2-year NSF-Supported Graduate Research Assistantship

I am seeking a graduate student to join my team at Ohio State University to work on a new 2-year NSF-funded award to study submarine landslide hazards off the U.S. east coast. This project is a collaborative effort with researchers at Columbia University to constrain sediment physical properties associated with the Cape Fear and Currituck landslides from velocity analysis of recently acquired open access seismic reflection data.

Underwater landslides pose hazard threats to populated coastal areas worldwide because of the potential to generate tsunamis. On the continental margin offshore of the heavily populated U.S. Mid-Atlantic, ~15% of the continental slope are scars from large submarine landslides. If a large slope failure were to occur today on the Eastern US Margin, the negative economic and societal impact could be severe.

This study aims to understand the driving mechanisms by examining the role that fluid pressure within the sediments plays in slope failure and the subsequent motion of those sediments. Slope failure can occur gradually or catastrophically, and have different implications for the type and severity of impacts to coastal areas. Our findings will better constrain the preconditioning factors that lead to slope failure and the hazard risk from tsunamis generated by catastrophic failures.

This study dovetails with an ongoing IODP proposal through the Cape Fear and Currituck headwalls.

Student Qualifications: PhD student preferred but Master’s students will be considered. Experience in seismic reflection data processing and interpretation preferred. Availability starting in Spring/Summer/or Fall 2019.

If interested and for more information, please send your CV and statement of interest to me (sawyer.144@osu.edu).