Monitoring the Earth’s Dynamic Interior using Seismic Interferometry

100% Funded. Part of an International Academic/Industrial Research Collaboration
SUMMARY: A new method known as Coda Wave Interferometry (CWI) potentially allows changes in the interior of solid bodies to be monitored with unprecedented sensitivity. To-date it has been used successfully to detect changing stress patterns in the Earth’s subsurface during and after earthquakes & volcanic eruptions, and in laboratories to detect changes due to applied stress or temperature changes (e.g., Brenguier et al, 2008).
A second new method known as Seismic Interferometry has revolutionised seismology over the past decade. It allows virtual (imagined) sources of energy to be created and recorded inside the real Earth, and virtual (imagined) sensors to be created that record real seismic waves. Such ‘virtual recordings’ can be used to image the real Earth. Recent theoretical advances also provided new imaging methods suitable for industrial subsurface imaging.
In this Ph. D. project (which has considerable flexibility to include your personal, individual areas of interest), you will combine these techniques to create new academic and industrial methods to monitor the changing properties of the Earth’s subsurface. These will be targeted to be useful for monitoring stress changes or fluid changes within the pore space of rock during resource extraction (water, hydrocarbon, ores) or subsurface waste disposal (of nuclear waste or carbon dioxide for climate-change mitigation). However, they will be just as relevant for monitoring changes in stress or condition of the subsurface around earthquakes, volcanoes, or any other phenomenon that changes the Earth’s interior.
You will conduct this research in the largest seismological research group in the UK, Edinburgh Seismic Research (www.geos.ed.ac.uk/seismic). You will be trained in all relevant theory, and be given all necessary computing and other resources. You will interact and collaborate with some of the world’s best seismologists, and with scientists from several of the worlds leading multi-national industrial research centres. You will have the opportunity to apply these methods to industrial and earthquake seismology, and to present your research at international conferences.
Prerequisites: You must have an excellent degree in Mathematics, Physics, Geophysics or a closely related science, and good knowledge of some aspect of wave theory (e.g., seismology, acoustics, electro-magnetics). Experience of computer programming is also necessary.
Applications: Please send a full academic CV to Prof. Andrew Curtis: [Email Address Removed]