Deep seismic reflection profile DEKORP 1985-4Q across the Bavarian Forest, Southeast Germany

The 36 km long line 4Q was recorded in 1985 as part of the DEKORP project, the German continental seismic reflection program. The aim of the survey was to explore important tectonic structures through the regional tectonic trend of the Bavarian Forest (NW-SE) with high-fold near-vertical incidence vibroseis acquisition. Details of the experiment, first results and interpretations were published by DEKORP Research Group (1987, 1988). The Technical Report of line 4Q gives complete information about acquisition and processing parameters. The European Variscides, extending from the French Central Massif to the East European Platform, originated during the collision between Gondwana and Baltica in the Late Palaeozoic. Due to involvement of various crustal blocks in the orogenesis, the mountain belt is subdivided into distinct zones. The external fold-and-thrust belts of the Rhenohercynian and Saxothuringian as well as the predominantly crystalline body of the Moldanubian dominate the central European segment of the Variscides. Polyphase tectonic deformation, magmatism and metamorphic processes led to a complex interlinking between the units. The Moldanubian unit contains blocks of pre-Variscan crust and their Palaezoic cover. During the Variscan orogeny the Moldanubian crust was thrust towards the NW over the Saxothuringian foreland. Both units were welded together by a low-pressure metamorphism accompanied by polyphase deformation (DEKORP Research Group, 1987, 1988). The SW-NE striking line 4Q runs perpendicular to the gneisses of the Bavarian Forest at the southwestern margin of the Bohemian Massif, a part of the Moldanubian Zone. In the southwest the profile crosses the NW-SE striking Bavarian Pfahl. The 150 km long quartz vein is a dextral shear zone with cataclastic as well as ductile deformation and extensive quartz mineralization (DEKORP Research Group, 1988). In the northeast DEKORP 4Q intersects the Hoher Bogen, an amphibolitic nappe, belonging to the western margin of the Tepla-Taus-Complex which is marked by an important volume of mafic metamorphic rocks (DEKORP Research Group, 1988). The profile 4Q traverses DEKORP 4N at its northeastern end almost perpendicularly.

The German Continental Seismic Reflection Program DEKORP (DEutsches KOntinentales Reflexionsseismisches Programm) was carried out between 1984 – 1999 as the German national reflection seismic program funded by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMFT), Bonn (now: Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF). DEKORP was administrated by the former Geological Survey of Lower Saxony (NLfB), Hanover (now: State Authority for Mining, Energy and Geology LBEG). In 1994 the DEKORP management was taken over by the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. The aim of DEKORP was to investigate the deep crustal structure of Germany with high-resolution near-vertical incidence (mostly vibro)seismic acquisition, supplemented by wide-angle seismic and other target-oriented piggy-back experiments, all complemented by optimized methods of data processing and interpretation. The DEKORP project was closely linked with the KTB (German continental deep-drilling program) and was an equivalent to many other deep-seismic programs world-wide such as COCORP, BIRPS, LITHOPROBE, ECORS, CROP, BELCORP, IBERSEIS and many more. The DEKORP-Atlas (Meissner & Bortfeld, 1990) gives a detailed overview about most of the different campaigns and results. In sum, the resulting DEKORP database includes approximately 40 crustal-scale 2D-seismic reflection lines covering a total of ca. 4 700 km and one 3D-seismic reflection survey covering ca. 400 km². Each DEKORP survey is provided with all datasets that are necessary for either a re-processing (i.e. raw unstacked field records in SEGY) or a re-interpretation (i.e. finally processed sections in SEGY or PNG). The raw data are sorted by records or by CDPs. The final data are available as unmigrated or migrated stacks without or with coherency enhancement. Automatically line-drawings are also included. All data come with additional meta information for each domain (source, receiver, CDP) like coordinates, elevations, locations and static corrections combined in ASCII-tables for geometry assignment. Furthermore, all metadata originating from paper copies are made available as scanned files in PNG or PDF, e.g. field and observer reports, location maps in different scales, near-surface profile headers and others. The DEKORP datasets provide unique and deep insights into the subsurface below Germany covering the earth’s crust from the surface to the upper mantle and are increasingly requested by academic institutions and commercial companies. Fields of applications are geothermal development, hazard analysis, hydrocarbon/shale gas exploration, underground gas storage, tunnel construction and much more.