further constraints on evolutionary models. Numerical and analogue models will be developed at different scales to decipher the driving mechanisms responsible for the present-day configuration of the region. The interaction between deep and shallow processes will be studied by integrated models relating tectonics, magmatism, vertical movements, and surface mass transport. To this end, portions of the Western Mediterranean margins will be selected as natural laboratories. Some of the proposed experiments will be done in combination with already submitted or approved projects by National Funding Agencies (MARSIBAL-Spain), (SISAL-France), and (MARADJA-France). Ship facilities and human resources will be shared within the present Collaborative Research Project.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Miquel Canals; Professor Dr. Bernardo Cesare; Professor Dr. Jacques Deverchere; Professor Dr. Massimo Mattei; Alain Mauffret; Professor Dr. Menchu Comas Minondo; Dr. Manuel Fernandez Ortiga; Dr. R.A. Stephenson; Professor Dr. M.J.R. Wortel
• Ehemalige Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Cesar Rodriguez Ranero, until 6/2005; Professor Dr. Timothy John Reston, from 6/2005 until 9/2006