Masterprosjekt vår 2019 ved GEO - Tor Arne Johansen

Project description

The ongoing rise in temperature in the Arctic may have severe effects on huge areas of the todays permanently frozen tundra in the Northern Hemisphere. Thawing of frozen sediments will cause release of water, the soil to become unstable and possible outlets of climate gases. Seismic waves are very sensitive to the stiffness of sediments, and, thus, as frozen sediments thaw their seismic properties will alter significantly. If the seismic properties of near surface sediments can be monitored over time, this can potentially be used to predict the heat flux into the terrestrial Arctic.

Hypothesis
Freezing and thawing of sediments depend on temperature, composition, in particular; porosity, permeability and salinity, which all have an impact on the sediment heat capacity. The first part of the problem is to review the above factors theoretically. The second part is to map and study the above conditions at some sites in Adventdalen, Svalbard. 

Work
The work will be a part of a larger scientific project involving several master projects and the field work is to be carried out in collaboration with other master and PhD-students. The field work will take place in Adventdalen, in the vicinity of UNIS, see www.unis.no during the spring/summer of 2019. The theoretical part of the work and evaluation data from field work is basically to take place at GEO/UoB. 

Pre-requisites

The candidate needs a solid knowledge of sedimentology and some knowledge of geophysics.

NB!! The candidate must apply for the course AG-335 at UNIS, Svalbard within the UNIS-deadline October 15th 2018. Please contact the project supervisor(s) or the programme coordinator immediatly if you would like to apply for this project, winter 2018/19.

Field work

Field work of approximately two months in Adventdalen, Longyearbyen.