The legacy of the European Geotraverse

Abstract

The European Geotraverse (EGT) created a 4600-km profile across Europe from North Cape Norway to Tunisia. Not only did this produce the first comprehensive cross-section to a depth of 450km of continental lithosphere covering an eighth of the Earth's circumference, it covered the geological history of Europe from the Archaean to the present. EGT built up a detailed knowledge of the crust and upper mantle of Europe by integrating geological and geophysical information in a coherent way, continuously along a single profile. It illuminated the dramatic contrast between the thickness and complexity of the lithosphere of western Europe and that of Fennoscandia, which remain in isostatic equilibrium, and elucidated the multilayered elements of thickened Alpine crust and lithosphere and the dynamics of the western Mediterranean. Nine years on, the legacy of EGT is the platform it provided for major scientific advances that have stemmed from it, the greatest being through EUROPROBE projects. The PANCARDI project has discovered the subducted slab beneath the Carpathian Arc in the process of tearing apart from the lithosphere. URALIDES has discovered the Urals orogen is almost perfectly preserved since the Palaeozoic, and the TESZ project has elucidated the complex evolution of the transitional region between the Baltic Shield and the Caledonian and Variscan crustal terranes of western Europe. The scientific advances of EGT were matched by its achievement in mobilising an international workforce from every discipline of the Earth sciences. Friendships made in that endeavour are another legacy of EGT and many of those who started their research careers in EGT are now leading EUROPROBE projects and other collaborative ventures. We all owe a great debt to Professor Stephan Mueller who founded and led the European Geotraverse and was its enduring inspiration.