A large amount of new seismic data from the greater Alpine area have been obtained within the AlpArray and SWATH-D projects. S-to-P converted seismic phases from the Moho and from the mantle lithosphere have been processed with a newly developed method. Examples of new observations are a rapid change in Moho depth at 13° E below the Tauern Window from 60 km in the west to 40 km in the east and a second Moho trough along the boundary of the Bohemian Massif towards the Western Carpathians.

This study estimates the gravitational contribution from subcrustal density heterogeneities interpreted as subducting lithosphere beneath the Alps to the gravity field. We showed that those heterogeneities contribute up to 40 mGal of gravitational signal. Such density variations are often not accounted for in Alpine lithospheric models. We demonstrate that future studies should account for subcrustal density variations to provide a meaningful representation of the complex geodynamic Alpine area.

We provide an extensive comparison of high-resolution subsurface models of the Alpine subduction zone. The imaged slab geometries are discussed in relation to the geodynamic evolution of the Alpine region. In the eastern Alps, we compare the models to three scenarios from the literature and propose a fourth one which best fits the tomographic images and the geological constraints. We find that the European slab is broken off below the entire Alpine arc, at variable depth levels.

The uppermost part of permanently frozen ground can thaw during summer and refreeze during winter. We use a method based on naturally generated seismic waves to continuously monitor these changes close to the research settlement of Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard between April and August 2016. Our results reveal some potential pitfalls when interpreting temporal variations in the data. However, we show that a careful data analysis makes this method a very useful tool for long-term permafrost monitoring.