EUROPROBE News 9
INTRODUCTION
Nine EUROPROBE projects are now in operation in
Europe, spanning the subcontinent from Iberia to the Urals; a tenth is located in Jakutia.
As the research base widens and funding improves, Europrobians feel increasingly confident
that they have established a way of working that will carry them well into the 21st
century - partnerships integrating the solid earth sciences, partnerships across the
national borders and, increasingly, partnerships with industry. Europrobe is one of ESF's
most "pan-European" projects and we are proud of it.
1996 has seen some organizational changes, with
Hermann Zeyen now firmly in the saddle in Uppsala and the ESSC strengthened by the return
of Enric Banda and newcomers J&ounl;rg Ansorge, Vitaly Starostenko and Marjorie
Wilson. A comprehensive documentation of EUROPROBE science is in press and will reach you
by Christmas. It provides a full overview of our activities - accomplished, on-going and
planned, up to early 1996. As EUROPROBE has moved from the planning to the operational
mode, publications have multiplied and we now have three Tectonophysics and a Geological
Magazine volume either in press or in the final stages of preparation; others are on line.
1995's highlight, URSEIS, most of you will have read about in "Science" (Oct
1996).
EUROPROBE workshops in 1996 have ranged from the
Crimea to Finland and westwards via the Sudetes to Iberia. These meetings provide the
essential forum for integration of the geology, geophysics and geochemistry; the
programmes are dominated by presentations of research results, but with time reserved for
detailed planning of new operations. The importance of the ESF workshops for keeping the
science integrated cannot be overemphasized. Research results can be suitably (indeed
better) presented at international conferences and symposia; but all too seldom do the
latter provide the right forum for communicating across the disciplines.
Most of the dozens of EUROPROBE research
partnerships involve only a few key players and modest funding (including PhD or post-Doc
programmes, lab. expenses, travel money, etc). A few are major operations involving
several institutes, and this is particularly the case with our geophysical projects.
URSEIS 1995 was the most ambitious so far. TOR (teleseismic tomography across the TESZ) is
now in operation. And a vast one (probably the largest wide angle seismic experiment ever
in Europe) is planned with American colleagues for 1997 in central Poland, covering the
Polish Trough, with four long-range DSS lines, recording c. 50 shots on 600-700 stations.
In addition, we welcome DEKORP's on-going commitment to the TESZ, with deep reflection
seismic profiling from the southern Baltic, across the East German Basin to the Harz
Mountains.
Although national budgets dominate the financing of
EUROPROBE science, we have been increasingly successful both in acquiring INTAS funding
for CIS colleagues (note that there is a new INTAS call for proposals in
December 1996) and obtaining EU-funding (e.g. TMR Network for the Uralides). Programmes
concerned with Natural Hazards and Resources also provide opportunities for EUROPROBE.
Take them!
EUROPROBE meetings for 1997 (see p. 24) include a
range of project workshops and a few other important venues - EUG symposia in Strasbourg,
EGS in Vienna and IASPAI in Thessaloniki.
Looking further ahead, it is clear that, with
EUROPROBE research activities expanding fast, many of the PhD and post-Doc projects that
are starting now will carry on to end of the century. Major geophysical experiments
provide data for several years' research. As the ten projects grow and gain in strength,
the need for the ESF workshop programme increases, these project meetings providing the
interdisciplinary cohesion that is essential for all major lithosphere investigations.
ESF's present programme "EUROPROBE" is scheduled to be supported through 1998.
The ESSC will apply to ESF for a five year continuation of this programme in the knowledge
that this application is strongly supported by the Ministries and Academies in the CIS. If
you support the continuation of the EUROPROBE workshop programme into the next century,
make this clear to your funding agencies.
Christmas is approaching fast. 1996 has been a hard
year for CIS colleagues, but a good one for EUROPROBE collaboration. The Secretariat in
Uppsala sends greetings to friends across Europe, wishing you all good health and a
prosperous 1997.
David G. Gee
Uppsala
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