PhD Position (d/m/w) Seismology
Application deadline: September 1st, 2020
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel is a foundation of public law jointly financed by the Federal Republic of Germany (90Â %) and the state of Schleswig-Holstein (10Â %) and is one of the internationally leading institutions in the field of marine sciences. Currently GEOMAR disposes over an annual budget of approx. 80 million Euro and has approx. 1000 employees.
The research unit Marine Geodynamics of the research division Dynamics of the Ocean Floor is offering a
PhD Position (d/m/w) Seismology
starting from October 1st of 2020 onwards. The position offers the possibility to attain a doctoral degree in natural sciences.
Job Description / Project Description
This project aims to resolve the deep structure of the Ligurian sea taking advantage of an outstanding dense seismological network in the Alpine region and is funded from the DFG within the interdisciplinary priority program “Mountain building processes in 4D“ (www.spp-mountainbuilding.de).
The PhD project focuses on retrieving structural information of the Ligurian Sea and the South-Western Alps using seismic body wave tomography to improve the understanding of the 3D-geometry of the system and its kinematics. Although the Ligurian Sea is located in the center of Europe, relatively little is known about the relation of the deep structure to surface deformation and the continuation of the Alpine slab to the South.
The successful applicant will use body waves from primary and secondary arrivals (P, S, Pn, Sn) to invert for velocity models of the Ligurian Sea and surrounding. The stations will be from the marine component of AlpArray (LOBSTER), a network of Ocean Bottom Seismometer (OBS) stations as well as adjacent land stations in France and Italy. The arrival times will be from airgun shots registered by the LOBSTER array and land stations, from local seismicity recorded during the deployment of the LOBSTER stations and from regional earthquakes since the year 2000. Using velocities from the three-dimensional velocity structure will allow extracting information of the distribution and nature of the crust and mantle.
Shear wave arrivals and models will contribute to the degree of serpentinization (i.e. ‘hydration’) of mantle rocks. Refracted waves travelling just below the crust-mantle boundary allow determining the velocity of the uppermost mantle and yield information on the thermal and tectonic history of the upper mantle. Refracted waves allow inverting for transverse anisotropy for the uppermost mantle to resolve possible mantle flow related with the opening of the Ligurian basin. In the last phase, the PhD work aims at the integration of the findings with other geophysical data to improve Earth models.
The research unit Marine Geodynamics offers a supportive atmosphere for our PhD and PostDocs, many of which are engaged in interdisciplinary, international projects. This position is embedded in the interdisciplinary framework of the AlpArray community and benefits from collaboration with the Free University of Berlin and University of Kiel.
Tasks:
- Data processing, including the determination of P and S body wave arrivals, analysis and interpretation
- Inverting the three-dimensional velocity structure of the lithosphere in the Ligurian Sea and adjacent regions
- Integration of the results with the tectonic setting of the region
- Publication of relevant results in scientific journals
- Participation in seagoing expeditions
Qualifications:
- Masters of Geophysics, Physics, Mathematics or related discipline.
- Good skills in one or more programming languages (Python, Perl or similar).
- Experience in seismic/seismological data processing or inversion techniques
- Fluency in spoken and written English
The position is available for a funding period of 3 years. The salary depends on qualification and could be up to the class E13 TVöD-Bund of the German tariff for public employees. This is a part-time position according to 75 % of a full-time equivalent. The position cannot be split.
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel seeks to increase the proportion of female scientists and explicitly encourages qualified female academics to apply.
GEOMAR is an equal opportunity employer and encourages scientists with disabilities to apply. Qualified disabled applicants will receive preference in the application process.
Please send your application for this post not later than September 1st 2020 via emailin a single pdf-file using the keyword “PhD LIGURIA” in the subject line to the following address:
As soon as the selection procedure has finished, all application papers will be destroyed according to data protection regulation.
For further information regarding the position and research unit please contact Dr. Dietrich Lange (dlange@geomar.de).
Please do not contact us by phone about the present state of procedures.
However, we will answer all your questions if you send us an e-mail to bewerbung@geomar.de. In doing so, please refer to the keyword.
GEOMAR is a member of the Helmholtz Association and the German Marine Research Consortium (KDM). For further information please visit www.geomar.de or www.helmholtz.de
GEOMAR is committed to a non-discriminatory personnel selection. Our job advertisements address all people.