Scientific Collaboration on Past Speciation Conditions in Lake Ohrid - Correlation of Seismic Records with Physical Proberty and Sedimentological Data

ACRONYM

SCOPSCO

General information

Transboundary Lake Ohrid between Albania and Macedonia is considered to be the oldest continuously existing lake in Europe with an age of likely three to five million years. An extraordinary high degree of endemism, including more than 210 described endemic species, makes the lake a unique aquatic ecosystem of worldwide importance. An ICDP drilling campaign is scheduled for spring 2011 in order to obtain robust information (1) about the age and origin of Lake Ohrid, (2) about major geological, environmental and climatic changes during the entire Quaternary, and (3) about the driving forces for the biotic evolution. Five primary sites are proposed based on high resolution seismic data collected during pre-site surveys in 2007 and 2008. The main aim of this proposal is an integrated interpretation of the drilling and seismic data in order to reconstruct the genesis and evolution of Lake Ohrid. Synthetic seismograms will be calculated for a correlation of seismic and drill data. An intensive logging program (core and downhole logging) will be the basis for this approach. The integration of logging and seismic data allows extrapolating the stratigraphy from the wells to 3D-space by using the seismic data. Special emphasis will be drawn on timing of widespread mass wasting events, which might be used as proxy for estimating the paleoseismicity, on lake-level fluctuations, which played an important role for the sedimentary evolution of Lake Ohrid, and on the tephra distribution, which might be one driving force for the biotic evolution.

Start

February, 2012

End

July, 2014

Funding (total)

203000

Funding (GEOMAR)

203000

Funding body / Programme

DFG / Priority Programme (ICDP)

Coordination

null

Contact

Sebastian Krastel-Gudegast