The Closing Tethys Project at RSES, ANU seeks two high-achieving students to enrol as PhD candidates. The students selected would gain expertise in computational structural geology, geodesy and geophysics and 4D tectonic reconstruction OR structural geochronology and advanced argon geochronology used to date the timing of movement in deformed terranes. The applicants should be highly motivated with the desire and capacity to undertake both fundamental and applied research. They will have an academic track record that will enable them to win a scholarship from ANU in the next selection round. Suitable candidates would have IELTS 6.5 and GPA in excess of 80-85%. An online application must be completed in time to allow the student to compete for an Endeavour scholarship.

For scholarship details go to http://rses.anu.edu.au/study/future-students/scholarships
Also to http://www.deewr.gov.au/International/EndeavourAwards/Pages/Home.aspx

Application to be made online at https://student-anu.studylink.com/index.cfm?event=registration.form

The Tethys Ocean once separated Eurasia and the dispersing fragments of Gondwana. When Tethys began to close, about 120-90 million years ago, these fragments (i.e., Africa, Arabia, India, and Australia) were driven northward. The leading edges of these continents acted as relatively strong indentors that ploughed into the complex geography of the northern Tethyan margin (i.e. Eurasia). We want to understand the dynamics of this process, loosely referred to in the Earth Sciences as the end of a Wilson Cycle. To this purpose the project will develop a unified dynamic model of the closure of the ancient Tethys Ocean from deep time until the present day. Such a dynamic model will require the application of forces and boundary conditions to move and deform tectonic plates, and in the process lead to the development of geodynamic theory while producing tectonic reconstructions that are consistent with geology, geodesy, and the timing of event sequences measured at "orogenic listening posts".