Nationality : French
CREEP host institution : University College London (UCL), United Kingdom
Background : I graduated in 2016 from the EOST (Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre : School and Observatory of Earth Sciences) as a geophysical engineer. For my third year project I did a six month long internship in a French geothermal company ES Géothermie. During my internship I studied a previously unknown phenomenon recorded during the hydraulic stimulation of a geothermal well in 2013 : pressure drops in the well linked to the triggering of induced seismicity. My aim was to understand the origin of these drops and to better explain how they were related to the recorded seismicity.
CREEP project : During my PhD I will try to understand the fracture healing phenomenon with different experiments. In fact it has been observed that after an earthquake, the P and S wave velocities tend to increase around the fault zone. I will recreate the pressure and stress conditions in the crust with a triaxial press on a Carrara Marble and monitor velocities during recovery period of several days under different confining pressures and see if we can witness the same phenomenon. I will also monitor the permeability of homogeneously damaged Carrara Marble samples while recovering in hydrothermal conditions. This later experiment will permit to assess the impact of water on recovery apart from the purely mechanical processes. Finally, I will apply a cracking-healing cycle to quartz to see how the healed rock mechanical properties are affected by the process.
Supervisors : Dr Nicolas Brantut, Dr Tom Mitchell, Prof Philip Meredith (all at UCL)
