More about the Network
URGENT (Upper Rhine Graben Evolution and Neotectonics) is an established Environmental Earth System Dynamics Research and Training Project that attempts to quantify the likelihood of major seismic activity and consequential environmental damage in the Upper Rhine Graben area, a zone of relatively high risk of earthquakes. The project already has funding from the national Science Foundations, Universities and governmental institutions of participating countries that could be affected by seismic activity in the area, namely Holland, France, Germany, and Switzerland.
Unlike some other programmes involving the ESF, the URGENT project was already well established before the request for ESF funding was made. But the Project team then wanted to establish annual scientific workshops to stimulate cooperation between scientists in different countries and multiple disciplines. Such pan-European activities are frequently funded by the ESF in other fields, so it was natural to seek an ESF grant in this case.
The Upper Rhine Graben area is a typical intraplate domain with the potential for major destructive earthquakes. Recently the area has experienced only moderate seismicity, but historically the full potential has been realised with 10 major quakes of magnitudes between 7 and 8 in the Basel area between 1021 and 1721. Although no further major quakes have occurred since then, there is clearly still the risk of serious seismic activity. The extent of this risk is largely unknown and needs to be quantified so that decisions can be made over factors such as whether enhanced building regulations are needed in the areas of highest risk.
It should also be considered that other parts of Europe are, albeit perhaps rather less, at risk of major earthquakes, and the URGENT project therefore has wider application by helping to quantify these hazards and their potential societal impact. For example the rift system of which the Upper Rhine Graben area is part also extends to the Bohemian Massif, French Alpine Foreland, and Mediterranean coast of Spain. Even regions considered stable, such as the North Sea, Atlantic margins, and inner Iberia, have experienced major earthquakes within the past 1000 years, as an expression of larger scale tectonic activity.
The focus of URGENT therefore is on the Upper Rhine Graben area with the twin aims of helping quantify the risks there, and using the region as a natural laboratory for analysing the general societal impact of neotectonics in an area that hosts major urban and industrial centres.
There is already a substantial database of geological, geophysical, geomorphologic, geodetic and seismological data pertaining to the Upper Rhine Graben area. One of the main tasks of the ESF-funded workshops is to integrate this with newly acquired data, while developing new dynamic models that analyse the data to quantify hazards related to neotectonic activity. Emphasis will be given to multiscale modelling of the past and present evolution of the Upper Rhine Graben area, including its seismic hazard potential.
Past research on the Upper Rhine Graben area was largely restricted to individual disciplines, but the URGENT project takes a fully interdisciplinary approach, which is helping to develop much more realistic models for assessing seismic hazards. This interdisciplinary approach has made it possible to introduce several innovations that help with this more realistic assessment. One example is the comparison of deformation rates over different time scales, i.e. between one and 1000 years (for geodetic and seismic studies), 1000 – 2 million years (for geomorphology) and over 2 million years (for geology and geophysics).
In the same context, detailed analyses of the Pilo-Quaternary fill of the Upper Rhine Graben will incorporate the high-resolution reflection-seismic technique. This will provide subsurface evidence for young deformations and will aid in modelling the region’s groundwater systems, the assessment of pollutant transfer time between them, leading to possibly improved production of drinkable water. As already indicated, such methods developed within the project will be applicable elsewhere in Europe.
The training of young researchers in Earth Science Dynamical Modelling techniques has been a major aspect of the URGENT project ever since it started informally during 1997 under the leadership of Basel University. It was then developed during the rest of 1997 and 1998 by the Earth Science Departments of all the EUCOR group of universities, including the universities of Freiburg i.B., Karlsruhe and Strasbourg in addition to Basel. The formal launch of URGENT came in January 1999, and is initially schedules to run for five years, with an option for extension beyond 2003.
The ESF-funded portion of the project is for annual workshops during the three years 2000 to 2002 to co-ordinate research efforts, analyse problems within a multidisciplinary forum, and foster close co-operation between the participating groups and others tackling Earth Science Dynamics problems elsewhere in Europe. An application to cover further workshop costs during 2003 and 2004 will be submitted to the ESF in 2002.
For further information on the EUCOR-URGENT project Go to Website
News/Current Status
An International Symposium on Assessing Natural Hazards in a Densely Populated Area took place in Basel, 29 September-1 October 2003.
