The Alps have been intensively studied by geologists for more than a century, providing a unique natural laboratory to deepen our understanding of orogenic processes and their relationship to mantle dynamics. Although most concepts that underlie current studies of mountain belts and convergence dynamics were born in the Alps, the belt is now being examined with renewed vigour in the AlpArray project. This project involves a large number of European institutions, with efforts focused on the AlpArray Seismic Network to provide homogeneous seismological coverage of the greater Alpine area at unprecedented aperture and station density, both on land and sea. New data is being recorded in a multidisciplinary research effort, and other projects are being planned in the immediate and mid-term future.
Within this context, we invite contributions from the Earth Science community that highlight new results in AlpArray and that identify and solve key open questions of the present and past structure and dynamics of the Alps and neighbouring orogens. Both disciplinary and multi-disciplinary contributions are welcome from geophysical imaging, seismotectonics, geodesy, geodynamics, gravimetry, tectonics, structural geology, petrology, geochronology, thermomechanical modelling and other allied fields. Scales of interest range from crustal to upper mantle, in the Alps and neighbouring mountain belts such as the Apennines, the Carpathians and the Dinarides.