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Project description
The Azores islands, situated in the central Atlantic at the edge of the European continent, are remote and under-investigated, but play an important role in our weather and climate. Notably, the archipelago is positioned near the Azores High – one of the two nodes of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). This weather pattern, which impacts precipitation and wind strength, is the dominant mode of natural climate variability across Europe, and impacts crop yields, hydropower generation, as well as extreme weather. In addition, the Azores are sometimes hit by the tail end of tropical cyclones after they wreak havoc in the Americas. In addition, the islands sit along the edge of three tectonic plates, and often experience earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Despite the (wider) impacts of these hazards, we know very little about their behavior (frequency and magnitude) through time, as instrumental records are short, and the islands have only been settled relatively recently by humans.

This project seeks to close this knowledge gap using a unique geological archive – laminated lake sediments captures change during the last millennium at a seasonal to annual resolution. During field campaigns in 2020 and 2022, multiple high-quality sediment cores were taken from Lago Negro – a volcanic crater lake on Flores, the westernmost island of the Azores. You have the opportunity to apply a range of emerging techniques to reconstruct climate changes in this unique record. A key example includes CT scanning to detect the imprint of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or floods.

The main questions of this project are I) can we use high-resolution scanning methods to detect the impact of extreme change in these Azorean sediments, II) can we attribute these changes to specific processes like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, or floods, and III) does the magnitude and frequency of these geohazards through time and with climate.

When completed, this project provides a unique long-term context for geohazards and climate in an under-investigated but climatically important remote part of Europe. Planned work will enable the candidate to become familiar with emerging techniques that have broader applicability in society (industry) and potential to revolutionize the research field. Finally, collaboration with international (Portuguese) institutes will provide a unique opportunity do visit the field site an do more work.

Proposed course plan during the master's degree (60 ECTS)
GEOV217 - Geohazards (10 ECTS)
GEOV222 - Paleoclimatology (10 ECTS)
GEOV336 - Field and Laboratory Course in Quarternary Geology (10 ECTS)
GEOV225 - Field Course in Quarternary Geology and Palaeoclimate (10 ECTS)
GEOV302 - Data analysis in earth science (10 ECTS)
GEOV331 - Palaeoceanography (5 ECTS)
GEOV300 - Selected topics in Geoscience (5 ECTS)

Field-, lab- and analysis work
You will spend quite a bit of time working in the EARTHLAB sediment lab facility of the department, analyzing the sediments using a range of physical and scanning methods that include X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Computed Tomography (CT), as well as grain size analyses. Additional methods might include remote sensing (the investigation of satellite time series, or photogrammetry models). The sediments are available, here in Bergen, and have been quality-checked and dated too: we know they are of exceptional quality (micro-laminated) and cover the past 2000 years (the Common Era). Through collaboration with co-supervisor Raposeiro, further fieldwork on the Azores will be possible.