GFZ is Germany's national centre for solid Earth research. We advance the understanding of dynamic processes to address global challenges, from mitigating the impacts of natural hazards and sustaining our habitat amid global change to responsibly managing georesources. We are part of the Helmholtz Association, the largest German scientific organisation. With around 1,200 employees as well as ca. 500 guest researchers, we contribute to the Helmholtz Research Field Earth and Environment, aligning cutting-edge research with societal relevance and international collaboration. Our work integrates multidisciplinary studies across Earth's system components, leveraging advanced technologies and infrastructure to research solutions and to transfer our knowledge to society. We are doing this according to our vision: “Taking the pulse of our Earth to safeguard a habitable planet”.

In tectonically active coastal areas, earthquake faults located offshore can trigger tsunamis in addition to the shaking risk. Their exact location and rate of activity can be difficult to assess as near-shore bathymetry is singularly understudied. Sea-going vessels produce high-resolution maps of the seafloor at greater depths, leaving shelf areas poorly resolved. The shallower domain down to ca. 125 m is of particular interest because eustatic cycles alternately expose it to submarine and subaerial erosion. This process gradient subjects fault scarps to varying rates of reworking, potentially revealing their activity over different timescales.

To make up for the lack of nearshore high-resolution maps, we plan to develop and deploy an Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) equipped with a multibeam sonar in target locations starting with the Kefalonia Transform Fault Zone (KTFZ) in Western Greece. The offshore survey will complement ongoing dry land research of the KTFZ history by our team and the high-resolution offshore bathymetry recently acquired during the POSEIDON cruise. The USV is being developed in the mechanical workshop of GFZ and will need to be tested, modified, and improved during the project. 

The seafloor survey will image the scarps of active faults to understand the faults surface expression at different depths. The output will be 1) an extension of the regional active fault inventory and better constraints on their rate of activity and 2) a proof of concept for future near shore studies of seismogenic faults.

The successful candidate will be in a team jointly led by Silvia Crosetto, Claudio Faccenna, Luca Malatesta, and Jean Braun. 

Your responsibilities:

• Participate in the development of the USV in the workshop, test runs, and initial deployments
• Design a survey strategy and data analysis for the KTFZ field deployment and future missions
• Lead the bathymetric survey effort in the field
• Analyse collected dataset to inform active tectonic studies
• Participate in or lead the tectonic geomorphology and paleoseismological study of fault activity
• Provide expertise in bathymetric surveys for the development of research projects
• Mentor students embedded in the project
• Actively engage in scientific discussion and activities with other members of the section and collaborating sections at GFZ
• Present, publish and communicate research results at scientific meetings and in scholarly journals

Your qualifications:

• PhD in Earth or Ocean Sciences (or equivalent) by the time of contract start
• MSc in a field of natural sciences or engineering
• Desirable advanced knowledge in bathymetric surveys and the use of multibeam sonar technology
• Desirable advanced knowledge in the analysis of multibeam sonar datasets
• Desirable aptitude to troubleshoot mechanical and electronic equipment
• Desirable familiarity with active tectonics and dynamics of the earthquake cycle
• Demonstrated excellence in publications (pre-prints and articles in revision will be considered)
• Demonstrated capacity for international teamwork and excellent communication skills
• Proficiency in spoken and written English