Research

The complex structure of the earth with its marine basins, mountains and volcanoes is a powerful proof for the large scale and dynamic processes working in the mantle, lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and cryosphere of the earth. Understanding these processes and their nonlinear behavior is becoming more and more important for humanity. This is due to the rising vulnerability of humanity, caused by fast growing population density, new megacities arising, extensive ways of global communication and structural integration. This makes it extremely important to understand the dynamic processes of our earth and its consequent risks.

Because of that, the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Hamburg intensively carries out earth system science with focus on these processes:

volcanism (magma rise and accumulation, eruption processes within and outside of the conduit, impact on atmosphere)
continuous seismic monitoring of processes and changes in the near-surface, related to geo-hazards (fault zones, volcanoes, land slides)
tectonics (plate- and salt-tectonics and their influence on topography and bathymetry)
slipping slopes (excitation and consequences), basin structures and ocean-sediment interactions.

The timescales of these processes varies between a split second (e.g. earthquakes) and millions of years (e.g. basin formation), making a variety of observational methods and modeling techniques necessary.

Photo: M. Hort

Physical Volcanology

Although Hamburg is very far from any active volcano, air space closure during the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (Iceland) in April 2010 also hit Hamburg and showed how vulnerable our modern society is. Studying the detection and dispersion of volcanic ash in the atmosphere, as well as syneruptive chemical reactions and physical processes of volcanic eruptions is an important contribution to determine geohazards.

Applied Seismics

To secure natural ressources for our future, we are currently especially interested in:

elastic wave dispersion in the earth
improving imaging methods
dynamic development of sediments and consequent reservoirs
global material cycle
hydrocarbon reservoir prospection

Marine Geophysics

With 70% of the earth surface covered by water and about half of the world's population living in coastal proximity, the socio economic relevance of these topics is obvious. They need extensive research in marine an land areas. Moreover, also fundamental theoretical studies and analog or numerical modeling are very important. We observe earth system processes in various regions of the earth, for example:

continental margins (Peru, Levante)
active and young marine environments (Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea, Iceland)
basin structures (Northern Germany, Eastern Mediteranean Sea)
volcanic ridges (Java)
midocean ridges (Atlantic, Pacific)

Seismology

Besides earthquakes seismometers measure continuous ground movements, which can have many causes. By correlating these background movements, it is possible to perform seismology, that is, the study of the structure of the earth by means of ground motion, even without major earthquakes. The analysis of the continuous ground movement leads to very high-resolution, small-scale images of the earth's crust. However, this method also has disadvantages: in addition to information about the path of the signal, this signal contains a significant amount of information about the source of ground motion. This is very good for earthquake seismology, but for earthquakeless seismology these sources still have to be explored.

SPIN-ITN: Seismological Parameters and Instrumentation

SPIN is an Innovative Training Network (ITN) funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (MSCA). It brings together scientists and experts from over 20 institutes and companies. The scientific focus is on using emerging measurement technologies (rotational seismometers, DAS, large N arrays) to more precisely capture the non-linear elastic wave propagation that accompanies dynamic changes in areas that are prone to geohazards (e.g. landslides, volcanoes, fault zones). The objective is to design novel monitoring systems for precursory changes in material properties in such systems.

More information on: https://spin-itn.eu/

WIT - Wave Inversion Technology

The Wave Inversion Technology (WIT) consortium is an international network of research groups, founded at the University of Karlsruhe in 1997. It is supported by various companys from the hydrocarbon industry. The goal of the consortium's research is the invention of inovative concepts in seismic exploration. Since 2007, the scientific and administrative leadership of the WIT is placed at the University of Hamburg. For more information please go the the WIT homepage.

CEN - Center for Earth system science and Sustainability

With our expertise in the topic of "Imaging and Modeling of Material Flows from the Earth into the Water Column and the Atmosphere" the Institute of Geophysics contributes to various research activities of the Research Centre for Earth System Science and Sustainability (CEN). CEN has formulated various core themes as a research program until 2020. In relation to the core topic "Ocean circulation and changes in sea level", the institute carried out marine-seismic measurements in the Maldives archipelago and the eastern Mediterranean along with colleagues from the Institute of Geology. We are also working on the topic of "Climate Change and Variability" by mapping deposits on the seafloor that represent an archive of climate change. Furthermore, the topic of "Urban regions in global change" is also a rapidly developing field of research for geophysics, as, for example, the lowering of the groundwater table and other forces below the cities can lead to damage to buildings and infrastructure. These processes can be geophysically monitored and measured.