Investigating the Earth’s Crust with Seismic Methods: A study exploring the use of active and passive methods on- and offshore
This research focused on innovating traditional seismic methods in order to get the most information we could out of expensive and difficult field work. My thesis shows that when planning a marine seismic survey, it is important to adjust the spacing between seismic lines to the local geology.
I looked at two areas: the Ligurian Sea and the Ojos del Salado volcano in Chile. At sea, one of the main issues is that marine seismic surveys are time consuming, expensive, and impact the environment, so efficient survey design is highly beneficial. In my thesis I created a workflow to test different marine survey designs, and compiled advice on how to design future surveys based on the results of my own tests.
On land, I used a very dense network of geophones to study the Ojos del Salado volcano. The close station spacing meant that I was able to detect very small earthquakes in the area using machine learning methods. For example, the thick salt layer in the Mediterranean Sea means that the seismic signal can be noisy and scattered, and so to make a useful model of the seafloor the lines need to be closer together than in other areas.
More information about the thesis will follow soon.