PhD position in sedimentary geology – University of Bergen

About this PhD project:

The Permian-Triassic transition represents the greatest change in climate, life and sedimentary systems ever recorded on Earth. The goal of this PhD project is to understand how source-to-sink systems (eroding uplands and their sedimentary systems in sedimentary basins) are affected by such major step-changes in forcing factors. The Norwegian Barents Sea contains continuous sedimentary sections covering this critical time interval, which will be studied on the Finnmark Platform in the Southern Barents Sea, and on Svalbard. Before the Permian-Triassic transition, spiculitic shales and carbonate platforms with sparse sandstone beds dominated the area. After the Permian- Triassic transition, large deltaic sedimentary systems prograded into the basin. The objective of this project is to study these systems in seismic data, core, well-logs, outcrops, petrology and provenance data in order to understand the landscapes, and environmental factors during the deposition in the Late Permian and Early Triassic.

Specifically, the candidate will complete the following tasks. 1) use grain- and clay mineralogy, detrital zircon provenance analysis and sediment volumes to investigate catchment area, lithology and weathering types before and after the Permian-Triassic boundary event, 2) use sedimentological and paleontological data to understand the environmental conditions in the basin, 3) compare conditions before and after the Permian-Triassic boundary event in different parts of the basin. The goal is to understand why these systems changed during the Permian-Triassic boundary event and to disentangle climatic and tectonic factors.

This project within the framework of the S2S-FUTURE research project:

This PhD position is within the framework of a European ITN project named S2S-FUTURE: SIGNAL PROPAGATION IN SOURCE TO SINK for the FUTUre of earth Resources and Energies, involving 15 PhD positions.

Under the supervision of Christian Haug Eide (Associate Professor, University of Bergen, Geodynamics and Basin Studies), the PhD student will investigate many types of data from the deposits spanning the Permian-Triassic boundary in the Barents Sea basin. The data will be used to investigate conditions in the catchments before and after this step-change in earth evolution. These results will increase the understanding of how sedimentary systems respond to strong but gradual perturbations (ITN Work Package “SLOW”). The project involves field work on Svalbard and collaborations with multiple European institutions and industrial partners, including required research stays (secondment) at VBPR - Volcanic Basin Petroleum Research (Oslo, Dr. Sverre Planke, 1 month) and Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté , France (Dijon, Dr. Pierre Pellenard & Dr. Emmanuelle Puceat, 3 months).

The PhD student will be also involved in scientific/soft-skills meetings and in research activities conducted in other laboratories/companies from Europe and associated countries.
An important component of the training will be the participation to 3 main major “Summer Institutes”:
Summer 2020: “Dragonstone” – South-Pyrenees Spain and France: an innovative combination of field excursion and computer modeling of surface processes from source to sink.
Summer 2021: “The Factory” – Norway, Great Britain and Switzerland: field visit of modern S2S systems and course intensive program program of technical and soft skills to accelerate the students’ research, write and present their results, consolidate their profiles and develop concrete plans for their future.
Summer 2022: “Inside Africa” – South-Africa: an immersion of ESRs in the modern source-to-sink system of a continental-scale large river, the Orange in Southern Africa, with high economic implications for mining industries.

More details on this PhD position -> see the website