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Quantifying fault response to enhanced climate-driven erosion using cosmogenic nuclides and geomechanical models

Project description

Advanced geomechanical models to understand tectonic processes

Mountain topography holds clues about past climate-driven erosion and tectonic evolution. Numerical models help us understand this interplay and predict future fault behaviour and earthquakes. However, detailed records of erosion, sedimentation, climate variability, and fault activity are rare. Combining field data to calibrate models is crucial for improving their predictive power and addressing unresolved tectonic issues. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the CosMechNuclides project will develop advanced geomechanical models that integrate tectonics, climate, and erosion during mountain building. It will collect new field data to create a detailed record of Quaternary fault activity in the Andean foreland and calibrate these models to determine the impact of climate-driven erosion on the rates of tectonic processes.

Objective

Mountain topography embeds a signal of past climate-driven erosion and tectonic evolution. Numerical models are powerful tools to characterize this delicate interplay and outputs can be used as a framework to understand the current climate or forecast future fault behavior and earthquakes. To validate models of climate and tectonic interactions during mountain building requires high-resolution records of erosion rates, sedimentation rates, climate variability, and fault activity. However, sites with detailed Quaternary records of all these variables are rare, which hinders our ability to validate model outputs. A multi-system approach, using field data to calibrate models, is required to enhance the predictive power of models and their capacity to tackle major unresolved tectonic and climatic problems, like how climate-enhanced erosion affects rates of faulting.
This project will: 1) develop cutting-edge, data-driven, geomechanical models that integrate tectonics, climate, and erosion during mountain building; 2) collect new field data (10Be boulder ages and high-resolution topographic data) to generate a high-resolution record of Quaternary fault activity in the Andean foreland and supplement this data with existing erosion rates, rock exhumation rates, and sedimentation records; and 3) calibrate and apply the models using the field data to quantify the extent that climate-driven erosion affects rates of tectonic processes.
This project will push the boundaries of our understanding of how tectonic and climatic variables influence landscape evolution whilst developing data-driven geomechanical modelling techniques with powerful applications to widespread tectonic, climatic, and sedimentological processes. The project will also give the researcher experience in a pioneering modelling field, whilst fostering intra-European and global collaborations and helping the researcher achieve their career goal of becoming an independent academic in Europe.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01

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Coordinator

GFZ HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM FUR GEOFORSCHUNG
Net EU contribution
€ 173 847,36
Address
TELEGRAFENBERG
14473 POTSDAM
Germany
Region
Brandenburg Brandenburg Potsdam
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost
No data