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FIRST RESULTS ON THE WESTERN BLACK SEA COASTAL GEODYNAMICS RESULTED FROM GEOPONTICA PERMANENT GNSS STATIONS NETWORK DATA PROCESSING

Radu George Dimitriu

Abstract

The north-western and western coast of the Black Sea, corresponding to Romania and Bulgaria, is subject of crustal deformations due to remote effects produced by geological processes ran at planetary (e.g. plate tectonics in the Atlantic and Eastern Mediterranean-Anatolia realms) and regional (e.g. the tectonic coupling of the Black Sea basin and Vrancea seismogenic area) scales as well as due to relatively local geological processes (e.g. subsidence of sedimentary basins, young sediments compaction, etc.). The geodynamic researches, systematically carried out for decades in Romania and Bulgaria, in the past were able to highlight the predominance of descending vertical movements (-1 to -2 mm/yr) of Earth crust within the Danube Delta, along the Romanian coast and around Burgas bay. The same researches indicate an ascendant geodynamic regime (+1 to +2 mm/yr) for the eastern sector of the Moesian PlatformпїЅs Wallachian Compartment (the so-called North Bulgarian Uplift or Arch). Recent geodynamic studies, carried out based on satellite geodetic data, generally indicate horizontal velocity vectors heading towards south and south-east, with amplitude ranging from 1 to 2.5 mm/yr for the eastern Romania and Bulgaria. These studies also seem to indicate a subsiding regime of the coastal zone, at least for the Romanian territory. One of the main goals of the cross-border cooperation project MARINEGEOHAZARD, financed between 2010 and 2013 by the European Commission, is the implementation along the Romanian and Bulgarian coastline of a permanent GNSS stations network able to highlight and monitor the deformations of the Earth crust. This transborder geodynamic network, called GeoPontica, was commenced in 2013, it comprises 18 permanent GNSS stations (13 in Romania, 5 in Bulgaria) and is now part of the Black Sea Security System and of the National Centre for Marine Natural Hazards Monitoring-Early Warning-Alarming Euxinus operated from Constanta and Varna. Each station of the network consists of a geodynamic pillar monumentalized by the пїЅdeep drilled bracesпїЅ UNAVCO solution on which GNSS receivers and other instruments operate 24/7. The advanced processing of satellite raw data logged on Euxinus servers since 2013 allowed us to establish a reference epoch for the observed velocity vectors. It corresponds to March, 01-05, 2016 timespan and is considered as a пїЅzeroпїЅ reference for all previous and subsequent data processing. The early and until now preliminary results of these advanced processing carried out for different epochs are already able to confirm the predominance of subsidence movements along the coast, except for the southern half of the Bulganian shore, and also to separate distinct geodynamic behavior for the main tectonic blocks that make up the Earth crust in the study area.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017/11/s01.019

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