Search for a mantle plume under central Europe

Abstract

A multidisciplinary team of scientists has begun searching for a mantle plume under the Eifel region in central Europe and has already detected a plume‐like structure. The researchers, from a number of European institutions, hope to establish the existence of a plume, thereby explaining better than in the past the known thermal mantle anomaly beneath the region. Known as the Eifel Plume Project, the research involves a seismic network spanning nearly 500 km × 500 km. Fieldwork began in 1997 and continued until summer 1998.