Great Contrasts in Lithospheric Structure Across and Along of the Trans-European Suture Zone in Central Europe

A large seismic experiment (CELEBRATION 2000) targeted the deep structure in the Central Europe between the Phanerozoic an Proterozoic European crustal domains. A feature of this experiment was seismic measurements along a 1400 km long profile (CEL05) located perpendicular to the Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ). Modeling of data along this profile has determined details of crustal structure of the East European Craton (EEC), TESZ (including the Holy Cross Mountains), Carpathians and Pannonian basin. The crustal thickness beneath profile CEL05 changes from about 43-47 km beneath the EEC to about 30-40 km beneath the Paleozoic Platform and Carpathians, and to only 24-28 km beneath the Pannonian basin. Depths of the consolidated basement with velocity Vp>6.0 km/s changes from 1-3 km beneath the East European Craton to about 5-8 km beneath the Pannonian basin, reaching up to 10-18 km in the TESZ and Carpathians. The velocity in the uppermost mantle is 8.1-8.25 km/s beneath East European Craton and 7.8-8.0 km/s beneath the Carpathian-Pannonian area. Other profiles (TTZ and CEL03) with a total length of 720 km are located parallel to the axis of the TESZ in Poland. In this area, the depth of the consolidated basement, with a P-wave velocity of about 5.8 km/s, is from 8 to 10 km. However, down to a depth of 15-20 km, the P-wave velocity is very low, not greater than about 6.0 km/s. The depth of Moho boundary strongly changes along these profiles from 37 km to the NW, through 50 km in central Poland, and jumps to 43 km to the SE. Sub-Moho velocities vary from ~8.2 km/s in the NW part, through 8.35-8.45 km/s in ]central Poland, to ~8.15 km/s to the SE. An approximately 15 km thick lower lithosphere layer with a velocity of ~8.2 km/s was detected below the uppermost mantle. *The CELEBRATION Working Group is listed on our website