MSCA-DN TALENTS PhD position in Tectonics - Structural Geology - Geomorphology

Project Title: Bridging spatial and temporal scales of tectonic activity in active rift environments

Supervisors: Dr. Haralambos Kranis (NKUA), Dr. Athanassios Ganas (NOA) Dr. Alexander Whittaker (Imperial College)

General framework:

This doctoral position is part of the European-based Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Network TALENTS (https://www.talents-dn.eu). TALENTS aims at training early career researchers with an interdisciplinary, science-driven approach to develop new sustainable solutions for global challenges associated with the energy transition. We focus on continental rifts, which are key regions for geothermal energy, carbon capture and storage, new resources such as native hydrogen and helium, as well as endangered human habitats due to geohazards such as earthquakes and volcanic activity. TALENTS fuses research and training at 18 European institutes and academic partners, as well as 11 companies that are actively involved in the energy transition. The doctoral network is centered around 12 individual PhD projects addressing fundamental scientific aspects of rift system processes, collectively bridging several orders of magnitude of spatial and temporal scales. Each doctoral candidate is linked to a second academic partner to complement and broaden their scientific training and to a dedicated industry partner to acquire industry-relevant skills and preview possible non-academic career paths.

Specific objectives: this PhD project is part of the TALENTS project, as DC6 in the WP1 (https://www.talents-dn.eu).

Active continental rifts are the loci of substantial geological processes, including active faulting, while at the same time are home to millions of people who live and develop in these earthquake-prone zones. The issue of seismic hazard assessment in such tectonic settings requires a thorough understanding of how rifts evolve, overprint pre-existing structures, and interact with neighbouring structures that develop within areas undergoing active extension. Such spatio-temporal relationships/interactions call for the evaluation and assessment of a variety of instrumentally recorded datasets that cover the present-day fault activity rates, together with data retrieved from the broader geological record, i.e. over timescales of 10³-10⁶ years.

To address these issues, we will use the natural laboratory of the active Gulf of Corinth rift, central Greece, with a view to examining its relationship with the adjacent/neighbouring extensional domains, such as the Gulf of Argos, between which a marked stress re-orientation is observed, and the Gulf of Patras, which lies within a transition zone, from extension to shearing. The proposed research project will focus on both the short-term (i.e. instrumentally recorded) fault activity and deformation and the long-term evidence, since aspects such as fault inception, evolution, linkage, death and migration are key parameters to our understanding of seismic cycles, which may not be covered by instrumental data.

Ground-deformation, geodetic and seismicity data will be used to address the short-term timescale. The examination of the long-term fault and deformation history will include structural mapping and tectono-sedimentary analysis, using traditional and modern field techniques, including UAV-assisted, Structure-from-Motion (SfM) digital outcrop modelling; compilations of vintage and modern seismic reflection data and core data, qualitative tectonic geomorphology techniques applied to state-of-the-art satellite data will also be utilized, while basement, syn-rift and fault dating methods, will also be sought, with a view to constraining activity rates at both timescales. Through the reconciliation of these two perspectives, we aim at a better understanding of the seismic cycle in extensional (rift) environments; also, at gaining insight into the Pliocene -Quaternary evolution of the Gulf of Corinth, in conjunction with neighbouring grabens, such as the Gulf of Argos and/or Patras.

This project would suit a student with interests in rift evolution, active faulting, landscape dynamics; and earthquake hazards and their impact on society. You will join the multinational doctoral network ‘TALENTS: The doctoral rift science network for the energy transition’ Marie Skłodowska-Curie Network as a Doctoral Candidate (DC). TALENTSinvolves NKUA and six other European universities, who will recruit 12 DCs in total, addressing fundamental scientific aspects of rift system processes, collectively bridging several orders of magnitude of spatial and temporal scales. Each DC is linked to a second academic partner to complement and broaden their scientific training and to a dedicated industry partner to acquire industry-relevant skills and preview possible non-academic career paths. Moreover, regular workshops across all participants, fieldtrips and training opportunities are integral to the doctoral network

Academic secondment: Imperial College, 1 month in year 3, to contrast interplay surface processes with tectonics between basin and margin scale.

Industry secondment: Geosystems Hellas, 3 months in year 1, to ncorporate UAV photogrammetical processes, airborne LiDAR processing techniques, and modern RS/photogrammetrical techniques

Enrolment in Doctoral Degree: NKUA