ICDPInternational Continental Scientific Drilling Program

The COSC project focuses on the mid Paleozoic Caledonide Orogen in Scandinavia in order to better understand orogenic processes, both in the past and in today's active mountain belts. The Scandinavian Caledonides provide a particularly well preserved example of Paleozoic plate collision, with the underthrusting of continent Baltica beneath Laurentia and thickening of the continental crust to at least 100 km. In the Scandes, the surface geology in combination with geophysical data provide control of the geometry of the Caledonian structure, both of the allochthon and the underlying parautochthon-autochthon, and define the targets for drilling. The drillholes themselves will help us to better define the structure and physical conditions of the allochthons and underlying parautochthon during nappe emplacement.