The Helmholtz Research School seeks a marine geologist or geophysicist with strong background in numerical modeling. The candidate will couple advanced, state-of-the-art numerical sub-surface models to geological and geophysical scenarios related to surface and sub-surface fluid flow structures such as, but not limited to, mud volcanoes on continental margins. Special emphasis will be placed on the understanding and links between shallow and deeper fluid interactions and flow. The work will demand an understanding of numerical modelling, seismics, exploration and hydrocarbon geology and will require an integration of seismic and geophysical data such as well logs and geochemical data available from selected European site.

One of the possible study sties is the eastern Mediterranean. Mud volcanoes and related seabed seepage structures occur widely in the deep waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, in both active and passive margin settings. These cold seep-structures are expressions of underlying shallow gas and fluid flow systems, which are commonly linked to deeper hydrocarbon systems. These and comparable structures on continental margins worldwide have attracted considerable research interest, due to their implications for geosphere-biosphere exchanges (including carbon budgets) as well as their relations to known and potential gas hydrate systems. While this has resulted in a growing body of geophysical and geological information on the seabed character of seepage structures, we still know relatively little about their internal geometries, sedimentary composition or rooting systems, and so of their evolution over time in relation to tectonic or climatic drivers of fluid flow.

This fluid flow modeling study will extend our understanding of the potential linkages of shallow fluid flow systems, including gas hydrates, to deeper hydrocarbon sources. The position will requires good communication skills in order to support collaborations with other modeling groups at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute Bremerhaven, Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), Trieste, Italy and the Jacobs University Bremen.