Project description

This doctoral student will work on the long-term coupling (over the entire Phanerozoic and up to 888 Ma before present) of mantle convection and plate tectonics. He/she will first couple the evolving surface geometry of plates given by the PANALESIS plate reconstruction model to the 3-dimensional spherical mantle convection simulation program StagYY, written in the Fortran programming language. The use of fine-time step (ca. 1 Ma) interpolation throughout the Phanerozoic will shed light on self-organisation and the long-term evolution and feedbacks of the mantle-lithosphere system. It will be also used to constrain the correct parametrization, and in particular the right approximation of the rheology. This work shall define the ‘base-line’ evolution of the mantle over the long-term (up to 888 million years). The student will also focus on surface and lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary topography. He/she will use the palæo-DEMs from the Panalesis model combined with dynamic topography from the convection model to infer the 3-D shape of the lithosphere all over the planet close to and at the specified key-time slices (464-444 Ma, 272-252 Ma, 145-125 Ma, 020-000 Ma), and therefore the effect of the lithosphere-asthenosphere topography (LitAstTopo). A goal is to achieve consistency between Panalesis and dynamically generated maps. A ‘realistic’ crust geometry (particularly for continents) is important in this respect. Other applications may be studied as time allows. Simulations can be run on ETHZ's Euler cluster and on Swiss Supercomputer Centre (CSCS) facilities.  The student will be under the co-supervision of Prof. Paul Tackley and Dr. Christian Vérard at the Department of Earth Sciences in Geneva. You will collaborate closely with the Base-Top Earth Sinergia team composed of the supervisors, senior scientists from the different research groups, and the other PhD students.

The doctoral position is fully funded for 4 years (based on an initial 1-year positive evaluation) starting October 1st, 2023.