EUROPROBE Workshops
Joint Meeting of EUROPROBE TESZ,
PANCARDI and GeoRift Projects
Tulcea, Romania, 1-6 October 1999
CONFERENCE REPORT
The first ever
joint meeting of 3 EUROPROBE projects was held in Dobrogea, Romania to consider
the crustal interface between the Carpathians and the TESZ. The meeting was superbly
organised by Antoneta Seghedi and Dumitru Ioane (Geological Institute of Romania,
Bucharest), Liviu Matenco (University of Bucharest), Gheorghe Oaie (GeoEcoMar, Bucharest)
and many Romanian colleagues, to whom we owe a great debt of gratitude. Financial support
was provided by the European Science Foundation, RAMCO Eastern Europe/MMS Romania SRL,
Agentia Nationala pentru Stiinta, Tehnologie si Inovare (Romania) and SC Tethys SRL. Some
115 geoscientists participated, including a significant Romanian contingent.
As this was the
first EUROPROBE meeting to be held in Romania, field workshops to illustrate key
aspects of the regional geology were given a high priority during the planning of the
meeting. 10 (mostly TESZ) participants, including Prof. Gee, arriving in Bucharest on
Saturday 25 September had the opportunity to inspect drillcores from deep boreholes
penetrating the unexposed crystalline basement of the Moesian Platform. There followed a 3
day excursion which demonstrated the metamorphic and metasedimentary basement of North
Dobrogea, of supposed late Proterozoic (?Cadomian) age, and its Palaeozoic cover. Folding
of strata as young as Carboniferous and emplacement of granite intrusions are attributed
to the Variscan Orogeny. A further 11 participants joined the excursion on 30 September-1
October, which demonstrated the Mesozoic evolution of Dobrogea, starting with Triassic
rifting and volcanism, Cimmerian (late Triassic) deformation, Jurassic-Cretaceous
sedimentation and two further phases of inversion controlled by major crustal faults. The
excursion guide was published in the Romanian Journal of Tectonics and Regional Geology,
volume 77, supplement 2, pp. 1-72.
The workshop
was attended by 115 participants from at least 24 different European countries
(cf. list of participants in Annex 2). All ESF-EUROPROBE supporting nations were
represented with the exception of Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. Participants
came from almost all countries of central Europe, including Croatia and Yugoslavia, and
from four countries of the former Soviet Union. About 30 participants were from Romania.
The meeting
commenced with a Plenary Session on 3 October, held in the civic hall of Tulcea
County. Keynote papers were presented by Prof. J. Dewey (Neotectonics of the Aegean and
Middle East), Dr. A. Seghedi (North Dobrogea Orogen), Prof. H. Downes (Mantle beneath the
Carpathian-Pannonian Region), Dr. W.S. McKerrow (Palaeozoic Biogeography) and Dr. J.
Winchester (Palaeozoic amalgamation of central Europe). These were followed by
introductory talks on the 3 projects represented, by the respective project leaders. The
final papers in this session, by Profs. V. Mocanu and A. Guterch, reviewed progress on the
major geophysical experiments (CALIXTO 99, CELEBRATION 2000 and RISK) in progress or
planned in this region, all initiated by the EUROPROBE programme.
The individual projects
reported in 2 parallel sessions on 4 and 5 October. Participants from PANCARDI project
presented some 38 oral papers and 25 posters; TESZ, 21 oral presentations and 25 posters;
and GeoRift, 10 oral presentations and 8 posters. The abstracts for the meeting were
published in the Romanian Journal of Tectonics and Regional Geology, volume
77, supplement 1, pp. 13-90.
33 PANCARDI
participants were funded by ESF. Of these, 3 were women, one under the age of 35.
Three men were under 35. A further 2 participants from EU and 13 from non-EU countries
were self-funded. The 34 oral contributions and 22 posters reflected the current state of
the PANCARDI Project and its significant wide spectrum. They were devoted to the
paleogeographic problems of the Neogene Carpathian and Dinaric development including the
palinspastic restoration and paleomagnetic results. The Magmatic Group presented more than
five papers from the Dinarides, and together with other papers these will be presented in
a special Volume of Acta Volcanologica. Of large significance were the papers devoted to
the seismology and geodynamic development of the Vrancea area in Romania. Current
refraction work and the seismic tomography experiment were highlighted. Heat flow
measurements and their interpretations from the Romanian territory and from the Dinarides
were also presented. Several new magnetotelluric and gravity interpretations were
presented from various regions of the Carpathian arc.
20 TESZ project
participants were funded by ESF. Of these, 5 were women, two under the age of 35.
One man was under 35. A further 5 participants from EU countries were self-funded. The
oral presentations in the TESZ scientific session reflected the diversity of the project.
Several papers reviewing lithospheric structure of the TESZ, as deduced from subsidence
modelling, heat flow, gravity and magnetic modelling, were followed by reports on progress
in interpretation of the key geophysical experiments: TOR, BASIN '96 and POLONAISE '97.
Further papers on the tectonics, biostratigraphy and metamorphic history of Dobrogea
provided an interesting contrast with those on similar themes in S Poland, where the edge
of the EEC remerges from beneath the Carpathian Orogen. One emerging theme is the apparent
similarity of orogenic processes such as oroclinal bending, along the TESZ, despite the
variation in age of the orogenic complexes juxtaposed against the EEC. A display of some
25, very well produced and informative posters, reinforced these themes.
22 GeoRift
participants came from France, Netherlands, and Norway as well as Belarus,
Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. 7 were women (including 2 from
ESF-EUROPROBE supporting member states) and 7 were young scientists (younger than 35,
including 3 of the women, 1 woman of these from an ESF-EUROPROBE supporting member state).
GeoRift participants also made presentations in the TESZ scientific session. The main
themes addressed in the GeoRift session were the tectonic evolution of the southern margin
of the East European Craton, including the tectonic history of the Black Sea Basin; the
Donbas Foldbelt-Karpinsky Swell part of the Dniepr-Donets Rift system; rheological
implications of intraplate tectonics; and the relationship between salt kinematics and
intraplate tectonics. Jon Mosar (Trondheim, Norway) gave an invited lecture entitled
"Palaeozoic circum-Baltica plate tectonics".
Annex:
Tim Pharaoh, Randell
Stephenson and Cestmir Tomek
08 Nov 1999
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