ICTP's SAND group will coordinate an euro 2 million grant from the European Union to study the seismology of the Alps. Both the North and South are likely to benefit from the initiative.

Alpine Nation

More than its Roman ruins and Renaissance cities, more than its medieval castles and meticulously manicured agricultural landscape, more than its matchstick forests and endlessly varied coastlines, the Alps--Europe's majestic mountain chain that stretches some 1100 kilometres from southern France in the west to Slovenia in the east--symbolise Europe's permanence and solidity.
In fact, when you think of an immovable object, the Alps would certainly qualify. Or so it seems.
But the truth is that the Alps are in constant motion, shifting about 6 millimetres each year, as Africa continues to creep northward in an endless display of nature's raw and relentless energy. The result of this terrestrial 'give-and-take' is the creation of spider-like fissures and fractures lying just beneath the surface.
This spring the European Union's Alpine Space Programme approved funds for a 3-year Ý2 million grant to study how the Alps are being reshaped by the daily stresses and strains that they face. ICTP's SAND (Structure and Non-Linear Dynamics of the Earth) group will coordinate the project, which will be housed at the University of Trieste's Department of Earth Sciences.
"The purpose of the grant," says Giuliano F. Panza, professor of seismology at the University of Trieste and head of the SAND group, "is to try to understand how the Alps have evolved over time and to make science-based projections about what may happen to them in the future, especially in terms of potential seismic activity."
"To meet the project's objectives," adds Karim Aoudia, SAND research scientist and the project's principal investigator, "we will rely on fundamental scientific tools.
"First, we will conduct a comprehensive review of existing seismological studies of the Alps to literally acquire an in-depth understanding of the current state of knowledge concerning the behaviour of the Alps. Second, we will develop additional knowledge about the region through the use of 30 high-precision ground positioning satellite (GPS) receptors that will be put in place across the Alps. And third we will use the information and knowledge that we acquire both from the seismological studies and the GPS receptors to build numerical models designed to simulate the behaviour of the Alps both now and in the future."
The Alps are a relatively young mountain chain having emerged from the ocean beds of western and central Europe more than 25 million years ago. Other mountain chains, including the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, are 250 million years old. The endless fissures and fractures that characterise the Alps, moreover, stand in sharp contrast to the gaping faults that drive the behaviour of other mountain chains such as the Sierra Nevadas in the western United States.
"The distinctive features of the Alps," notes Panza, "create a distinctive set of challenges for researchers."
"First of all the Alps' spider-like fissures and fractures mean that energy-release points are much more numerous in the Alps than in many other mountain chains, including the Sierra Nevadas where the San Andreas fault serves as the primary 'fault line' in any seismic activity. Second, the Alps' numerous faults mean that the motion often takes place in more subtle ways than in other mountainous earthquake zones."
"For this reason," says Aoudia, "we will be using instruments that can precisely measure motion at the millimetre scale, marking the first time that scientists will have examined the motion of mountains at this microscale."
Panza and Aoudia hope that their efforts will not only help improve our understanding of the behaviour of the Alps but will shed light on the behaviour of other earthquake-prone mountain regions as well.
"We are confident that the information and skills we acquire through this project can be utilizised by scientists throughout the North and South. While the dynamics of the Alps may differ from the Sierra Nevadas in the United States, they are quite similar, for instance, to what we find in Asia," notes Panza. Substitute the Himalayas for the Alps, India for Africa, and south central Asia for western and central Europe, and you are essentially looking at the same situation. India is slowly--nearly imperceptively--pushing its weight northward creating stresses and strains on the Himalayas.
"As a result, what we do here," says Panza, "should have applications in many other places of the world. That should only increase the value of what we hope to accomplish over the next few years."

For additional information about the ICTP SAND (Structure and Non-Linear Dynamics of the Earth) programme, see http://www.ictp.it/pages/research/sand.html.

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