Geological research on the Mediterranean region is presently
characterized by the transition from disciplinary to multidisciplinary
research, as well as from national to international investigations. In
order to synthesize and integrate the vast disciplinary and national
datasets which are available, it is necessary to implement maximum
interaction among geoscientists of different backgrounds. The creation
of project-oriented task forces in universities and other research
institutions, as well as the development of large international
cooperation programs, is instrumental in pursuing such a
multidisciplinary and supranational approach. The TRANSMED Atlas, an
official publication of the 32nd International Geological Congress
(Florence 2004), is the result of an international scientific
cooperation program which brought together for over two years
sixty-three structural geologists, geophysicists, marine geologists,
petrologists, sedimentologists, stratigraphers, paleogeographers, and
petroleum geologists coming from eighteen countries, and working for the
petroleum industry, academia, and other institutions, both public and
private. The TRANSMED Atlas provides an updated, synthetic, and coherent
portrayal of the overall geological-geophysical structure of the
Mediterranean domain and the surrounding areas. The initial stimulus for
the Atlas came from the realization of the extremely heterogeneous
nature of the existing geological-geophysical data about such domain.
These data have been gathered by universities, oil companies, geological
surveys and other institutions in several countries, often using
different procedures and standards. In addition, much of these data are
written in languages and published in outlets that are not readily
accessible to the general international reader. By synthesizing and
integrating a wealth of preexisting and new data derived from surficial
geology, seismic sections at various scales, and mantle tomographies,
the TRANSMED Atlas provides for the first time a coherent geological
overview of the Mediterranean region and represents an ideal springboard
for future studies.