The NARS-DEEP project

The NARS-DEEP project involves the deployment of broadband seismological st ations in Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine. Six stations were installed in 1 995, two in 1997, and more stations were to be installed from 1998 onwards. The NARS-DEEP project was initiated as a temporary deployment, but funding from the European Community enabled the stations to become permanent. in t his paper we present first results of the NARS-DEEP project. A surface wave form inversion for the upper mantle structure along a profile from Egypt to Spitsbergen shows evidence for strong variations in the shear-velocity str ucture for the different tectonic units. The most striking features of the model comprise strong lithospheric anisotropy beneath the Eastern Mediterra nean and a lithospheric thickness of approximately 200 km beneath the shiel d areas. The crustal structure beneath the seismic station in St. Petersbur g was investigated using the receiver function method. The results of a Mon te Carlo inversion for the receiver functions of this station show evidence for a sedimentary layer with a thickness of less than 1 km overlying an up per crustal layer extending to a depth of approximately 16 km, The Moho dep th cannot be resolved from the receiver functions of this station. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.