PhD in Seismology
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
As the world’s second, and Ireland’s only, Institute for Advanced Studies, DIAS is a globally embedded institution that attracts scholars and academics from around the world.
Our understanding of the structure of Earth’s interior is largely based on geophysical probing, but its level of detail is limited by the availability of large and dense arrays of sensors. The recent development of fibre sensing technology (e.g. Distributed Acoustic Sensing-DAS) allows seismologists to turn optical fibre cables into dense arrays of ground motion sensors, greatly expanding the reach of seismic surveys. This project will focus on developing the tools to leverage this new technology on long, already-available telecom cables to sense the Earth’s crust and constrain models of its structure with unprecedented resolution. In order to do that, the PhD project will focus on recording the seismic wavefield produced by ocean storms, which contains a broad range of frequencies capable of sensing the Earth’s crust top to bottom. By developing semi-automated methods to extract geologic structural information from hundreds of kilometres of DAS data, the project aims to open opportunities for the widespread use of commercial telecom fibre across both land and sea for geophysical sensing. As such, the methods and Earth models developed over the course of the project will have impact across a variety of fields, e.g.: geothermal & geological exploration (needing detailed crustal models), ocean & climate monitoring (gathering data from submarine cables), and computational seismology (big data processing).
To apply please submit a single pdf containing your academic CV (max 2 pages), a letter of application detailing your interest in and suitability for the position (max one page) and the contact details of two referees, here: https://www.dias.ie/positions/index.php?p=1744125944