Project description

This doctoral student will implement the carbon fluxes entering the mantle (ingassing) and the fluxes leaving and exchanged with the atmosphere (outgassing) into the 3-dimensional spherical mantle convection simulation program StagYY. Carbon transport into and around the deeper mantle, and the generation of melts and subsequent outgassing, requires a detailed chemical model that also tracks water; implementing this into StagYY and using it to model long-term interior-atmosphere CO2 exchange/evolution will be the main task of this PhD. Sediment flux for CO2 ingassing will be provided by PhD.5 (based in Geneva) based on erosion-sedimentation modelling. In connection with the other PhD students, who will provide information in particular on the climatic conditions and estimates of sedimentary flows linked to erosion – sedimentation, this research will characterize in particular the carbon cycle (CO2) from the base of the mantle to the top of the atmosphere. Cycling will be studied both for the entire 888 Ma reconstructed history modelled also in PhD #1, and in more detail on 4 key-time slices in the history of the Earth: the Hirnantian (~444 Ma), the Permian-Triassic boundary (~252 Ma), the Barremian – Aptian boundary (~125 Ma), and the current world (000 Ma, taken as a reference).

         Simulations can be run on ETHZ's Euler cluster and on Swiss Supercomputer Centre (CSCS) facilities. You will be under the co-supervision of Prof. Paul Tackley and Dr. Christian Vérard in the Department of Earth Sciences, Unversity of 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.