late carboniferous permian of nw europe an introduction to a new regional map this data set contains a set of shapefiles outlining the subsurface geology of nw europe for structures and strata of late carboniferous to permian age shapefiles can be loaded in different types of geographic information systems and other geological and geographical tools the projection of the data is utm3

role of atmospheric waves in the formation and maintenance of the northern annular mode 1 we examined the roles of stationary synoptic and medium scale atmospheric waves in the formation and maintenance of the northern annular mode nam in winter by analyses of zonal momentum and wave energy based on six hourly reanalysis data from the european centre for medium range weather forecasts ecmwf era interim medium scale waves have periods shorter than about two days and their effect has been overlooked in previous research on the nam the effect of medium scale waves on the nam is about 10 of that of total eddies although their effect on the nam is of less importance than their effect on the southern annular mode sam it is still significant in the northern hemisphere our analysis also suggests that synoptic medium scale and stationary waves provide positive feedback to the zonal mean zonal wind of the nam in particular energy transfer from synoptic and low frequency transient waves to stationary waves plays a key role in sustaining the stationary waves that drive zonal winds associated with the nam

permo carboniferous magmatism of the northeast german basin abstract variscan continent continent collision in central europe was followed by a period of syn to late tectonic magmatism involving the extrusion of large volumes of permosilesian age volcanic rocks particularly in the northeast german basin the volcanic suite up to ca 2000 m thick comprises rhyolites acid and basic andesites and tholeiitic and alkali basalts tectono geochemical analysis in conjunction with volume calculations and petrography reveals changes in volcanic activity over time a total of five eruptive stages are recognised beginning in the stephanian and extending up into the upper rotliegend permian these include the stephanian late carboniferous andesite pre ignimbrite stage i lower rotliegend permian age explosive ignimbrite stage ii post ignimbrite stage iii late rhyolite stage iv and upper rotliegend permian age late basalt stage v in addition several volcanic centres including at least two large caldera like structures are recognised the total calculated volume for the northeast german basin volcanics is ca 48 000 km3 comprising rhyolitic rocks and ignimbrites ca 70 andesitic rocks ca 26 and basalts with cogenetic dolerites ca 4 regional variations in composition and geochemistry are related to diverse crust mantle regimes which correlate with differing positions relative to the heterogeneous basement of the variscan foredeep or within the rhenohercynian orogenic zone the crustal thickening and increasing generation depth of the mafic magmas from north to south may reflect the presence of a pre existing subduction influenced basaltic magma source

stresses in the lithosphere and sedimentary basin formation abstract seven fundamental questions on the relationship of lithospheric stresses and sedimentary basin origin and evolution are posed and elaborated these are 1 1 how is the evolution of sedimentary basins tied to lithospheric dynamics 2 2 what are the sources of stress that lead to formation of sedimentary basins 3 3 how does the interaction between internally and externally applied stresses affect the formation and evolution of sedimentary basins 4 4 how do space and time variations of rheology and pore pressure affect stress transmission strain vertical motions and stratigraphy during basin evolution 5 5 what factors influence spatial and temporal variations of rheology in and around different kinds of sedimentary basins 6 6 what is the role of magmatism in basin formation and what deep seated processes does it reflect 7 7 what is the relationship between basin evolution thermal history and fluid flow these fundamental questions can be investigated by developing fully dynamic models of processes at the basin and sub basin scale models must incorporate or honour basin history and plate reconstructions the intregration of structural and sedimentological data direct observations of the physical state and the synthesis of geological and geophysical data including tectono dynamic stratigraphy petrological and geochemical data and geophysical data gravity magnetics heat flow deep and shallow seismics a number of type basins in passive margin foreland rift and strike slip tectonic settings suitable for modelling studies elucidating the fundamental questions are identified

palaeozoic amalgamation of central europe new results from recent geological and geophysical investigations abstract multidisciplinary studies of geotransects across the north european plain and southern north sea and geological reexamination of the variscides of the north bohemian massif permit a new 3 d reassessment of the relationships between the principal crustal blocks abutting baltica along the trans european suture zone tesz accretion was in three stages cambrian accretion of the bruno silesian lysogory and malopolska terranes end ordovician early silurian accretion of avalonia and early carboniferous accretion of the armorican terrane assemblage ata palaeozoic plume influenced metabasite geochemistry in the bohemian massif explains the progressive rifting away of peri gondwanan crustal blocks before their accretion to baltica geophysical data faunal and provenance information from boreholes and dated small inliers and cores confirm that avalonian crust extends beyond the anglo brabant deformation belt eastwards to northwest poland the location and dip of reflectors along the tesz and beneath the north european plain suggest that avalonian crust overrode the baltica passive margin marked by a high velocity lower crustal layer on shallowly southwest dipping thrust planes forming the heligoland pomerania deformation belt the variscan orocline of southwest poland masks two junctions between the armorican terrane assemblage ata and previously accreted crustal blocks to the east is a dextrally transpressive contact with the bruno silesian and malopolska blocks accreted in the cambrian while to the north is a thrust contact with easternmost avalonia deeply buried beneath younger sedimentary cover in the northeast bohemian and rhenohercynian massifs devonian early variscide deformation dominated by wnw and nw directed thrusting records closure of ordovician devonian seaways between detached islands of the ata and avalonia

the almacik mafic ultramafic complex exhumed sakarya subcrustal mantle adjacent to the istanbul zone nw turkey the almacik mountains in northwestern turkey expose an upper amphibolite facies complex consisting of alternating ultramafic harzburgitic and websteritic and mafic metagabbroic rock types in the eastern part of this complex are island arc meta tholeiites and transitional to calc alkaline metabasites that are chemically quite similar to those of the permo triassic cele mafic complex north of bolu and this suggests an equivalence however much of the section exposes structurally deeper and chemically different mafic and ultramafic rocks which have no equivalent in the cele mafic complex and isotopic dating has suggested that these rocks also formed during the permian period and underwent triassic and jurassic metamorphism furthermore sparse inherited ages unlike those from istanbul zone granitoids suggest a link with north african derived armorican type basement and hence the sakarya zone rather than amazonia derived avalonian basement alternating mafic and ultramafic rocks suggest structural repetition supported by the exposure of discrete high strain zones or poorly exposed shattered rock west of each outcrop of ultramafic rocks the high grade of metamorphism and the absence of either extrusive lavas or sheeted dyke rocks suggests that the almacik complex was not an ophiolite but formed instead as subcontinental lower crust and subjacent mantle dominantly calc alkaline geochemistry suggests that it formed the basement to an active continental margin bounding the north side of the sakarya continent with s dipping subduction of palaeotethys the almacik complex was uplifted as a late result of compression against the southern margin of the istanbul zone in the jurassic period lack of coeval high grade metamorphism in the istanbul zone indicates that the latter was overthrust southwards over the sakarya margin and that there was therefore a change of subduction polarity in the triassic period the evidence further casts doubt on the existence of a mesozoic intra pontide ocean in northwestern turkey and suggests that the latest permian magmatism with subsequent triassic and jurassic metamorphism was instead related to the closure of the palaeotethyan ocean

palaeogeographic significance of mid silurian palaeomagnetic results from southern britain major revision of the apparent polar wander path for eastern avalonia summary wenlock c 430 ma lavas from the east mendips inlier southern briain are characterized by either single component magnetizations type 1 or a more complex system of three magnetization components type 2 during stepwise thermal demagnetization the type of demagnetization behaviour is related to changes in magnetic petrology within the lava pile the lower and intermediate unblocking temperature components of type 2 represent magnetic overprints of tertiary recent and hercynian mid carboniferous origin respectively the primary nature of the high unblocking temperature magnetization component types 1 and 2 dec 095 c inc 24 ag5 8 8 is demonstrated by positive agglomerate tests conversely an overlying upper old red sandstone sequence did not provide primary magnetizations the magnetic signature is governed by syn tectonic hercynian remagnetizations the primary silurian data demonstrate that the east mendips inlier experienced considerable clockwise rotation probably of the order of 80 prior to partial remagnetization during hercynian deformation and folding the silurian palaeopole vgp 13 n 271 e dp dm 5 9 cannot therefore be used for apparent polar wander path construction nevertheless the palaeolatitude estimate 13 f 5s suggests that southern britain eastern avalonia was at comparable mid silurian latitudes to baltica and northern britain 10 20 s both the iapetus ocean and tornquist sea therefore which separated southern britain from laurentia and baltica respectively in ordovician times were closed by wenlock time as ordovician and silurian palaeomagnetic data from baltica and eastern avalonia now record a comparable northwards translation from high southerly to near equatorial latitudes during this time we postulate pre wenlock collision of these blocks to form balonia baltica eastern avalonia a new apparent polar wander path for eastern avalonia constructed on the basis of this palaeogeographic model is presented

numerical models of tectonic deformation at the baltica avalonia transition zone during the paleocene phase of inversion abstract predictions from dynamic modelling of the lithospheric deformation are presented for northern europe where several basins underwent inversion during the late cretaceous and early cenozoic and contemporary uplift and erosion of sediments occurred in order to analyse the evolution of the continental lithosphere the equations for the deformation of a continuum are solved numerically under thin sheet assumption for the lithosphere the most important stress sources are assumed to be the late cretaceous alpine tectonics localized rheological heterogeneities can also affect local deformation and stress patterns present day observations available in the studied region and coming from seismic structural interpretations and stress measurements have been used to constrain the model our modelling results show that lateral variation in lithospheric strength below the basin systems in central europe strongly controls the regional deformation and the stress regime furthermore we have demonstrated that the geometry of the boundary between baltica and avalonia together with different rheological characteristics of the two plates had a crucial role on local crustal deformation and faulting regime resulting in the baltica avalonia transition zone from the s n alpine convergence

seismic evidence for late proterozoic orogenic structures below the phanerozoic sedimentary cover in the kattegat area sw scandinavia 1 commercial seismic reflection profiles from sw scandinavia image sveconorwegian orogenic structures in the late precambrian basement beneath the thin phanerozoic cover we interpret 1 pronounced west to wnw dipping reflections as sveconorwegian localized ductile shear which overprint 2 weaker east dipping reflections interpreted as gothian or early sveconorwegian compressional structures folded and laminar seismic fabrics may represent f and c type crystalline thrust sheets emplaced during the gothian and sveconorwegian events some of the dipping reflections are observed to sole into 3 an interval of subhorizontal reflections at 2 5 4 5 s two way travel time which we interpret as a fossil ductile to brittle transition that was unroofed during the gothian orogeny 4 nw se striking thrusts cutting the sveconorwegian structures may indicate a shift in the late sveconorwegian stress field they may represent an early stage in the subsequent phanerozoic basin evolution in the danish area

structure and quantification of processes controlling the evolution of the inverted ne german basin abstract a ne sw reflection seismic transect crossing the entire ne german basin negb was investigated in detail to study the interaction between tectonics and sedimentation during the multiphase evolution of the region by restoring a geological section across the post rotliegend the kinematic evolution was reconstructed and rates of important geological processes such as erosion or basin shortening were quantified the present day structural style of the negb is the result of several major deformation events 1 regional subsidence accompanied by local thin skinned e w extension during the permo triassic jurassic was followed by basin inversions at the 2 jurassic cretaceous and at the 3 cretaceous tertiary boundary zechstein salt played an important role since mobile zechstein evaporites decoupled the supra salt from the sub salt succession and allowed the transmission of deformation over a large distance of major significance to the late cretaceous structural development was the crustal scale upthrusting of the calfoerde block along the gardelegen fault at the southern basin margin the accompanying horizontal shortening has a minimum value of 9 km and led to the development of thrusts and folds within the post zechstein succession

evolution of the lower saxony basin abstract the lower saxony basin is a 300 km long and 65 km wide late jurassic and early cretaceous trough which parallels the northern margin of the rhenish massif this basin became inverted during the senonian and paleocene the lower saxony basin is the most important oil province of germany past production amounts to 200 10 6 t of oil 1 5 10 9 bbl the lower saxony basin is superimposed on the late carboniferous variscan foredeep basin and the frontal structures of the variscan fold belt during the permian to middle jurassic the area formed part of the northwest european basin differential subsidence of the lower saxony basin was initiated during the late jurassic and persisted till albian time this involved reactivation of permo carboniferous fracture systems by divergent wrenching a major aptian deep seated laccolith is evident in the western part of the lower saxony basin during the senonian and paleocene sinistral convergent wrenching induced uplift of the basin floor and folding of its sedimentary fill the margins of the inverted lower saxony basin are thrust over the adjacent stable platform areas the differential subsidence of the lower saxony basin can be related to a period of major crustal extension in the north sea rift basin inversion coincides with important orogenic events in the alpine system and is thought to have been induced by intra plate compressional stresses

late cenozoic geomorphic evolution in response to inversion evidence from field and gpr studies in kim drainage basin western india abstract this study presents field and ground penetrating radar gpr data for understanding geomorphic evolution of the kim drainage basin in response to tectonic inversion of the narmada ankleshwar block of the cambay rift basin located on the western continental margin of india the narmada ankleshwar block underwent continuous sedimentation up to mio pliocene and subsequently was subjected to compressional inversion four geomorphic surfaces are recognised that formed in response to the varying degrees of tectonic activity related to phases of inversion these are the early pleistocene erosional surface epes late pleistocene depositional surface lpds early holocene erosional surface ehes and the late holocene depositional surface lhds the phases of increased tectonic activity relate to two erosional episodes while two depositional periods relate to waning tectonic activity or quiescent periods we show that the narmada ankleshwar block suffered inversion earlier than other parts of the cambay basin to the north of the nsf localisation of early inversion movements occurred in an area characterised by thinner crust and involved the development of new reverse faults and transformation of the nsf from a normal to a reverse fault gpr studies indicate the reverse nature of the various faults in the kim drainage basin and provide evidence of their late reactivation under compression the study demonstrates that the parts of a large sedimentary basin can undergo inversion at different times depending on the orientation of pre existing crustal discontinuities with respect to the controlling stress trajectories

evolution of the northeast german basin inferences from a 3d structural model and subsidence analysis abstract a 3d structural model of the northeast german basin was evaluated with special emphasis on its evolution as an intracontinental depression the study includes investigations on subsidence history and structural setting of the basin thickness evolution and calculated tectonic subsidence volumes of permian to quaternary sediments in the northeast german basin indicate that the subsidence history was related to five stages of basin evolution which differ in their subsidence mechanisms for the initial rift phase in the late carboniferous to early permian a dominant thermal event and subordinate horizontal stresses were indicated by thickness variation evolution and by structural evidence the main part of basin subsidence occurred in a nw se oriented basin in the subsequent phase of thermal relaxation with maximum subsidence from early permian rotliegend to middle triassic muschelkalk from middle triassic the thermal subsidence pattern was superposed by further tectonic events in the middle triassic regional extension led to a reconfiguration of the southern part of the basin where new nne ssw trending troughs rheinsberg and gifhorn troughs developed in the jurassic the northwestern part of the basin was uplifted while in the south the keuper subsiding areas continued to sink and nw se trending depressions related to salt margins became important differentiation continued into cretaceous times when regional compression caused uplift of the southeastern part of the basin and basin margins a final subsidence phase occurred in the cenozoic this was accompanied by intensive salt movement recent basin configuration reflects the superposition of structural elements resulting from different evolution stages the main structural characteristics of the basin are 1 a vertical tectonic zonation in a pre zechstein succession which lacks significant internal structures and a strongly deformed post zechstein succession which was decoupled due to the thick zechstein salt and 2 a marked asymmetry of the basin with a shallow northern slope and a steep bounding fault at the southern margin elbe fault system the northwestern part of the basin shows the structural properties of an intracratonic sag basin with persisting subsidence and with minor salt mobilisation in contrast initial structures in the southeastern part are strongly overprinted by younger tectonic events including middle triassic to jurassic extension late cretaceous inversion and late to post cretaceous salt movements tectonic elements that deform the whole sedimentary succession are restricted to the basin s southern eastern and northeastern margins where salt thickness decreases combined volumetric and backstripping investigations show that 2 3 of the total subsidence was induced by the sediment load and 1 3 was caused by tectonics the tectonic subsidence history varies laterally across the basin while tectonic subsidence curves in the northwestern part of the basin show fast subsidence during the permian and early triassic decreasing exponentially with time subsidence curves in the southeastern part indicate repeated tectonic activity however the tectonic subsidence volume created during permian to late triassic is significantly higher than the tectonic subsidence during younger phases of basin history

basin evolution of the northern part of the northeast german basin insights from a 3d structural model abstract a 3d structural model for the entire southwestern baltic sea and the adjacent onshore areas was created with the purpose to analyse the structural framework and the sediment distribution in the area the model was compiled with information from several geological time isochore maps and digital depth maps from the area and consists of six post rotliegend successions the upper permian zechstein lower triassic middle triassic upper triassic jurassic cretaceous and cenozoic this structural model was the basis for a 3d backstripping approach considering salt flow as a consequence of spatially changing overburden load distribution isostatic rebound and sedimentary compaction for each backstripping step in order to reconstruct the subsidence history in the region this method allows determination of the amount of tectonic subsidence or uplifting as a consequence of the regional stress field acting on the basin and was followed by a correlation with periods of active salt movement in general the successions above the highly deformed zechstein evaporites reveal a thickening trend towards the gluckstadt graben which also experienced the highest amount of tectonic subsidence during the mesozoic and cenozoic two periods of accelerating salt movement in the area has been correlated with the e w directed extension during the late triassic early jurassic and later by the late cretaceous early cenozoic inversion suggesting that the regional stress field plays a key role in halokinesis the final part of this work dealt with a neotectonic forward modelling in an attempt to predict the future topography when the system is in a tectonic equilibrium the result reveals that many of the salt structures in the region are still active and that future coastline will run with a wnw ese trend arguing that the compressional stresses related to the alpine collision are the prime factor for the present day landscape evolution

on the early response of the climate system to a meltwater input from greenland theearlyresponseoftheatmosphere oceansystemtomeltwaterrunofforiginatingfromthegreenlandice sheet is studied using a coupled atmosphere ocean general circulation model aogcm for this purpose aogcm ensemble simulations without and with associated ocean freshening around greenland are compared for freshwater perturbations initiated in northern winter the mean response for the first three months shows the emergence of negative sea surface temperature sst anomalies in the denmark strait in association with enhanced oceanic advection by the east greenland current the response also shows negative sst anomalies in the north atlantic associated with enhanced westerlies at the ocean surface additionally the baroclinic atmospheric cyclonic circulation east of greenland intensifies and anticyclonic circulations with equivalent barotropic structures develop over western europe and the north pacific ocean simulations by the atmospheric component of the aogcm indicate that atmosphere ocean interactions contribute significantly to enhance the response the sensitivity of the coupled system response to the timing of freshwater perturbation is also studied for freshwater perturbations initialized in northern summer the response during the following winter is similar but stronger in magnitude in the northern hemisphere the atmospheric response resembles the arctic oscillation ao mode of variability the association between anomalies in the denmark strait ssts and in the atmosphere east of greenland is consistent with that observedduring previous great salinityanomaly gsa events the results obtainedhighlight the importance ofatmosphere oceaninteractionintheearlyclimateresponsetogreenlandmelting theteleconnectionswith the north pacific and the contribution of gsa events to north atlantic oscillation nao variability

revising the 1759 kattegat earthquake questionnaires using synthetic wavefield analysis abstract in aseismic regions the lack of large earthquakes in modern times makes the study of historical earthquakes essential as such events often serve as the yardstick for estimating seismic hazards since the largest earthquakes with few exceptions took place hundreds of years ago we may claim that their recurrence times are very large or alternatively their magnitudes are biased upwards scandinavia is no exception in this regard and one interesting event in particular is the kattegat earthquake of 22 december 1759 it is unique in the sense that a macroseismic questionnaire was circulated in zealand within days of its occurrence the puzzling feature here is that intensity ranges from vii to i across zealand but then given i iii for hamburg and other north german cities we have chosen two avenues in reassessing the magnitude of the kattegat earthquake namely 1 2d finite difference fd waveform modelling to evaluate possible amplitude amplifications due to sub surface basin structures and 2 re assessing the intensity reports of the 1759 kattegat earthquake in light of the new european macroseismic scale ems 98 our 2d fd results show that the presence of the danish and the north german basins led to shear wave amplitude amplification by factors of 10 and 5 respectively this is equivalent to a significant increase or overestimation of the area of perception tied to i iii the re assessment of the macroseismic observations in light of the above results and the ems 98 downgrade the kattegat earthquake ms magnitude from 5 6 to 5 1

late cretaceous cenozoic evolution of the north german basin results from 3 d geodynamic modelling abstract the late cretaceous cenozoic evolution of the north german basin has been investigated by 3 d thermomechanical finite element modelling the model solves the equations of motion of an elasto visco plastic continuum representing the continental lithosphere it includes the variations of stress in time and space the thermal evolution surface processes and variations in global sea level the north german basin became inverted in the late cretaceous early cenozoic the inversion was most intense in the southern part of the basin i e in the lower saxony basin the flechtingen high and the harz the lower crustal properties vary across the north german basin north of the elbe line the lower crust is dense and has high seismic velocity compared to the lower crust south of the elbe line the lower crust with high density and high velocity is assumed to be strong lateral variations in lithospheric strength also arise from lateral variations in moho depth in areas where the moho is deep the upper mantle is warm and the lithosphere is thereby relatively weak compression of the lithosphere causes shortening thickening and surface uplift of relatively weak areas tectonic inversion occurs as zones of preexisting weakness are shortened and thickened in compression contemporaneously the margins of the weak zone subside cenozoic subsidence of the northern part of the north german basin is explained as a combination of thermal subsidence and a small amount of deformation and surface uplift during compression of the stronger crust in the north the modelled deformation patterns and resulting sediment isopachs correlate with observations from the area this verifies the usefulness and importance of thermomechanical models in the investigation of intraplate sedimentary basin formation

magmatic flare up at the carboniferous permian boundary in the ne german basin revealed by shrimp zircon ages shrimp ages of 12 volcanic samples indicate intense magmatic activity to have occurred at the carboniferous permian boundary throughout much of the ne german basin rhyolitic crystal rich samples have been taken from quarries in the halle volcanic complex hvc and in the flechtingen ignimbrite and from drill cores of the kotzen mirow friedland and penkun areas ten samples yielded 206pb 238u ages between 302 and 297 ma 3 ma respectively which indicate that the magmatic activity took place concentrated in a relatively short time span throughout much of the ne german basin two hvc samples have ages of 307 and 294 ma this remarkably synchronous magmatic activity occurred during the initial phase of the basin development considering published volume estimates 48 000 km3 extrusion rates during this time period probably were in the order of 0 01 km3 a 1 implying magma production rates of 0 1 km3 a 1 the calc alkaline sio2 rich volcanic rocks originated from magmas that presumably formed during anatexis and subordinate magma mixing in an intra continental transtensional setting the basaltic magma which must have provided the thermal input into the lower crust probably formed during decompressional melting of lithospheric mantle fertilised by previous magmatic processes the dated volcanic rocks occur in three geotectonic provinces namely the a mid german crystalline rise which forms the northern part of the internal variscides the b external variscides and the variscan foreland which is considered as c eastern avalonia many of the old zircons found in the hvc samples reflect the magmatic activity of the mid german crystalline rise 325 400 ma however cadomian 500 650 ma and older gondwanian elements 1674 2373 ma are also present although the flechtingen and kotzen areas are located within the external variscides it seems more likely that the middle to lower crust that experienced anatexis formed part of the eastern avalonia plate overridden by the variscan front thus the old zircons found in flechtingen 350 and 538 ma and kotzen 345 ma but certainly those present in the penkun drill cores 1483 ma represent eastern avalonia tectonic history the anatectic magmas in the friedland area probably formed partly from baltic crust thrusted below eastern avalonia during the caledonian orogeny among the old zircons from the friedland samples in addition to proterozoic ages 1456 ma we found testimony of caledonian 443 ma and of clearly post caledonian 387 ma magmatism

late cretaceous to recent tectonic evolution of the north german basin and the transition zone to the baltic shield southwest baltic sea abstract in this study we investigate the late cretaceous to recent tectonic evolution of the southwestern baltic sea based on a dense grid of seismic reflection profiles this area covers the baltic sea sector of the salt influenced north german basin and its transition to the salt free baltic shield across the tornquist zone the upper cretaceous to recent structural evolution is discussed by means of individual seismic sections and derived high resolution time structure maps of the main horizons i e the upper cretaceous tertiary and pleistocene the upper cretaceous and tertiary layers reveal numerous significant faults throughout the study area several of these faults propagate upwards across the unconsolidated pleistocene sediments and occasionally penetrate the surface the salt influenced north german basin reveals three major fault trends nw se n s and nne ssw several of these faults are located directly above basement sub salt faults and salt pillows the majority of these faults are trending n s to nne ssw and parallel the direction of the gluckstadt graben faults in the salt free tornquist zone we identify two major shallow fault trends which are nw se and ne sw the majority of these faults are located above basement faults following the direction of the tornquist zone we conclude that generally basement tectonics controls activation and trends of shallow faults if salt is present the ductile salt layer causes a lateral shift between the sub and supra salt faults major plate reorganisation related to the africa iberia europe convergence and the subsequent alpine orogeny caused reactivation of pre existing faults and vertical salt movement in the late cretaceous the change of stress orientation from ne sw to a nw se during neogene caused another phase of fault and salt tectonic reactivation we explain that the ice sheet loading and or present day stress field may have acted in combination causing the recent tectonics and upward extension of the faults

teleconnections in the geopotential height field during the northern hemisphere winter abstract contemporaneous correlations between geopotential heights on a given pressure surface at widely separated points on earth referred to as teleconnections in this paper are studied in an attempt to identify and document recurrent spatial patterns which might be indicative of standing oscillations in the planetary waves during the northern hemisphere winter with time scales on the order of a month or longer a review of existing literature on the subject reveals the existence of at least four such patterns the north atlantic and north pacific oscillations identified by walker and bliss 1932 a zonally symmetric seesaw between sea level pressures in polar and temperature latitudes first noted by lorenz 1951 and what we will refer to as the pacific north american pattern which has been known to operational long range forecasters in this country since the 1950 s a data set consisting of nmc monthly mean sea level pressure and 500 mb height analyses for a 15 year period is used as a basis fo

moho depth across the trans european suture zone from p and s receiver functions the mohorovicic discontinuity moho for short which marks the boundary between crust and mantle is the main first order structure within the lithosphere geodynamics and tectonic evolution determine its depth level and properties here we present a map of the moho in central europe across the teisseyre tornquist zone a region for which a number of previous studies are available our results are based on homogeneous and consistent processing of p and s receiver functions for the largest passive seismological data set in this region yet consisting of more than 40 000 receiver functions from almost 500 station besides we also provide new results for the crustal vp vs ratio for the whole area our results are in good agreement with previous more localized receiver function studies as well as with the interpretation of seismic profiles while at the same time resolving a higher level of detail than previous maps covering the area for example regarding the eifel plume region rhine graben and northern alps the close correspondence with the seismic data regarding crustal structure also increases confidence in use of the data in crustal corrections and the imaging of deeper structure for which no independent seismic information is available in addition to the pronounced stepwise transition from crustal thicknesses of 30 km in phanerozoic europe to more than 45 beneath the east european craton we can distinguish other terrane boundaries based on moho depth as well as average crustal v p v s ratio and moho phase amplitudes the terranes with distinct crustal properties span a wide range of ages from palaeoproterozoic in lithuania to cenozoic in the alps reflecting the complex tectonic history of europe crustal thickness and properties in the study area are also markedly influenced by tectonic overprinting for example the formation of the central european basin system and the european cenozoic rift system in the areas affected by cenozoic rifting and volcanism thinning of the crust corresponds to lithospheric updoming reported in recent surface wave and s receiver function studies as expected for thermally induced deformation the same correlation applies for crustal thickening not only across the trans european suture zone but also within the southern part of the bohemian massif

structure and evolution of the glueckstadt graben due to salt movements the salt tectonics of the glueckstadt graben has been investigated in relation to major tectonic events within the basin the lithologic features of salt sections from rotliegend zechstein and keuper show that almost pure salt is prominent in the zechstein dominating diapiric movements that have influenced the regional evolution of the glueckstadt graben three main phases of growth of the salt structures have been identified from the analysis of the seismic pattern the strongest salt movements occurred at the beginning of the keuper when the area was affected by extension this activation of salt tectonics was followed by a jurassic extensional event in the pompeckj block and lower saxony basin and possibly in the glueckstadt graben the paleogene neogene tectonic event caused significant growth and amplification of the salt structures mainly at the margins of the basin this event was extensional with a possible horizontal component of the tectonic movements 3d modelling shows that the distribution of the initial thickness of the permian salt controls the structural style of the basin regionally where salt was thick salt diapirs and walls formed and where salt was relatively thin simple salt pillows and shallow anticlines developed

the mesozoic cenozoic structural framework of the bay of kiel area western baltic sea a dense grid of multichannel high resolution seismic sections from the bay of kiel in the western baltic sea has been interpreted in order to reveal the mesozoic and cenozoic geological evolution of the northern part of the north german basin the overall geological evolution of the study area can be separated into four distinct periods during the triassic and the early jurassic e w extension and the deposition of clastic sediments initiated the movement of the underlying zechstein evaporites the deposition ceased during the middle jurassic when the entire area was uplifted as a result of the mid north sea doming the uplift resulted in a pronounced erosion of upper triassic and lower jurassic strata this event is marked by a clear angular unconformity on all the seismic sections the region remained an area of non deposition until the end of the early cretaceous when the sedimentation resumed in the area throughout the late cretaceous the sedimentation took place under tectonic quiescence reactivated salt movement is observed at the cretaceous cenozoic transition as a result of the change from an extensional to compressional regional stress field the vertical salt movement influenced the cenozoic sedimentation and resulted in thin skinned faulting

a test for annular modes abstract the use of empirical orthogonal functions eofs has grown popular as a tool to determine underlying variability from the rapidly increasing volume of climate data it has been noted that the dominant or first eof of geopotential heights in each hemisphere at levels from the surface through the troposphere and into the midstratosphere appears to be zonally symmetric it has also been suggested that all of the first eofs throughout the atmospheric column are barotropically coupled and annular moreover such modes of variability in both hemispheres are thought to be analogous to each other to define annularity more objectively and to facilitate comparisons both temporally and spatially a framework has been formulated within which modes of variability may be tested for their degree of zonal symmetry or annularity motivated by previous choices pressure height fields in each hemisphere are tested for annularity one near the surface and the other in the midstratosphere periods chosen coincide

new insights into the crustal structure of the north german basin from reprocessing of seismic reflection data using the common reflection surface stack the influence of deep crustal processes on basin formation and evolution and its relation to current morphology is not well understood yet a key feature to unravel these issues is a detailed seismic image of the crust a part of the data recorded by the hydrocarbon industry in the late 1970s and 1980s in the north german basin were released to the public recently the seismic reflection data were recorded down to 15 s two way travel time the mean common midpoint fold of about 20 is relatively low compared to contemporary seismic acquisitions the processing of the 1980s focussed on the sedimentary structures to explore the hydrocarbon potential of this area we applied the common reflection surface stack technique to the data sets which is well suited for low fold data the reprocessing was focussed on the imaging of the subsedimentary crustal range the reprocessed images show enhanced reflections especially in the mid and lower crustal part also the image of the salt structures in the graben area was improved furthermore the reprocessed images indicate an almost flat moho topography in the area of the gluckstadt graben and an additional lower crustal structure which can be correlated with a high density body found in recent gravity modeling studies

new constraints on the timing of late carboniferous early permian volcanism in the central north sea the permo carboniferous evolution of the central north sea is characterized by three main geological events 1 the development of the west european carboniferous basin 2 a period of basaltic volcanism during the lower rotliegend latest carboniferous early permian and 3 the development of the northern and southern permian basins in late permian times the timing of the late carboniferous permian basaltic volcanism in the north sea is poorly constrained as is the timing of extensional tectonic activity following main inversion during the westphalian due to the propagation of the variscan deformation front results of high precision ar ar dating on basalt samples taken from a core from exploration well 39 2 4 amerada hess in the uk sector of the central north sea suggests that basaltic volcanism was active in the late carboniferous at c 299 ma the presence of volcanics below the dated horizon suggests that the onset of permo carboniferous volcanism in the central north sea commenced earlier probably at c 310 ma westphalian c this is contemporaneous with other observations of tholeiitic volcanism in other parts of nw europe including the oslo graben the north east german basin southern sweden and scotland interpretations of available seismic data show that main extensional faulting occurred after the volcanic activity but the exact age of the fault activity is difficult to constrain with the data available

flexural rotation of normal faults a conceptual model is proposed for the generation of low angle normal faults in metamorphic core complexes the model is based on three assumptions 1 the isostatic response to normal fault motion is of regional extent 2 when a fault segment is significantly rotated from the optimum angle of slip relative to the crustal stress field it is replaced by a new planar fault oriented in the optimum direction and 3 the fault cuts the entire upper crust and fault motion always nucleates in the same region at the base of the upper crust the stress field is considered to be uniform through the crust and the regional isostatic response of the crust to loads is computed using the thin plate flexure approximations active low angle normal faults are difficult to reconcile with rock mechanics theories earthquake focal mechanism studies and geochronologic results indicating rapid cooling of core complex rocks the model does not require active fault slip on low angle faults the flexural response to normal faulting is shown to be significantly affected by anelastic behavior of the crust and by loading due to sedimentation the anelastic response to large bending stresses results in significant reduction in the effective elastic rigidity of the upper crust this can explain the observed short wavelength of topographic response to normal fault loads the model results in 1 a nearly flat lying abandoned normal fault or detachment below slices of upper plate rocks and sedimentary infill 2 a strong contrast in metamorphic grade across the abandoned detachment 3 rapid movement of lower plate rocks from midcrustal depths to shallower depths these results are qualitatively in agreement with geologic observations for core complexes

the elbe fault system in north central europe a basement controlled zone of crustal weakness abstract the elbe fault system efs is a wnw striking zone extending from the southeastern north sea to southwestern poland along the present southern margin of the north german basin and the northern margin of the sudetes mountains although details are still under debate geological and geophysical data reveal that upper crustal deformation along the elbe fault system has taken place repeatedly since late carboniferous times with changing kinematic activity in response to variation in the stress regime in late carboniferous to early permian times the elbe fault system was part of a post variscan wrench fault system and acted as the southern boundary fault during the formation of the permian basins along the trans european suture zone sensu geol mag 134 5 1997 585 the teisseyre tornquist zone ttz most probably provided the northern counterpart in a pull apart scenario at that time further strain localisation took place during late mesozoic transtension when local shear within the elbe fault system caused subsidence and basin formation along and parallel to the fault system the most intense deformation took place along the system during late cretaceous early cenozoic time when the elbe fault system responded to regional compression with up to 4 km of uplift and formation of internal flexural highs compressional deformation continued during early cenozoic time and actually may be ongoing the upper crust of the elbe fault system which itself reacted in a more or less ductile fashion is underlain by a lower crust characterised by low p wave velocities low densities and a weak rheology structural seismic and gravimetric data as well as rheology models support the assumption that a weak stress sensitive zone in the lower crust is the reason for the high mobility of the area and repeated strain localisation along the elbe fault system

multidecadal fluctuation of the wintertime arctic oscillation pattern and its implication abstractthe multidecadal fluctuations in the patterns and teleconnections of the winter mean arctic oscillation ao are investigated based on observational and reanalysis datasets results show that the atlantic center of the ao pattern remains unchanged throughout the period 1920 2010 whereas the pacific center of the ao is strong during 1920 59 and 1986 2010 and weak during 1960 85 consequently the link between the ao and the surface air temperature over western north america is strong during 1920 59 and 1986 2010 and weak during 1960 85 the time varying pacific center of the ao motivates a revisit to the nature of the ao from the perspective of decadal change it reveals that the north pacific mode npm and north atlantic oscillation nao are the inherent regional atmospheric modes over the north pacific and north atlantic respectively their patterns over the north pacific and north atlantic remain stable and change little with time during 1920 2010 the atlantic center of the ao always resemb

dynamics and geometry of extratropical cyclones in the upper troposphere by a neighbor enclosed area tracking algorithm abstractthis study shows that the morphological characteristics of upper tropospheric extratropical eddies are closely related to the background flow in the northern hemisphere winter enclosed surfaces of 300 hpa relative vorticity are identified by using the neighbor enclosed area tracking algorithm and the periphery of these surfaces are approximated by ellipses eddies are classified into five categories according to the approximate ellipse eddies having an oblateness of less than 0 6 are classified as near circle or are otherwise classified as northeast southwest ne sw northwest southeast nw se north south or west east according to the direction of the major axis in the wintertime climatology ne sw oriented cyclones are collocated with the jet stream while nw se oriented cyclones mostly reside north of the jet in interannual variability moreover the frequency of ne sw cyclones is slightly correlated with the arctic oscillation ao index while the frequency of nw se cyclones is high

pattern recognition and lithological interpretation of collocated seismic and magnetotelluric models using self organizing maps summary joint interpretation of models from seismic tomography and inversion of magnetotelluric mt data is an efficient approach to determine the lithology of the subsurface statistical methods are well established but were developed for only two types of models so far seismic p velocity and electrical resistivity we apply self organizing maps soms which have no limitations in the number of parameters considered in the joint interpretation our som method includes 1 generation of data vectors from the seismic and mt images 2 unsupervised learning 3 definition of classes by algorithmic segmentation of the som using image processing techniques and 4 application of learned knowledge to classify all data vectors and assign a lithological interpretation for each data vector we apply the workflow to collocated p velocity vertical p velocity gradient and resistivity models derived along a 40 km profile around the geothermal site gros schonebeck in the northeast german basin the resulting lithological model consists of eight classes covering cenozoic mesozoic and palaeozoic sediments down to 5 km depth there is a remarkable agreement between the litho type distribution from the som analysis and regional marker horizons interpolated from sparse 2 d industrial reflection seismic data the most interesting features include 1 characteristic properties of the jurassic low p velocity gradients low resistivity values interpreted as the signature of shales and 2 a pattern within the upper permian zechstein layer with low resistivity and increased p velocity values within the salt depressions and increased resistivity and decreased p velocities in the salt pillows the latter is explained in our interpretation by flow of less dense salt matrix components to form the pillows while denser and more brittle evaporites such as anhydrite remain in place during the salt mobilization

lower palaeozoic evolution of the northeast german basin baltica borderland the vendian silurian succession from a series of boreholes in northeast germany has been petrographically and geochemically investigated evidence suggests that the more northerly vendian and cambrian succession was deposited on a craton which became increasingly unstable in ordovician times similarly the ordovician age succession deposited in the rugen area indicates a strongly active continental margin tectonic setting for the same period by silurian times the region was once more relatively tectonically quiescent although complete closure of the tornquist sea was not complete until latest silurian times the major changes in tectonic regime in the eastern avalonia baltica area recorded from the ordovician suggest that a significant degree of closure occurred during this time

the glueckstadt graben a sedimentary record between the north and baltic sea in north central europe abstract the glueckstadt graben is one of the deepest post permian structures within the central european basin system and is located right at its heart at the transition from the north sea to the baltic sea and from the lower saxony basin to the rynkoebing fyn high the mesozoic to recent evolution is investigated by use of selected seismic lines seismic flattening and a 3d structural model a major tectonic event in the latest middle late triassic keuper was accompanied by strong salt tectonics within the glueckstadt graben at that time a rapid subsidence took place within the central part which provides the core of the glueckstadt graben the post triassic tectonic evolution of the area does not follow the typical scheme of thermal subsidence in contrast it seems that there is a slow progressive activation of salt movements triggered by the initial triassic event starting with the jurassic the subsidence centre partitioned into two parts located adjacent to the triassic core in comparison with other areas of the central european basin system the glueckstadt graben was not strongly affected by additional jurassic and cretaceous events during the late jurassic to early cretaceous the area around the glueckstadt graben was affected by relative uplift with regional erosion of the elevated relief however subsidence was reactivated and accelerated during the cenozoic when a strong subsidence centre developed in the north sea during paleogene and quaternary neogene the two centres of sedimentation moved gradually towards the flanks of the basin the data indeed point toward a control of post permian evolution by gradual withdrawal of salt triggered by the initial exhaustion along the triassic subsidence centre in this sense the glueckstadt graben was formed at least partially as basin scale rim syncline during post permian times the present day hamburger east and westholstein troughs are the actual final state of this long term process which still may continue and may play a role in terms of young processes and e g for coastal protection

neotectonics and intraplate continental topography of the northern alpine foreland research on neotectonics and related seismicity has hitherto been mostly focused on active plate boundaries that are characterized by generally high levels of earthquake activity current seismic hazard estimates for intraplate domains are mainly based on probabilistic analyses of historical and instrumental earthquake catalogues the accuracy of such hazard estimates is limited by the fact that available catalogues are restricted to a few hundred years which on geological time scales is insignificant and not suitable for the assessment of tectonic processes controlling the observed earthquake activity more reliable hazard prediction requires access to high quality data sets covering a geologically significant time span in order to obtain a better understanding of processes controlling on going intraplate deformation the alpine orogen and the intraplate sedimentary basins and rifts in its northern foreland are associated with a much higher level of neotectonic activity than hitherto assumed seismicity and stress indicator data combined with geodetic and geomorphologic observations demonstrate that deformation of the northern alpine foreland is still on going and will continue in the future this has major implications for the assessment of natural hazards and the environmental degradation potential of this densely populated area we examine relationships between deeper lithospheric processes neotectonics and surface processes in the northern alpine foreland and their implications for tectonically induced topography for the environmental tectonics project entec the upper and lower rhine graben urg and lrg and the vienna basin vb were selected as natural laboratories the vienna basin developed during the middle miocene as a sinistral pull apart structure on top of the east alpine nappe stack whereas the upper and lower rhine grabens are typical intracontinental rifts the upper rhine graben opened during its late eocene and oligocene initial rifting phase by nearly orthogonal crustal extension whereas its neogene evolution was controlled by oblique extension seismic tomography suggests that during extension the mantle lithosphere was partially decoupled from the upper crust at the level of the lower crust however whole lithospheric folding controlled the mid miocene to pliocene uplift of the vosges black forest arch whereas thermal thinning of the mantle lithosphere above a mantle plume contributed substantially to the past and present uplift of the rhenish massif by contrast oblique crustal extension controlling the late oligocene initial subsidence stage of the lower rhine graben gave way to orthogonal extension at the transition to the neogene the entec project integrated geological geophysical geomorphologic geodetic and seismological data and developed dynamic models to quantify the societal impact of neotectonics in areas hosting major urban and industrial activity concentrations the response of europe s intraplate lithosphere to late neogene compressional stresses depends largely on its thermo mechanical structure which in turn controls vertical motions topography evolution and related surface processes

the mechanics of continental extension and sedimentary basin formation a simple shear pure shear flexural cantilever model abstract deep seismic reflection data and earthquake seismology show the fundamental importance of major crustal faults during extension of continental lithosphere controlling the development of rifted sedimentary basins major basement faults are generally planar and extend down to 10 15 km depth corresponding to the base of the seismogenic layer beneath this depth deformation gives way to distributed ductile shear in the lower crust and lithospheric mantle a mathematical model is described of the geometric thermal and flexural isostatic response of the lithosphere to extension by planar faulting of the upper crust and plastic distributed deformation in the lower crust and mantle during faulting upper crustal footwall and hanging wall blocks behave as two mutually self supporting flexural cantilevers their response to isostatic forces induced by extension generates footwall uplift and hanging wall collapse for extension on multiple faults interference of footwall uplift and hanging wall collapse gives rise to the familiar block rotations of rift tectonics the flexural cantilever model is able to predict crustal structure and sedimentary basin geometry for faults of arbitrary spacing horizontal displacement and polarity the effects of fault spacing fault polarity and the amount of extension as well as erosion of footwall uplift on crustal structure and basin geometry during both syn rift and post rift stages of basin evolution are explored models of passive rifting involving lithosphere extension in response to the build up of far field tectonic forces and decompression induced partial melting of the upper asthenosphere and lower lithosphere appear to conform to the main geological observations the role of active rifting driven by locally derived deviatoric tensional forces generated by mantle plumes remains uncertain

seismic evidence of caledonian deformed crust and uppermost mantle structures in the northern part of the trans european suture zone sw baltic sea abstract collisional structures from the closure of the tornquist ocean and subsequent amalgamation of avalonia and baltica during the caledonian orogeny in the northern part of the trans european suture zone tesz in the sw baltic sea are investigated a grid of marine reflection seismic lines was gathered in 1996 during the dekorp basin 96 campaign shooting with an airgun array of 52 l total volume and recording with a digital streamer of up to 2 1 km length the detailed reflection seismic analysis is mainly based on post stack migrated sections of this survey but one profile has also been processed by a pre stack depth migration algorithm the data provides well constrained images of upper crustal reflectivity and lower crustal uppermost mantle reflections in the area of the caledonian suture a reflection pattern is observed with opposing dips in the upper crust and the uppermost mantle detailed analysis of dipping reflections in the upper crust provides evidence for two different sets of reflections which are separated by the o horizon the main decollement of the caledonian deformation complex s dipping reflections beneath the sub permian discontinuity and above the o horizon are interpreted as caledonian thrust structures beneath the o horizon sw dipping reflections in the upper crust are interpreted as ductile shear zones and crustal deformation features that evolved during the sveconorwegian orogeny the caledonian deformation complex is subdivided into 1 s dipping foreland thrusts in the north 2 the s dipping suture itself that shows increased reflectivity and 3 apparently ne dipping downfaulted sedimentary horizons south of the avalonia baltica suture which may have been reactivated during mesozoic normal faulting the reflection moho at 28 35 km depth appears to truncate a n dipping mantle structure which may represent remnant structures from tornquist ocean closure or late collisional compressional shear planes in the upper mantle a contour map of these mantle reflections indicates a consistent northward dip which is steepest where there is strong bending of the caledonian deformation front the thin skinned character of the caledonian deformation complex and the fact that n dipping mantle reflections do not truncate the moho indicate that the baltica crust was not mechanically involved in the caledonian collision and therefore escaped deformation in this area

crustal structure along the egt profile across the tornquist fan interpreted from seismic gravity and magnetic data abstract the tornquist fan is a northwestward widening splay of late carboniferous to early permian fault zones in the danish area which emanates from the teisseyre tornquist zone in the baltic sea it is located over an area of deep sedimentary basins around denmark in the southwestern corner of the former baltica plate this paper presents an integrated model of seismic velocity density and magnetic properties along the egt profile across the tornquist fan between southern sweden and northern germany the model shows distinct features that may be related to the main tectonic events in the area the caledonian crustal suture between baltica and eastern avalonia is interpreted from changes in physical parameters at all crustal levels most noticeable as an abrupt lateral change in seismic velocity in the lowest crust at moho level from 6 9 km s in baltica to only 6 4 km s in eastern avalonia thick sedimentary successions beneath the mesozoic sequence are interpreted as palaeozoic sedimentary rocks which may have been deposited on the southern margin of the baltica plate in a deep caledonian foreland basin and in late carboniferous early permian rifts and extensional basins rift related magmatism is indicated by the presence of zones of high velocity density and magnetic susceptibility as well as strong remanent magnetization thermal subsidence following the emplacement of these bodies may be the origin of regional subsidence of the danish and north german basins of late paleozoic and mesozoic age late cretaceous to early cenozoic inversion of basin structures is detected at the sorgenfrei tornquist zone stz in the transition between shield and basin areas the stz coincides with a pronounced change in crustal thickness and the southwestern edge of a major magmatic intra crustal body significant abrupt changes in moho depth exist along the profile 26 30 km beneath the deep basins ca 35 km beneath the ringkobing fyn basement high and 48 km beneath the baltic shield around the sorgenfrei tornquist inversion zone the basement in the tornquist fan area is of proterozoic age the moho topography indicates strong thinning of the crust during its phanerozoic evolution the model supports the hypothesis that existing tectonic structures and weakness zones are continuously being reactivated during subsequent tectonic activity

the preferred structure of variability of the northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation a nonlinear generalisation of principal component analysis pca is applied to the 500mb geopotential height field of the northern hemisphere extratropical atmosphere it is found that the low frequency variability of the mid troposphere is characterised by three distinct quasi stationary states the states are described and compared to those obtained from applications of cluster analyses and linear pca to the height field evidence is provided that modes obtained through pca notably the arctic oscillation ao are not independent dynamical modes of variability of the northern hemisphere extratropics rather they arise as the optimal linear compromise between the preferred quasi stationary states of the circulation

structure and evolution of the northeastern german basin and its transition onto the baltic shield abstract the post permian sequence stratigraphical and structural evolution of the northeastern german basin and its transition onto the baltic shield has been studied in the bay of mecklenburg sw baltic sea by means of seismic interpretation five major sequences have been identified middle triassic upper triassic jurassic cretaceous and cenozoic time isochore maps allowed the identification of several phases of salt pillow growth the contemporaneity of active salt tectonics and the well studied tectonic evolution of the northeastern german basin suggest a causative correlation the e w directed extension during the triassic early jurassic marking the beginning break up of pangaea is seen as the trigger process for the first period of salt movement a fault system outside the limit of the zechstein evaporates is understood as the consequence of thin skinned faulting and brittle thick skinned deformation that accompanied this extension the observed pronounced erosion of upper triassic and lower jurassic strata is considered to result from the uplift due to the mid north sea doming event in middle jurassic times the seismic data show an undisturbed late cretaceous succession which reflects a period of rising sea level tectonic quiescence and no salt movement in contrast to the salt pillows which emerged above triassic fault systems in the westernmost baltic and western north german basin the cenozoic salt movement activity is the most pronounced this period of reactivated salt pillow growth started coevally with the onset of the alpine orogeny at the cretaceous cenozoic transition when the africa arabian plate collided with eurasia generally no significant faults were identified in the overburden of the salt floored southern bay of mecklenburg where ductile zechstein salt decouples deep rooted faulting from supra salt deformation

the post glacial landscape evolution of the north german basin morphology neotectonics and crustal deformation the recent evolution of the north german basin ngb which is presently a low seismic area was partly affected by glacial loading and unloading of the ice masses major stresses acting within the ngb are induced by the north atlantic ridge push the ongoing alpine collision and the post glacial rebound of fennoscandia present day horizontal stresses within the ngb are directed generally nw se but fan and bend north of 52 n towards nne major basement faults are directed nw se minor faults ne sw and nne ssw and are clearly detectable in geomorphological and satellite lineaments furthermore the drainage pattern and the distribution of lakes in northern germany follow exactly block boundaries and hence mark zones of present day subsidence the understanding of the post glacial morphology and reactivation of faults requires a view into the very heterogeneous crust and upper mantle below the ngb the re adjustment of the individual fault blocks during post glacial relaxation of the lithosphere leads to differential crust dependent uplift and probably to the formation of urstrom valleys the urstrom valleys and terminal moraines in northern germany appear to parallel the major tectonic lineaments and lithospheric block boundaries the lithospheric memory is expressed in the post glacial landscape evolution of the ngb

some aspects of the late and post variscan development of the northwestern german basin abstract the crust of northern germany can be subdivided into three provinces that are evident by differences in crustal density seismic velocity reflectivity magnetic characteristics thermal history and electric conductivity these provinces are limited by the elbe river and the northern foothills of the mittelgebirge during the pre and post variscan evolution the tectonic setting of northern germany has changed repeatedly each of the three recognized basement provinces differs in the timing of basement consolidation caledonian variscan the sequence of basin development during permian mesozoic and cenozoic times and the timing and intensity of magmatic activity permian cretaceous cenozoic

dynamics of the northern annular mode at weekly time scales abstractrapid onsets of positive and negative tropospheric northern annular mode nam events during boreal winters are studied using era interim datasets the nam anomalies first appear in the north pacific from low frequency rossby wave propagation initiated by anomalous convection in the western tropical pacific around 2 weeks before the peak of the events for negative nam the enhanced convection leads to a zonal acceleration of the pacific jet while for positive nam the reduced convection leads to a poleward deviated jet in its exit region the north atlantic anomalies which correspond to north atlantic oscillation nao anomalies are formed in close connection with the north pacific anomalies via downstream propagation of low frequency planetary scale and high frequency synoptic waves the latter playing a major role during the last onset week prior to positive nam the generation of synoptic waves in the north pacific and their downstream propagation is strong the poleward deviated pacific j

caledonian and proterozoic terrane accretion in the southwest baltic sea abstract a marine seismic reflection survey was carried out in 1996 by dekorp potsdam and bgr hannover in the sw baltic sea several tectonic lineaments were crossed nearly perpendicularly for example the caledonian deformation front which is assumed to mark the northern boundary of the terrane avalonia which accreted to baltica ca 400 ma here a bivergent collision is clearly observed confirming early ideas from the babel survey the ne dipping reflections in the uppermost mantle are interpreted as signs of the subducted tornquist ocean a similar tectonic style of compression and indentation is observed in the proterozoic crust northeast of bornholm where in addition a remarkable crustal thickening and a strong increase of reflection power is observed the three dekorp lines in this area provide a certain three dimensional control and allows extension of similar observations from the babel line a southward this proterozoic terrane accretion seems to be connected to major tectonic lineaments in southern sweden either to the gothian thrust or the sveconorwegian front

the pacific center of action of the northern hemisphere annular mode real or artifact the leading empirical orthogonal function eof of the sea level pressure slp field referred to as the arctic oscillation ao or northern hemisphere annular mode nam consists of a dipole between the polar cap region and the surrounding zonal ring centered along 458n embedded within the outer ring are centers of action over the euro atlantic and pacific sectors in which slp fluctuates in phase that the observed slp fluctuations at these two centers of action are virtually uncorrelated raises the question of whether the pacific center in the annular mode could be an artifact of eof analysis it is argued that sea level pressure fluctuations at the pacific and euro atlantic centers of action of the ao nam would be more strongly correlated were it not for the fact that slp variability over the north pacific is dominated by a pattern in which fluctuations over the north atlantic and north pacific are inversely related evidence of the coexistence of such a pattern which resembles an augmented version of the pacific north american pattern is presented

interannual seesaw between the aleutian and icelandic lows part ii its significance in the interannual variability over the wintertime northern hemisphere abstract through analysis of observational data for the period of 1973 94 the late winter formation of an interannual seesaw between the surface aleutian and icelandic lows al and il respectively is shown to significantly impact the covariance structure of the leading mode of the interannual variability in the geopotential height field over the extratropical northern hemisphere the tropospheric leading mode for early winter november january is characterized by a polar midlatitude dipole over the euro atlantic sector with a high degree of the annularity coupled with the anomalous lower stratospheric polar vortex over the north pacific no significant anomalies are associated with this mode after the formation of the al il seesaw however the dipole no longer dominates in the upper tropospheric variability the dipole signature is masked in late winter february april by the predominant combined signature of the so called pacific north american pattern and a meridional dipole over the northweste

on the teleconnectivity of the arctic oscillation the term arctic oscillation ao has recently been introduced to describe the leading structure of slp variability over the northern hemisphere a key feature of the ao is its zonally symmetric appearance with a primary center of action over the arctic and opposing anomalies in midlatitudes does the ao s annular appearance result from significant temporal correlations between slp anomalies at distant longitudes the results presented indicate that the temporal coherence between the arctic and midlatitudes is strongest over the atlantic sector with weak correlations between the atlantic and pacific midlatitudes both on intraseasonal and interannual time scales during the past 50 yrs hence the annular character of the ao is more a reflection of the dominance of its arctic center of action than any coordinated behavior of the atlantic and pacific centers of action in the slp field the ao is nearly indistinguishable from the leading structure of variability in the atlantic sector e g the north atlantic oscillation their temporal correlation is 0 95 for monthly data

post variscan evolution of the lithosphere in the rhine graben area constraints from subsidence modelling in the area of the cenozoic rhine rift system crustal and lithospheric thicknesses range between 24 and 35 km and 60 and 120 km respectively this rift system transects the deeply truncated variscan orogen and superimposed permo carboniferous wrench induced troughs and late permian and mesozoic thermal sag basins at the time of its westphlian consolidation the variscan orogen was probably characterized by 45 60 km deep crustal roots that were associated with its rheno hercynian saxo thuringian saxo thuringian bohemian and bohemian moldanubian sutures all of which are transected by the cenozoic rhine rift system during the stephanian early permian wrench induced disruption of the variscan orogen subducted lithospheric slabs were detached causing upwelling of hot mantle material during the resulting thermal surge partial delamination and or thermal thinning of the continental mantle lithosphere induced regional uplift at the same time the variscan orogenic roots were destroyed and crustal thicknesses reduced to 28 35 km in response to the combined effects of mantle derived melts interacting with the lower crust regional erosional unroofing of the crust and on a more local scale by its mechanical stretching towards the end of the early permian the potential temperature of the asthenosphere returned to ambient levels with this regional long term thermal subsidence of the lithosphere commenced controlling the development of a new system of late permian and mesozoic thermal sag basins however the evolution of these basins was repeatedly overprinted by minor short term subsidence accelerations that reflect the build up of far field stresses related to rifting in the tethyan and atlantic domains comparison of observed and modelled subsidence curves suggests that in the area of the rhine rift system the lithosphere had equilibrated with the asthenosphere at the end of the cretaceous at depths of 100 120 km before it became thermally destabilized again by cenozoic rifting and plume related magmatism modelled subsidence curves indicate that by the end of early permian times the thermal thickness of the remnant mantle lithosphere ranged between 10 and 50 km in areas that were later incorporated into mesozoic thermal sag basins this corresponds to mid permian thermal lithosphere thicknesses of 40 80 km the geological society of london 2004

arctic oscillation or north atlantic oscillation abstract the definition and interpretation of the arctic oscillation ao are examined and compared with those of the north atlantic oscillation nao it is shown that the nao reflects the correlations between the surface pressure variability at its centers of action whereas this is not the case for the ao the nao pattern can be identified in a physically consistent way in principal component analysis applied to various fields in the euro atlantic region a similar identification is found in the pacific region for the pacific north american pna pattern but no such identification is found here for the ao the ao does reflect the tendency for the zonal winds at 35 and 55 n to anticorrelate in both the atlantic and pacific regions associated with the nao and pna because climatological features in the two ocean basins are at different latitudes the zonally symmetric nature of the ao does not mean that it represents a simple modulation of the circumpolar flow an increase in the ao or nao implies stro

an integrated study of the ne german basin abstract the ne german basin is part of the southern permian basin south of the transeuropean suture zone tesz here we report an attempt to integrate a variety of geological and geophysical data in order to reveal the present day deep crustal structure of the ne german basin special focus is taken on detailed geological information available reflection seismic data wide angle refraction seismic data and gravity data based on this integrative approach a concise crustal model is developed which can be subject to further evaluation furthermore it is shown that the ne german basin is an outstanding feature quite different from classical basin types as the moho is flat below the basin neither a simple shear nor a pure shear extension model can be applied instead a thick high velocity lower crustal layer is present below the basin centre this high velocity lower crust is also observed in the western part of the basin and can be taken as characteristic for east avalonia results of gravity modelling indicate the presence of a high density lower crust thus supporting the wide angle data furthermore changes in crustal structure can be derived from changes in reflectivity pattern and from the gravimetric signature along the elbe fault system indicating the presence of different crustal domains north and south of the fault system an elastic plate model where the forces applied are the sediment load a vertical load at the southern margin accounting for the harz moutains and a nne ssw directed compression indicates a buckling of the crust during late cretaceous to tertiary inversion however the correlation between the observed crustal structure and the tectonic events that have affected the area remains a subject of discussion a permian thermal event affected the upper mantle and the lower crust and therefore may have modified the crustal memory with regard to caledonian and variscan events additional tectonic events affected the area during the mesozoic in conclusion it remains an open question whether the high velocity and high density lower crustal structure represents a remnant of east avalonia whether it is related to the formation of the permo triassic basin or is the cumulative result of a series of events during the palaeozoic and mesozoic

are the north atlantic oscillation and the northern annular mode distinguishable this study addresses the question of whether persistent events of the north atlantic oscillation nao and the northern annular mode nam teleconnection patterns are distinguishable from each other standard daily index time series are used to specify the amplitude of the nao and nam patterns the above question is examined with composites of sea level pressure and 300 and 40 hpa streamfunction along with tests of field significance a null hypothesis is specified that the nao and nam persistent events are indistinguishable this null hypothesis is evaluated by calculating the difference between time averaged nao and nam composites it is found that the null hypothesis cannot be rejected even at the 80 confidence level the wave breaking characteristics during the nam life cycle are also examined both the positive and negative nam phases yield the same wave breaking properties as those for the nao the results suggest that not only are the nao and nam persistent events indistinguishable but that the nao nam events are neither confined to the north atlantic nor are they annular

major crustal features between the harz mountains and the baltic shield derived from receiver functions major crustal features between the harz mountains and the baltic shield derived from receiver functions

some results of deep seismic investigations in east germany abstract in recent years several deep seismic investigations have been carried out in the central and southern part of east germany in the present paper the results for p wave velocity distributions are shown and discussed some typical crustal features such as low velocity layers were found in some cases the moho was found to ascend from the se towards the nw with some interruptions for several profiles the s wave arrivals also were interpreted the simultaneous evaluation of p and s wave velocities were used to obtain information on the behaviour of the elastic parameters and respectively the seismic models discussed in the present paper have been confirmed by modelling the gravity field and the results have been published elsewhere

long term landscape evolution of the northeastern margin of the bohemian massif apatite fission track data from the erzgebirge germany to study the relative and absolute timing of post variscan cooling and denudation processes in the erzgebirge of the mid european variscides eight samples for apatite fission track aft analysis were collected from a 1 300 m drill core the fission track data reveal two stages of accelerated cooling through the apatite partial annealing zone apaz i e 110 10 60 c in the late jurassic late cretaceous and in the late cenozoic respectively late jurassic late cretaceous cooling corresponding to denudation of 1 5 5 9 km has been related to wrench tectonics along the elbe zone during triassic jurassic pangea breakup late cenozoic exhumation of 2 1 5 6 km and the increase of the geothermal gradient from 17 5 c km 1 oligocene miocene to 25 27 c km 1 recent is likely connected to the formation of the eger graben starting from the oligocene as a result of the late alpine orogenic phases

intrusion versus inversion a 3d density model of the southern rim of the northwest german basin an unsolved problem of regional importance for both the evolution and structure of the northwest german basin is the existence or non existence of the so called bramsche massif explaining the nature of this massif and the cause of a related strong positive bouguer anomaly bramsche anomaly is critical in the study described here we tested an existing intrusion model against a newer inversion model in the southern northwest german basin in the intrusion model the strongly positive bouguer anomaly represents the gravity effect of an intrusion at depths between 6 and 10 km more recent interpretations invoke tectonic inversion rather than intrusion to explain increased burial and the low level of hydrocarbon maturity found in boreholes we tested these different interpretations by constructing 3d forward density models to 15 km depth the intrusion model was updated and adjusted to incorporate recent data and we also modelled pre zechstein structures using different scenarios the final model has a very good fit between measured and modelled gravity fields based on currently available seismic and structural models as well as borehole density measurements we show that the positive bouguer anomaly cannot be modeled without a high density intrusive like body at depth however further in sight into the crustal structures of the bramsche region requires more detailed investigations

caledonian deformation upon southwest baltica and its tectonic implications alternatives and consequences the continuation of the basement of the southwestern baltic shield toward the sw is of major interest for the caledonian evolution in the southwestern baltic sea and northern germany a reinterpretation of various marine seismic data suggests a reconsideration of the caledonian collision pattern the sorgenfrei tornquist zone forming the northwestern extension of the tornquist zone is regarded as the northeasterly boundary fault and the elbe lineament is regarded as the southwestern limit of an area which suffered from the docking of east avalonia to baltica it shows many northwestsoutheast striking structures anomalies and fault patterns from our studies two alternative models emerge one which considers the caledonian deformation front as the northeastern limit of east avalonia and a zone of major transpression collision and subduction of the tornquist sea another model considers the elbe lineament in schleswig holstein nw germany as a major dextral strike slip fault which is interpreted as the northeasterly limit of east avalonia and the southwest boundary of the baltic shield along the elbe lineament the tornquist sea plus rotating avalonia were displaced to the northwest a large part of the area to be studied might have developed into a passive margin toward the upper ordovician a decision which of the two models is to be prefered has to be the major goal of future geophysical experiments

mesozoic intraplate deformation in the southern part of the central european basin results from large scale 3d modelling abstract the central european basin is an intracontinental basin that initially formed due to long lasting thermal subsidence accompanied with several tectonic phases of extension during mesozoic times locally thick evaporites were incorporated in the deformation and led to the formation of detached structures salt pillows and diapirs at the end of the late cretaceous the formation of sub basins and half grabens became interrupted by a short term event of contraction especially along the northern and southern edges of the basin lithospheric shortening resulted in basin inversion and the uplift of large basement blocks hence the present day s structural framework shows a complex pattern of kinematically and chronologically variable structures herein we unravelled these structures for the altmark region in northern saxony anhalt central germany we used regional depth maps reflection seismics and borehole data analysed by use of large scale subsurface mapping and 3d modelling techniques to completely re evaluate the structures in the late palaeozoic to cenozoic sedimentary basin succession our results show a high variability of tectonic structures narrow and distributed in parts reactivated normal fault zones huge inverted basins thin skinned thrust faults detachment folds and large basement thrusts the style of deformation significantly changed during the region s evolution this is indicated by particular structural kinematic thermal and rheological conditions which existed for the individual phases of basin formation and inversion and probably persist until today

the north german conductivity anomaly revisited summary the north german conductivity anomaly was detected already in the early years of electromagnetic deep sounding it refers to the reversal of induction arrows as a graphical representation of the tipper transfer function the ratio of vertical to horizontal magnetic field variations at the northern and southern margins of the north german basin in spite of the many experiments carried out so far its origin has remained ambiguous explanations encompass a deep crustal or even mantle source as well as the simple response to deepening of sedimentary sequences in the centre of the basin here we report on modelling of new long period magnetotelluric data collected along two profiles in ne germany and s sweden with one transect crossing the sorgenfrei tornquist zone as the main boundary between precambrian baltica and the palaeozoic belts of central europe with the exception of a few sites probably influenced by 3 d salt domes the data allow a 2 d analysis resolution is reduced for large depths due to a well conducting saline aquifer extending across the entire basin the main result is that the reversal of induction arrows can largely be explained by the resistivity contrast between crystalline basement and sedimentary basin fill beneath rugen island a southward dipping conductor is interpreted to reflect an alum shale layer in middle cambrian lower ordovician sediments beneath the southern basin a moderately conductive upper mantle is modelled although not very well resolved which may reflect the thinning of the lithosphere as implied by seismic tomography as the main anomalously inductive effect is primarily explained by the basin edges and numerous other anomalies exist inside the basin we suggest not using the term north german conductivity anomaly any longer

reconsideration of the true versus apparent arctic oscillation abstract the physical reality of the arctic oscillation ao or northern annular mode is considered the data used are mainly the monthly mean sea level pressure slp a schematic figure is first presented to illustrate the relationship between the north atlantic oscillation nao pacific north american oscillation pna system and the ao negative correlation mode between the atlantic and the pacific ao ncm system although the nao pna apparent ao ncm and true ao ncm systems give rise to the same eofs the probability density functions for the time coefficients of the two leading modes are different therefore the discrimination of the two systems is possible several pieces of evidence indicate that in the real world the nao pna and the ao ncm are located on almost the same plane in phase space this means that the nao pna and ao ncm systems have the same variations on the plane in common implying that when the nao pna system is real the ao ncm is unlikely to be real simple independent compon

origin of hydrocarbon and non hydrocarbon h2s co2 and n2 components of natural gas accumulated in the zechstein main dolomite carbonate reservoir of the western part of the polish sector of the southern permian basin abstract the origin and migration of hydrocarbon and non hydrocarbon hydrogen sulphide carbon dioxide and molecular nitrogen components of natural gas accumulated within the zechstein pz2 stassfurt main dolomite ca2 carbonate reservoir in the western part of the polish sector of the southern permian basin spb were established based on molecular and isotopic compositions 13c ch4 c2h6 c3h8 n c4h10 i c4h10 n c5h12 i c5h12 and co2 2h ch4 15n n2 and 34s h2s related to geological settings and 1 d modelling of generation processes hydrocarbon gases were generated during both microbial and thermogenic processes primary microbial processes ended at the turn of the late permian and early triassic when oil and thermogenic gas generation processes began the reconstruction of the thermal evolution and transformation of organic matter in this part of the spb shows that thermogenic processes ended in the late jurassic in the grotow peninsula zone c and in the late cretaceous in the western part of the wielkopolska platform and gorzow platform zones a and b the presence of the microbial component in analysed accumulations indicates that traps within the ca2 carbonate strata were formed and sealed by the overlying impermeable anhydrites and salts of pz2 stassfurt pz3 leine and pz4 aller cycles preventing its escape accumulation of natural gas in ca2 traps took place in at least two stages and had a cumulative character first microbial gases accumulated then thermogenic gases associated with oil were generated from type ii kerogen in the oil window an insignificant methane component was generated from type iii kerogen and migrated to ca2 reservoir from carboniferous strata h2s was most probably generated during both microbial msr and thermochemical sulphate reduction tsr of anhydrites in the pz1 werra cycle and additionally from thermal decomposition of organic sulphur components of oil and kerogen in the ca2 carbonate rocks msr ended during the late permian tsr was temporarily halted as a result of early cretaceous uplift and probably resumed on a minor scale after the late cretaceous co2 was predominantly generated during thermogenic processes of kerogen decarboxylation carbonate dissolution processes and tsr and msr together with h2s a lesser contribution of co2 from microbial fermentation was also observed to a large extent n2 was mainly generated during thermal transformation of type ii kerogen dispersed in the ca2 carbonate strata and probably partly migrated from carboniferous high maturity type iii kerogen to ca2 reservoirs through fault systems

the arctic oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fields the leading empirical orthogonal function of the wintertime sea level pressure field is more strongly coupled to surface air temperature fluctuations over the eurasian continent than the north atlantic oscillation nao it resembles the nao in many respects but its primary center of action covers more of the arctic giving it a more zonally symmetric appearance coupled to strong fluctuations at the 50 hpa level on the intraseasonal interannual and interdecadal time scales this arctic oscillation ao can be interpreted as the surface signature of modulations in the strength of the polar vortex aloft it is proposed that the zonally asymmetric surface air temperature and mid tropospheric circulation anomalies observed in association with the ao may be secondary baroclinic features induced by the land sea contrasts the same modal structure is mirrored in the pronounced trends in winter and springtime surface air temperature sea level pressure and 50 hpa height over the past 30 years parts of eurasia have warmed by as much as several k sea level pressure over parts of the arctic has fallen by 4 hpa and the core of the lower stratospheric polar vortex has cooled by several k these trends can be interpreted as the development of a systematic bias in one of the atmosphere s dominant naturally occurring modes of variability

palaeoseismic structures in quaternary sediments related to an assumed fault zone north of the permian peissen gnutz salt structure nw germany neotectonic activity and earthquakes from the saalian to the holocene abstract this study reports on neotectonic deformation represented as faults graben and horst structures which have been found in the uppermost 10 m of quaternary sediments consisting mainly of saalian glaciofluvial and weichselian periglacial material in northern germany that is generally considered as a low seismicity area an area with up to 35 faults in a 60 m wide zone exhibits mainly extensional structures most of those are se nw oriented and in some cases ne sw soft sediment deformation structures include sand blows blowout related infill structures and growth faults small scaled soft sediment deformation structures are also found based on the large size of the sand blows and the widespread occurrence of small scaled soft sediment deformation structures the magnitude of the earthquakes is estimated in the order of m 5 5 single faults exhibit a displacement of a few metres because some faults are overlain by unfaulted sandur sediments the system has been active over at least 200 ka saalian several faults extend through the weichselian periglacial layer to the present ground surface proving ongoing deformation during the weichselian lateglacial and or the holocene this major activity during the saalian and the weichselian points to the activation of old tectonic structures a possible process can be the glacial loading and unloading associated with the isostatic rebound holocene and late holocene seismic events are shown by the penetration of the weichselian lateglacial periglacial layer by faults and sand blows as well as a possible blowout related bowl with organic material and corresponding young 14c dates of

inversion related features along the southeastern margin of the north german basin elbe fault system abstract a seismostratigraphic approach constrained by well data is used for the interpretation of the deformation style along the central elbe fault system efs within the sedimentary succession structural analysis allows to qualify to quantify and to date tectonic events the stratigraphic interpretation is complicated by the mobilized upper permian zechstein salt and by erosional events a first order quantification of the inversion related uplift is estimated from vertical fault offsets that reach up to 4 km the main uplift occurred during the maastrichtian paleocene amounts of erosion inferred from comparing the strata thickness on top of the flechtingen high with the surrounding basinal areas range from 3 to 4 km the data indicate a changing deformation style thick skinned deformation with southwest dipping thrusts that vertically offset the pre permian basement is observed along the flechtingen high in the central part of the efs thin skinned deformation occurs in the north german basin where salt detaches the post permian cover from the barely faulted basement it is concluded that during the late cretaceous early tertiary inversion the efs responded to regional compression with uplift and formation of an internal high the flechtingen high a stress sensitive crustal weak zone beneath the efs could be the reason for the repeated strain localization in the area

the southern margin of the east european craton new results from seismic sounding and potential fields between the north sea and poland abstract the extension of eastern avalonia from britain through the ne german basin into poland is in some sense a virtual structure it is covered almost everywhere by late paleozoic and younger sediments evidence for this terrane is only gathered from geophysical data and age information derived from magmatic rocks during the last two decades much geophysical and geological information has been gathered since the european geotraverse egt which was followed by the babel lt 7 mona lisa dekorp basin 96 and polonaise 97 deep seismic experiments based on seismic lines a remarkable feature has been observed between the north sea and poland north of the elbe line el the lower crust is characterised by high velocities 6 8 7 0 km s a feature which seems to be characteristic for at least a major part of eastern avalonia far eastern avalonia in addition the seismic lines indicate that a wedge of the east european craton eec or baltica continues to the south below the southern permian basin spb a structure which resembles a passive continental margin the observed pattern may either indicate an extension of the baltic crust much farther south than earlier expected or oceanic crust of the tornquist sea trapped during the caledonian collision in either case the data require a reinterpretation of the docking mechanism of eastern avalonia and the elbe odra line eol as well as the elbe fault system together with the intra sudedic faults appear to be related to major changes in the deeper crustal structures separating the east european crust from the paleozoic agglomeration of middle european terranes

soft sediment deformation of late pleistocene sediments along the southwestern coast of the baltic sea ne germany a 1 460 m long profile of a late glacial subglacial glacio fluvial glacio limnic and glacio deltaic sequence exposed at a cliff section on usedom island sw baltic sea coast is described the sequence is up to 31 m thick and shows sedimentary structures typical of a glacial setting soft sediment deformation is encountered and is associated with changes in lithology these deformations include liquefaction slumping and faulting as the most plausible cause earthquake induced shaking is discussed the associated neotectonic activity is seen as a consequence of the postglacial isostatic crustal rebound as the deglaciation earthquake ratio diminishes with time and as the rebound is phasing out no large earthquakes are anticipated for northern germany although in conclusion the lithosphere of the north german basin has to be regarded as weakened by repeated ice loading and deloading

strain localization due to structural in homogeneities in the central european basin system the large scale crustal deformations observed in the central european basin system cebs are the result of the interplay between several controlling factors among which lateral rheological heterogeneities play a key role we present a finite element integral thin sheet model of stress and strain distribution within the cebs unlike many previous models this study is based on thermo mechanical data to quantify the impact of lateral contrasts on the tectonic deformation elasto plastic material behaviour is used for both the mantle and the crust and the effects of the sedimentary fill are also investigated the consistency of model results is ensured through comparisons with observed data the results resemble the present day dynamics and kinematics when 1 a weak granite like lower crust below the elbe fault system is modelled in contrast to a stronger lower crust in the area extending north of the elbe line throughout the baltic region and 2 a transition domain in the upper mantle is considered between the shallow mantle of the variscan domain and the deep mantle beneath the east european craton eec extending from the elbe line in the south till the tornquist zone the strain localizations observed along these structural contrasts strongly enhance the dominant role played by large structural domains in stiffening the propagation of tectonic deformation and in controlling the basin formation and the evolution in the cebs

the trans european fault a critical reassessment abstract new deep seismic pro les in the southern baltic region have failed to image the trans european fault evidence for this structure of suggested pre cadomian age is critically re examined localized geophysical anomalies are present but these cannot be correlated with known structuralfeatures of the region based on the inconclusive evidence for this structure we would therefore pro pose that the term trans european fault should not be used in the future and that to avoid confu sion authors use local names for local structures author for correspondence tmc gfz potsdam de stzcdftefdanishbasinrfh eugemi aelnorthgermanmassif nizu sebasin 9601pq2 9 1 4 13 25 berthelsen 1984eugeno s working group 1988horst flueh borngen 1994krauss 1994franke 1993 0 100 km 12345 i pq2 9pq2 9 3 3 loss 1 70h2 1 90k5 1 88g14 1 86pud 1 86rn 2 67gst 1 73rn 4 64 r u g enusedom 0 30 km figure 1 map showing the main structural features and thelocations of the deep seismic surveys in the region the vari ous trends of the trans european fault are also indicated 1 pozarski brochwicz lewinski tomczyk 1982 buttermed caledonian deformation front berthelsen 1984 babel working group 1993 mona lisa workinggroup 1997 2 eugeno s working group 1988 3 horst flueh borngen 1994 4 krauss 1994 5 franke 1993 inset map shows the locations of wells mentioned inthe text key cdf caledonian deformation front el elbe lineament rfh ringkobing fyn high stz sorgenfrei tornquist zone tef trans european fault

post rift compressional reactivation potential of passive margins and extensional basins poly phase deformation of a compressional nature is a common feature in the post rift evolution of passive margins and rifts the compressional mode of deformation in these sedimentary basins originally formed by extension in an intraplate setting is characterized by a spectrum of spatial wavelengths spanning several tens of kilometres up to several hundreds of kilometres the actual mode of compressional deformation appears to be strongly affected by the rheological structure of the underlying lithosphere the level of the regional intraplate stress field and the geometry of the rifted basin configuration prior to late stage compressional reactivation the interplay of plumes and intraplate compressional deformation can lead to temporal transitions from basin inversion to lithospheric folding these modes of deformation lead to substantial differential vertical motions late stage anomalies in subsidence and uplift patterns the development of innovative combinations of numerical and analogue modelling techniques is the key to differentiating different modes of compressional deformation of passive margins and extensional basins the geological society of london 2008