Search

Ground and infrastructure stability are important for our technologically based civilization. Infrastructure projects take into consideration the risk posed by ground displacement (e.g., seismicity, geological conditions and geomorphology). To address this risk, earth scientists and civil engineers employ a range of measurement technologies, such as optical/laser leveling, GNSS and, lately, SAR interferometry. Currently there is a rich source of measurement information provided in various formats that covers most of the industrialized world. Integration of this information becomes an issue that will only increase in importance in the future. This work describes a practical approach to address and validate integrated stability measurements through the development of a platform that could be easily used by a variety of groups, from geoscientists to civil engineers and also private citizens with no training in this field. The platform enables quick cross-validation between different data sources, easy detection of critical areas at all scales (from large-scale individual buildings to small-scale tectonics) and can be linked to end-users from various monitoring fields and countries for automated notifications. This work is closing the gap between the specialized monitoring work and the general public, delivering the full value of technology for societal benefits in a free and open manner. The platform is calibrated and validated by an application of SAR interferometry data to specific situations in the general area of the Romanian Carpathians and their foreland. The results demonstrate an interplay between anthropogenically induced changes and high-amplitude active tectono–sedimentary processes creating rapid regional and local topographic variations.

Apart from the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB), mid-lithospheric discontinuities (MLDs) in thick and old continental lithospheres appear to play an important role in global plate tectonics. Initiation of intra-continental subduction, delamination of the lower continental lithospheric mantle and removal of cratonic roots are likely to occur along MLDs. Here we introduce the ‘pargasosphere’ hypothesis which could account for the origin of both boundaries. The observation that pargasitic amphibole is stable even at very low bulk ‘water’ concentration (~a few hundreds ppm wt.) implies that the solidus of the shallow upper mantle (

Understanding the interactions between surface and deep Earth processes is important for research in many diverse scientific areas including climate, environment, energy, georesources and biosphere. The TOPO-EUROPE initiative of the International Lithosphere Program serves as a pan-European platform for integrated surface and deep Earth sciences, synergizing observational studies of the Earth structure and fluxes on all spatial and temporal scales with modelling of Earth processes. This review provides a survey of scientific developments in our quantitative understanding of coupled surface-deep Earth processes achieved through TOPO-EUROPE. The most notable innovations include (1) a process-based understanding of the connection of upper mantle dynamics and absolute plate motion frames; (2) integrated models for sediment source-to-sink dynamics, demonstrating the importance of mass transfer from mountains to basins and from basin to basin; (3) demonstration of the key role of polyphase evolution of sedimentary basins, the impact of pre-rift and pre-orogenic structures, and the evolution of subsequent lithosphere and landscape dynamics; (4) improved conceptual understanding of the temporal evolution from back-arc extension to tectonic inversion and onset of subduction; (5) models to explain the integrated strength of Europe's lithosphere; (6) concepts governing the interplay between thermal upper mantle processes and stress-induced intraplate deformation; (7) constraints on the record of vertical motions from high-resolution data sets obtained from geo-thermochronology for Europe's topographic evolution; (8) recognition and quantifications of the forcing by erosional and/or glacial-interglacial surface mass transfer on the regional magmatism, with major implications for our understanding of the carbon cycle on geological timescales and the emerging field of biogeodynamics; and (9) the transfer of insights obtained on the coupling of deep Earth and surface processes to the domain of geothermal energy exploration. Concerning the future research agenda of TOPO-EUROPE, we also discuss the rich potential for further advances, multidisciplinary research and community building across many scientific frontiers, including research on the biosphere, climate and energy. These will focus on obtaining a better insight into the initiation and evolution of subduction systems, the role of mantle plumes in continental rifting and (super)continent break-up, and the deformation and tectonic reactivation of cratons; the interaction between geodynamic, surface and climate processes, such as interactions between glaciation, sea level change and deep Earth processes; the sensitivity, tipping points, and spatio-temporal evolution of the interactions between climate and tectonics as well as the role of rock melting and outgassing in affecting such interactions; the emerging field of biogeodynamics, that is the impact of coupled deep Earth – surface processes on the evolution of life on Earth; and tightening the connection between societal challenges regarding renewable georesources, climate change, natural geohazards, and novel process-understanding of the Earth system.