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Francina Saiz Garcia
Photo: Joel Rodriguez Orth

Francina Saiz Garcia

Position

PhD Candidate

Affiliation

E-mail
francina.saiz@uib.no
Phone number
+47 928 55 399
Visitor address
Allégaten 41 Office 2106/2A13d
5007 Bergen
Postal address
P.O. Box 7803
NO-5020 Bergen
Norway

Francina Saiz Garcia

Position

PhD Candidate

Affiliation

Research groups

Short info

I am a recent PhD candidate passionate about tectonics and structural geology, particularly applied to fold-and-thrust belts. My research will focus on the interaction and evolution between tectonics and climate in the foreland fold-and-thrust belts of the Andes through numerical modelling.
Research

I earned my bachelor's degree in Geology in 2023 and my master's in Reservoir Geology and Geophysics in 2024, both from the University of Barcelona. Their respective final projects have been the main contributors to my background in tectonics and structural geology from different approaches. 

My MSc thesis focused on the structural characterization of the frontal units of the Bajuvarikum in the northern Calcareous Alps (Austria). To accomplish this, I built one regional balanced cross-section and two subsidiary cross-sections using dip data and 3D observations on geological maps, constrained with kinematic models and tied to the main regional events. The results suggested a strong variation in structural style, drastic changes in thickness, and significant three-dimensionality of the main detachment level, which is strongly reliant on the inherited architecture of the Triassic passive margin.

My BSc thesis, equally relevant to my background and the origin of my first published manuscript, presents, for the first time, paleomagnetic data on Late Cretaceous to Middle Eocene sediments to measure vertical axis rotations in the Segre Oblique Zone (Southern Pyrenees). The results indicate significant counterclockwise rotations along the oblique zone, allowing for the restitution of displacements that 2D cross-sections cannot fully describe, further contributing to the paleogeographic reconstruction of the Southern Pyrenees.

Outreach

2023 XIII MAGIBER Congress in Oporto

  • Oral Presentation: “Paleomagnetic study of the curvature of the Segre Oblique Zone”

2024 XI Geological Congress of Spain in Ávila 

  • Oral Presentation: “Paleomagnetic study of the curvature of the Segre Oblique Zone”
  • Oral Presentation: “Structural characterisation of the Bajuvarikum Nappes in the Northern Calcareous Alps (Austria)”
Publications

Saiz, F., Juvany, P., Garcés, M., Beamud, E., López-Blanco, M., 2024. Paleomagnetic study of the curvature of the Segre oblique zone (Southern Pyrenees). Geologica Acta, 22.14, 1-14. Link: https://revistes.ub.edu/index.php/GEOACTA/article/view/46479/42646