2.1. Component 1 ‘Monitoring the Earth system’

One of the major challenges of Solid-Earth research concerns establishing quantitative "depth-to-surface" relations, namely the relationship between present-day surface deformation and processes affecting the lithosphere and sub-lithospheric mantle. Addressing surface deformations is fundamental for detailed studies of plate collision zones, intraplate stress and strain, sedimentary basin development, earthquake-induced deformation, seismic and volcanic hazard assessment and prediction, and relative sea level changes.
To understand dynamic processes within the Earth we need to know its physical parameters, composition and temperature-pressure conditions. Actual space geodetic measurements of plate motions and deformations provide direct information about such processes. The resolution of these methods has improved so much in recent years that it is now possible to accurately determine rates of on-going horizontal and vertical motions of the Earth’s surface. The multidisciplinary approach of TOPO-EUROPE permits to integrate this information with new high-resolution images of the Earth’s interior in 2, 3 and even 4 dimensions (component 2), and with past rates of geological processes (component 3).