My professional site

Cooperation in scientific projects:

RUPTURE: RUPTURE is the project I'm currently working on, at the time beeing in a stage of preparation. It is the seismological part A1 of the Rift Link project investigating the Eastafrican Rift System focussing on the Rwenzori mountains in western Uganda. A research group is going to reveal the tectonic developement of the Rwenzoris, its influences on regional paleoclimate and the following consequences for the biosphere and development of human life.
The aim of the RUPTURE project herein is to provide information about the internal structure of the crust and upper mantle beneath the mountains. Starting now, in June 2006, a set of ca. 20 short period and broadband stations will be deployed in the Rwenzori region for a tiem period of approx. 18 month to detect local and teleseismic earthquakes.

Deformation prosesses in the Andes was the title of the SFB 267 which was 10 years lasting research program consisting of various geophysical and geological investigations of the mechanisms of subduction forming the high mountainbelt of the Andes along the South American westcoast. I participated in these studies after finishing my Ph.D. starting 2004 with a receiver function analysis of a dataset recorded in the South Andes between 36°S and 40°S.
I continued with data from the Receiver Functions Central Andes project (ReFuCA) beeing recorded on two profile lines along 21°S and 25.5°S. The main target was the imaging of the Nazca slab, which could be detected down to a depth of approx. 200 km, as well as crustal and lithospheric structures beneath the Altiplano and Puna plateaus.

Hawaii plume project: This project was a cooperation between the GeoForschungsZentrum, Potsdam, the Dublin Institut for Advanced Studies and the University of Hawaii. Teleseismic data have been recorded at a temporary network of broadband stations from July 1999 until May 2001. These and supplementary data built the basis for my ph.D. thesis, which is concerned with the mantle structure underneath Hawaii.
The major interest of the project was the investigation of the mantle discontinuities and influences on other structures and boundaries of the mantel and within the lithosphere which are related to the hot material of the Hawaii plume. Indications of exceeding temperature might lead to new insights about the position and the source depths of the plume.
Several findings have been obtained which could be attributed to influences of the rising plume. According to this the plume is generated in the deeper part of the lower mantle southwest to Big Island with an oblique conduit. With the receiver function method new results about the crustal thickness and depth variations of several mantle discontinuities have been achieved with a resolution never obtained before.

GLATIS: The GLATIS project (Greenland Lithosphere Analysed Teleseismically on the Ice Sheet) was a cooperation of some danish institutes with the GeoForschungsZentrum in Potsdam. Glatis, by the way, is the danish word for black ice...
The first coastal seismic stations started recording by the end of 1999. In spring of 2000 most of the instruments were set-up. Altogether 16 temporary and a couple of permanent broadband stations have been involved with terms ranging from three months to several years.
The special challenge of the project was the installation of seismic stations on the greenlandic ice sheet to achieve a better coverage of the area. The aim of the project was to derive lithospheric structures from seismological methods (e.g. analysis of receiver functions or surface waves) as well as to test the mantel transition zone for marks of the assumed track of the Iceland plume. This has supposably passed the central part of Greenland from the west to the east. A first result, for instance, is the variation of the crustal thickness all over Greenland.
Myself, a took part in the set-up of the stations on the ice sheet and accomplished a first rough investigation of the deeper structures, the mantle discontinuities in particular, by analysing receiver functions. A method which I used at the same time for my ph. D. thesis in the Hawaii plume project.

Namibia'98: This project, for me, was a rather short episode. Starting my job as a doctorand I was allowed to use data from the passive source seismological experiment, which was only one part of the project Namibia '98, to acquaint myself with the receiver function method.
The aim of the experiment was the analysis of effects of mantle convection on the subsurface of northwest Namibia. Particularly we were interested in finding evidence for a paleo-plume which presumably passed this region approx. 130 mill. years ago.
In view of the modest contribution to the experiment my work wouldn't be worth mentioning. My receiver function analysis, though, showed an anomalous signal in the area of the station Brandberg, which later on was identified as a steep seismical boundary.

TOR-1: TOR-1 (Teleseismic Tomography Tornquist) was an international seismological project with active cooperation of working groups from Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden und Switzerland. The ative term of data recording spanned about a year from June 1996 until August 1997. During this period approx. 130 mobile seismic stations were set up in an area of about 100 km width extending from Bielefeld in Germany to the south of Stockholm in Sweden stretching across Denmark.
Aim of the project was a high-resolution cross-section of the lithosphere (crust and uppermost mantle of the earth) in the range of the northwestern Transeuropean Suture Zone (TESZ). The project's name was derived from the Tornquist Zone, which extends from northwest Denmark to Romania. It is believed to be the collision zone between the precambrian Baltic Shield and Avalonia as well as the other younger provinces of Europe.
Various methods of investigation resulted in new findings about the course and position of the suture zone. My diploma thesis, for instance, is concerned with the distribution of residuals of arrival times in the area under investigation. In this work a tried to eliminate influences of the crust to work out the effects on travel times caused by the upper mantle.



Studies:

I studied geophysics in the town of Kiel, the capital "village" of Schleswig-Holstein, which is the northernmost federal state of Germany. This is a part of the country, where the language is pronounced broader than the landsite seems to allow, where beach parties are courteous during summer time and where the headwind usually blows horizontal. I still haven't found out what's the special thrill of this town, but I liked it very much, for sure.
The course of studies was rather physically orientated until the pre-degree that time, whereas the geoscientific component dominated the main course. Within this period the matters of particular interest have been the practical exercises in processing seismic data, the fieldwork practical in the Harz mountains, as well as the tutorial talks with the topics Mechanics of detachement faults and Earthquake precursors. In the end I participated in the TOR project mentioned above. I used data from this project for my diploma thesis.
In the main course I furthermore had to chose one physical and one non-physical minor subject. So I decide in favour of astrophysics. Here, the matter of particular interest was especially the observatory practical and the tutorial talk about neutrino detectors, as well as the practical in nuclear physics. The second was geology with its mandatory courses in petrology and geological mapping. Moreover, there were two geological excursions to the Ivrea body in northern Italy and to the Röhn and the Saar-Nahe basin in southern Germany
But it's also important to have mental interchange with student from other universities, as well as taking the chance to take part in making decisions. So I regularly joined the annual GAP (Geophysical Activist Programme), taking place at changing universities and also contributed to the students "Fachschaft".