DOI: 10.5880/gfz.dekorp-1a.001
title: Deep seismic reflection profile DEKORP 1987-1A across the western Rhenish Massif, West Germany/ East Belgium

description: The c. 93 km long profile 1A was recorded in 1987 as part of the joint seismic reflection venture DEKORP 1 of the DEKORP (German Deep Seismic Reflection Program) and BELCORP (Belgian Continental Reflection Seismic Program) project steering groups. It was surveyed to investigate the deep crustal structure of the western Rhenish Massif with high-fold near-vertical incidence vibroseis acquisition. The objectives of the experiment were to analyse deep Variscan and post-Variscan crustal structures in the region and to compare them with the results from the eastern Rhenish Massif gathered from the survey DEKORP 2N. The first results were presented by DEKORP Research Group (1990, 1991) and supplemented by many other researches. The Technical Report of line 1A gives detailed information about acquisition and processing parameters. The European Variscides, extending from the French Central Massif to the East European Platform, originated during the collision between Gondwana and Baltica in the Late Palaeozoic. Due to involvement of various crustal blocks in the orogenesis, the mountain belt is subdivided into distinct zones. The external fold-and-thrust belts of the Rhenohercynian and Saxothuringian as well as the predominantly crystalline body of the Moldanubian dominate the central European segment of the Variscides. Polyphase tectonic deformation, magmatism and metamorphic processes led to a complex interlinking between the units. The Rhenohercynian Zone is a foreland fold-and-thrust belt cropping out in the Rhenish Massif which extends from the Ardennes to the Harz Mountains. This geological unit consists predominantly of Devonian and Lower Carboniferous rocks affected by very low-grade metamorphism (DEKORP Research Group, 1991). The nearly NW-SE running survey 1A starts at the Dutch-Belgian border southeast of Maastricht on the southern flank of the London-Brabant Massif. The seismic line also crosses the northern rim of the Rhenish Massif passing through the Aachen Thrust, a part of the North Variscan Deformation Front. 1A runs over the Stavelot-Venn Anticline into the Northern Eifel intersecting the N-S trending axial depression of the Eifel North-South Zone nearly perpendicularly to its strike direction. The eastern flank of the depression was affected by volcanic activity of the High Eifel Volcanic Field during Early Tertiary times (DEKORP Research Group, 1991). Near Adenau the southern end of line 1A crosses the northern beginning of line DEKORP 1B, which proceeds through the Kelberg Magnetic High farther to the south.
description: The German Continental Seismic Reflection Program DEKORP (DEutsches KOntinentales Reflexionsseismisches Programm) was carried out between 1984 – 1999 as the German national reflection seismic program funded by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT), Bonn [now: the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)]. DEKORP was administrated by the former Geological Survey of Lower Saxony (NLfB), Hannover [now: the State Authority for Mining, Energy and Geology (LBEG)]. In 1994 the DEKORP management was taken over by the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. The aim of DEKORP was to investigate the deep crustal structure of Germany with high-resolution near-vertical incidence (mostly vibro)seismic acquisition, supplemented by wide-angle seismic and other target-oriented piggy-back experiments, all complemented by optimized methods of data processing and interpretation. The DEKORP project was closely linked with the KTB (German continental deep-drilling program) and was an equivalent to many other deep-seismic programs world-wide such as COCORP, BIRPS, LITHOPROBE, ECORS, CROP, BELCORP, IBERSEIS and many more. The DEKORP-Atlas (Meissner & Bortfeld, 1990) gives a detailed overview about most of the different campaigns and results. In sum, the resulting DEKORP database includes approximately 40 crustal-scale 2D-seismic reflection lines covering a total of ca. 4 700 km and one 3D-seismic reflection survey covering ca. 400 km². Each DEKORP survey is provided with all datasets that are necessary for either a re-processing (i.e. raw unstacked field records in SEGY) or a re-interpretation (i.e. finally processed sections in SEGY or PNG). The raw data are sorted by records or by CDPs. The final data are available as unmigrated or migrated stacks without or with coherency enhancement. Automatical line-drawings are also included. All data come with additional meta information for each domain (source, receiver, CDP) like coordinates, elevations, locations and static corrections combined in ASCII-tables for geometry assignment. Furthermore, all metadata originating from paper copies are made available as scanned files in PNG or PDF, e.g. field and observer reports, location maps in different scales, near-surface profile headers and others. The DEKORP datasets provide unique and deep insights into the subsurface below Germany covering the earth’s crust from the surface to the upper mantle and are increasingly requested by academic institutions and commercial companies. Fields of applications are geothermal development, hazard analysis, hydrocarbon/shale gas exploration, underground gas storage, tunnel construction and much more.