Na
tionality: German
CREEP host institution: ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Background: I studied Geophysics and Geoinformatics for a B.Sc. at TU Bergakademie Freiberg and graduated in 2013. Two years later I received my M.Sc. degree in Earth Sciences, majoring Geophysics, from Universität Potsdam. The topic of my M.Sc. thesis is a stress field sensitivity analysis for a potential nuclear waste disposal site in Northern Switzerland.
CREEP project: In my ESR project within CREEP I will study the seismicity and the cyclic behavior of seismicity along transform fault plate boundaries with respect to controlling factors and rheology. I will use the numerical seismo-thermo-mechanical (STM) modeling approach, validated in a subduction zone setting (Van Dinther et al. 2013) and adapt it for transform fault geometries and characteristics. This way I expect to gain fundamental understanding of involved physical processes, seismicity patterns and the evolution of transform faults. A simple 2D plane view model geometry using visco-elasto-plastic material behavior will be adopted. I want to study two end member transform fault setups, each with strain-dependent and rate-dependent brittle-plastic weakening processes: A single weak transform fault and a nucleating transform fault system with disconnected predefined faults.
Supervisors: Taras Gerya (ETH Zürich), Ylona van Dinther (ETH Zürich), Francesca Funiciello (Roma Tre University), Frantz Maerten (Schlumberger).
