Rifting Mechanisms during the Formation of the West Mediterranean Margins

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ernst R. Flüh, since 8/2006
• Subject Area: Atmospheric Science, Oceanography and Climate Research
• Term: from 2005 to 2007
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 14762851

This proposal requests ship time for an experiment within the framework of the European Science Fundation EUROMARGINS-Eurocores Programme. This METEOR proposal is within the approved WESTMED-EUROMARGINS proposal.The aim of this proposal is to use R/V METEOR to collect for the first time wide-angle seismic data across the continental margins and basins of the West Mediterranean to study their crustal and upper mantle structure. Marine seismic measurements with Ocean Bottom Seismometers and Hydrophones will be extended with coordinated land deployments of seismic stations by researchers from CSIC Barcelona. The wide-angle seismic measurements will be collected coincident with existing or to to-be-collected near-vertical seismic reflection profiles. The new reflection data will be obtained by French scientists within the WESTMED framework.Five wide-angle profiles have been strategically located to study the across and along basin variability in structure (Figure 1). One profile will map the structure of the Alboran Basin south of the Iberian Peninsula to study the transition from the Betic and Rif Orogen to the thinned continental crust presumably flooring the center of the basin. A second profile will cross from the SE of the Peninsula across the tectonically active Mazarron margin to the basin with unknown basement rock and representing the transition from the continental Alboran basin to the south-Balearic basin. Profiles 3 and 4 will study the south-Balearic margin and basin along two transects of contrasting structures. Profile 3 will cross the S W of the Balearic promontory across an area of progressively extended crust as inferred from the bathymetry. Profile 4 will transect from Mallorca across a sharp scarp in bathymetry that may mark a major fault in the extended continental crust. Profiles 3 and 4 will also run across the deep margin floored by rocks of unknown nature and that might be formed by anomalous oceanic crust (lacking clear seafloor-spreading magnetic anomalies) or perhaps exhumed continental upper mantle. Profile 5 will run through the margin south of Sardinia crossing the major transform fault active during the opening of the Ligurian¿Provencal basins during the counterclockwise rotation of Corsica and Sardinia.In summary, the proposed 5 wide-angle seismic profiles have been located to characterize for the first time the complex and laterally variable crustal and upper mantle structure of the continental margins of the West-Mediterranean basins.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 511: "Meteor" Expeditions
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Timothy John Reston, from 1/2006 until 8/2006