Eastern PYrenees Seismic Imaging

The EPYSIM project has the fundamental objective of improving the understanding of the upper crust beneath the NE of Iberia by integrating the characterization of the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone, the seismogenic area around La Selva, and the large-scale 3D lithospheric structure and thermal properties of the transition between the Pyrenees and the Gulf of Lion. These topics are of great interest to the Earth Sciences community and may have economic and social relevance, as the possibility of a destructive earthquake in the area cannot be ruled out today. In this context, the work of the predoctoral researcher will focus on conducting a tomographic study based on ambient seismic noise (Ambient Noise Tomography) using the data acquired by the high-density seismic network deployed in the Garrotxa volcanic zone. This work requires prior data processing to extract surface waves and includes obtaining velocity dispersion curves and their inversion to obtain velocity maps at different depths. Initially, well-established techniques would be used, although the use of innovative methods involving the development of new algorithms is also considered. The predoctoral researcher will also participate in fieldwork related to the deployment of seismic stations in the La Selva area, as well as in the interpretation of the data obtained.

Constructing the Archaelogy of Mobile Pastoralism: bringing the site level into long-term pastoral narratives

CAMP aims to study long-term pastoral dynamics in drylands through the development of a novel and reliable methodology to investigate archaeological pastoral sites. Pastoralism is now considered a smart economy for producing food in drylands, especially within the present climate-change scenario where variability in natural resources is globally on the increase. Old stereotypes about the inefficiency and irrationality of pastoralism are being revisited, and paradigms in the approach to contemporary pastoralism are changing. At the same time, the archaeology of pastoralism is attracting renewed attention due to the longevity and sustainability of documented pastoralist lifeways. Yet, the archaeological record of pastoral sites remains elusive and extremely difficult to study using current archaeological approaches, which still lacks reliable tools to bring to light such crucial archives of past human behavior.

Sediment Mobilization: Deformation Mechanics, Fluid Transport, and Implications for Large-Scale Tectonic Processes

This project focuses on the hypothesis that at certain conditions, shallow and deeply buried large, fine-grained sediment bodies behave in a ductile manner with a bulk viscous rheology, and that related to that flow a substantial, yet fundamentally unquantified, amount of heat and fluid transfer between the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere occurs within the Earths uppermost kilometers. This hypothesis is based upon the assumption that at certain conditions shallow unconsolidated but also deeply buried lithified fine-grained sediments undergo mobilization triggered by excess pore fluid pressure resulting in a weak ductile rheology that enhances vertical material, fluid, and heat exchange. This project aims to test the stated hypothesis with a novel multidisciplinary approach based on three pillars:

Past analogues of sustainable food production under climate change scenarios: assessing pre-Columbian large-scale practices’ viability in flood-prone environments

MOMPAST aims to investigate pre-Columbian practices of raised fields in wetlands, where earthworks were designed to cope with frequent flooding events. The study site chosen is the Mompos Depression (Colombia), one of the largest perennial Neotropical wetlands that hosts an estimated 5000 km2 of relict pre-Columbian raised fields, platform mounds, and canal-causeways, attesting to large-scale human management of these environments. This project will use a multi- and interdisciplinary approach to better understand the role of pre-Columbian land management strategies in influencing feedbacks between hydrology, ecosystem services, and food production. Moreover, we will study the viability of these ancient practices for large-scale food production in flood-prone environments, as IPCC projections suggest will occur. MOMPAST will use a novel combination of both well established and recently developed palaeoecological and archaeological proxies to independently study different environmental drivers that operate at several temporal and spatial scales including: sediment provenance/flood events, anthropogenic soil alterations, erosion and soil degradation, human activities and the vegetation responses to these drivers. The wide array of proxies will facilitate the study of the nature, extent and use of the large-scale pre-Columbian raised fields agricultural practices. The idea behind MOMPAST lies in the study of these ancient practices to assess their viability as a sustainable option for agriculture and bioeconomy, aimed at securing the food production in large tropical areas vulnerable to flooding events due to future climate change.

A Palaeoenvironmental Investigation of Amazonian Lowland Sensitivity to Climatic Drivers Using Pollen-based Modelling Approaches

This project goes beyond the current state-of-the-art in the field of tropical palaeoecology. So far, sampling of modern pollen in Amazonia has been carried out by several authors, revealing important information about the transport and representation of pollen in tropical environments. Already 2,354 modern samples across Latin America have been gathered (see Figure 1). However, only a fraction (548) of the samples available cover Amazonia. In the European Pollen Database, almost 3,500 samples are included, with about 1,400 for the Mediterranean region. The abundance of modern samples in Europe has allowed both a deep understanding of the relationships between pollen composition and local/regional vegetation, as well as enabling accurate climatic reconstructions. Considering that Europe (10mn km2) covers a little more than the size of the main drainage area of the Amazon River (7mn km2), and that NW Amazon is the same size as the Mediterranean (2.5-2.7mn km2), it appears clear that more samples are necessary to achieve the same level of coverage in Amazonia that we have in Europe (aim of 200-400 new samples including unpublished/non-uploaded datasets from collaborators). Our case study will focus on Ecuador and Peru lowlands because both countries share similar biomes (palm swamps) and samples are already available but their coverage needs enhancing, especially in Peru which is less well-represented compared to Ecuador. This will also be the first attempt at implementing the use of water pollen traps as well as aerial and ground traps, crucial for understanding the potentially key role of water-transported pollen signal, and thus achieve a robust calibration of fossil records.

Objective

The scientific ambition of the second phase of the EU project Center of Excellence in Solid Earth (ChEESE-2P) is to prepare 11 community flagship codes to address 12 domain-specific Exascale Computational Challenges (ECC), enlarging the areas covered during the first implementation phase (computational seismology, magnetohydrodynamics, physical volcanology, and tsunamis) with two additional disciplines (geodynamics and modelling of glacier hazards).

Computational Geophysics Unit

Computational Geophysics Unit is an associate unit created by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BCS-CNS). This unit combines the expertise and resources of both institutions to carry out research in the field of geophysics and natural hazards.

Vectors to Accessible Critical Raw Material Resources in Sedimentary Basins

The EU imports 80% of its industrial raw materials making European supply chains highly vulnerable to disruption and threatening the EU’s ability to manufacture raw material-intensive technologies, such as electric cars, wind turbines, and ICT hardware, that are essential to the green and digital transformations. Europe possesses significant mineral potential but development is limited by the lack of sustainable, low-impact exploration methods and by social opposition to mineral projects.

A Digital Twin for GEOphysical extremes

DT-GEO aims at developing a prototype for a digital twin on geophysical extremes including earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and anthropogenic-induced extreme events. The project harnesses world-class computational and data Research Infrastructures (Ris), operational monitoring networks, and leading-edge research and academia partnerships in various fields of geophysics.

Europe’s goals in green and digital transition require innovative methods, techniques, and technologies to be used in mineral exploration. Europe has long traditions in base metal mining but has been less successful in developing projects to source CRMs whether lack of investments, the diverse national permitting procedures and the low levels of the public acceptance.

STONE – Smart Terraine Control Using Cutting-Edge Technologies

The STONE project (Smart Terraine Control Using Cutting-Edge Technologies at the Rio Tinto mine, Spain) is a public-private collaboration project framed within the thematic priority of Civil Security for Society of the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research – PEICTI 2021-2023. It is a very ambitious and innovative project, in which Atalaya Riotinto Minera S.L., the participating company, is committed to a transition to “Smart Mining,” including geodetic and geotechnical control of the mine, in almost real-time. In this context, the role of the two participating CSIC institutes, Institute of Geosciences (IGEO-UCM-CSIC) and Geosciences Barcelona (GEO3BCN-CSIC), is to validate the applicability of two cutting-edge monitoring systems, namely radar interferometry (InSAR) and ambient seismic noise interferometry (ANSI), for better monitoring of deformations that may occur in the mine’s environment. Both techniques, in their latest versions, are very innovative and, although they use different sources of energy (light and sound), share some characteristics that make them very interesting as monitoring techniques. Both are interferometric techniques, which means that they compare (interfere) signals over a certain period of time in a specific area, aiming to detect variations in interference patterns or interferograms, indicating subsurface or subsurface-related surface variations. Therefore, they are two very pioneering techniques that havent been used operationally in mining in Spain, either individually or together, nor internationally. In the near future, if the expected results are achieved, they could represent, along with new terrain deformation modeling techniques developed by CSIC, a turning point in current monitoring practices, not only in the mining sector but also in large engineering infrastructures and natural hazards. Additionally, the project has the added value of knowledge transfer to the private sector, as one of the project’s top priorities is for Atalaya Minera S.L. to become autonomous in handling both techniques upon its completion.