Anomalies of the Earth's total magnetic field in Germany - the first complete homogenous data set reveals new opportunities for multiscale geoscientific studies

Abstract

SUMMARY Anomalies of the Earth's total magnetic field reveal important information about crustal structures. For the first time, a homogenous map of anomalies of the Earth's total magnetic field for the whole of Germany is available. The map is based on 50 shipborne, airborne and ground surveys, which were conducted between 1960 and 1990 and complemented by 17 new surveys after German reunification. The map, with a grid spacing of 100 m, consistently images the entire anomaly pattern in Germany at an altitude of 1000 m a.s.l. related to the DGRF 1980, epoch 1980.0. Because of these reference parameters and consideration of new data, the resolution of this map is higher than any previously published map. The homogenized and complete data set enables the distinction of different magnetic anomalies and – by observing their vector character – the identification of magnetic sources from different stages of the geological history. Since the map images the superposition of magnetic source anomalies from different depths and therefore combines long‐ and short‐wavelength spectrums within one data set, it offers new insights into crustal structures. Not only regional tectonic units, such as the Variscan terranes in south and central Germany, or the extent of old Scandinavian crust under North Germany, as a relict of the collision between Baltica and Avalonia are imaged, but also details of local structures such as the volcanic areas of the Vogelsberg and the Eifel region. Therefore, the new data set can be used for work on modern topics in geosciences that cover both fundamental and applied research – for example, the structural and petrophysical characterization of the crust, its rheology and geodynamic evolution, or even hydrocarbon exploration. The gridded data is available as an electronic supplement to this paper.

Basement structure of the Paleozoic Platform in Poland

“…There fore, the lack of mag netic anoma lies in the Mid-Pol ish Do main sug gests con sis tently lower mag ne ti za tion of the base ment rocks in com par i son to the neigh bour ing Sudetic Do main, Ma³opolska and £ysogóry blocks in the south and the Pom er a nian Block in the north. The west ern ex ten sion of the Mid-Pol ish Do main in east ern Germany is also as so ci ated with pre dom i nantly neg a tive mag netic anom a lies (Ga briel et al, 2011). The mag netic low ex tends as far as the Rheinberg Fault bound ing the East Elbian Mas sif from the east ( Fig.…”

“…5). The west ern ex ten sion of this zone turns to the SW, pass ing into the Mid-Ger man Crys tal line High (Wonik et al, 2001;Ga briel et al, 2011). The lat ter struc ture is in ter preted as the NW mar gin of the Saxothuringian Zone of the Cen tral Eu ropean Variscides (Franke, 2000;Kro ner et al, 2008) cor respond ing to the Rheic Su ture be tween the Saxothuringian and Rhenohercynian belts.…”

A new magnetic anomaly map of Poland and its contribution to the recognition of crystalline basement rocks

“…It should be noted that the west ern ex ten sion of CWPd in east ern Ger many is also as so ci ated with pre dom i nantly neg a tive mag netic anoma lies (Wonik et al, 2001;Ga briel et al, 2011). CWPd is char acter ized by the pres ence of a thick low-ve loc ity up per crustal layer ) that could be partly re spon si ble for the gen er ally low mag netic anom aly val ues.…”

“…These anom a lies are re lated to the sub-Perm ian Wol sztyn-Leszno High im aged as a deep crustal struc ture by the wide-an gle re flec tion and re frac tion (WARR) P4 seis mic pro file (Grad et al, 2003). The west ern ex ten sion of the zone passes into the Mid-Ger man Crys tal line High (Wonik et al, 2001;Ga briel et al, 2011). The north ern bound ary of this mag netic re gion is ex pressed by the SE-trending mag netic gra di ent zone de fined as the S³ubice-Leszno mag netic lin eament ( Fig.…”

Structure and nature of the Palaeozoic basement based on magnetic, gravimetric and seismic investigations in the central Upper Rhinegraben

“…They consist of (1) the aeromagnetic survey of NE France by the PREPA company, which was carried out in the early 1950s, digitized and plotted by Edel and Schulmann (2009), (2) the aeromagnetic map of Germany published by the BGR (1976) (Gabriel et al 2011) and (3) the survey of the Rhinegraben at ground level by Edel et al (1982) and Papillon (1995).…”