About 14,000 gravity values are included in the database, including older, reprocessed data. Researchers at universities or governmental agencies are welcome to use the data for noncommercial purposes. For all gravity data the group calculated gravity reductions within a radius of 200 km. It was exchanged with both the Defense Mapping Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who will check the data and use them to compile gravity maps of South America. Both gravity field research and reprocessing of older data were done under this project, and then from 1982 to 1986, more than 2500 new gravity observations were recorded in the traverse.
Volcanoes represent the magmatic arc.
Two task groups work to acquire and process data, and to interpret potential fields, including the geoid, from an interdisciplinary perspective. In particular, the gravity group focuses on constructing a modern gravity data base tied to international standard networks by reprocessing existing data and complementing them with new field surveys and on interdisciplinary interpretation of gravity. As in the case of other foreign research programs, successful work in this inaccessible region is possible only through the assistance of South American colleagues. The region investigated covers a 900 km x 1000 km area in the central part of the Andean orogenic system. The area investigated has a sprawling topography, and it is remote and arid.