Research projects available for PhD students starting in 2010 are listed below.
At least eight Research Council and School studentships will be awarded.

• Reliability of depth indicators in ancient marine carbonate deposystems
  Supervisors: Dr Lesley Cherns (Cherns@cardiff.ac.uk) and Professor Paul Wright
• Response of anaerobic prokaryotic processes and communities in SevernEstuary sediments to environmental change
  Supervisors: Professor John Parkes (ParkesRJ@cardiff.ac.uk), Dr Henrik Sass and Professor Andrew Weightman (School of Biosciences) with input from Dr Rupert Perkins, Dr José Constantine and Dr Chris Wooldridge
• Hydrogen generation in the deep, hot biosphere
  Supervisors: Professor John Parkes (ParkesRJ@cardiff.ac.uk), Dr Henrik Sass and Professor Andrew Weightman (School of Biosciences)
• Posidonia oceanica sea grass beds in the eastern Aegean Sea: Chartography of the areas covered; Study of the Ecology; Development of a conservationscheme
  Supervisors: Dr Rupert Perkins (PerkinsR@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Rhoda Ballinger
• Caulerpa racemosa: Spatial and temporal distribution in the East Aegean Sea, Greece
  Supervisors: Dr Rupert Perkins (PerkinsR@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Henrik Sass
• Are sulphate-reducing bacterial communities in subsurface sediments unique?
  Supervisors: Dr Henrik Sass (SassH@cardiff.ac.uk), Professor John Parkes and Professor Andrew Weightman (School of Biosciences)
• The 'sleeping' biosphere – spores in marine sediments
  Supervisors: Dr Henrik Sass (SassH@cardiff.ac.uk), Professor John Parkes and Professor Andrew Weightman (School of Biosciences)

• The propagation of strike-slip faults
  Supervisors: Professor Joe Cartwright (CartwrightJA@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr David James
• Magma plumbing in the upper continental crust
  Supervisors: Professor Joe Cartwright (CartwrightJA@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Andrew Kerr
• Subsurface Carbon Sequestration: geophysical techniques to track CO2 leakage pathways
  Supervisors: Professor Joe Cartwright (CartwrightJA@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr David James
• Modelling mantle convection
  Supervisors: Dr J. Huw Davies (DaviesJH2@cardiff.ac.uk) and Professor Tim Phillips (School of Mathematics)
• Modelling subduction zone magmatism
  Supervisors: Dr J. Huw Davies (DaviesJH2@cardiff.ac.uk) and Professor Julian Pearce
• Mantle-based controls on global topography – what makes continents go upand down?
  Supervisors: Dr J. Huw Davies (DaviesJH2@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr T.C. Hales
• Techniques for analyzing fold structures on seismically-mapped surfaces
  Supervisors: Professor Richard Lisle (Lisle@cardiff.ac.uk) and Professor Joe Cartwright
• Imprints of marine based ice sheets; Arctic/Antarctic comparison of geotechnical and seismic properties in glacially overridden marine sediments
  Supervisors: Dr Matt O'Regan (matt.oregan@geo.su.se), Dr Sérgio Lourenço and Professor Martin Jakobsson (Stockholm University)
• Salt structures and submarine landslides in deep-water continental margins
  Supervisors: Dr Tiago M. Alves ( AlvesT@cardiff.ac.uk) and Professor Joe Cartwright
• Nature and geometry of glide planes of submarine landslides
  Supervisors: Dr Tiago M. Alves ( AlvesT@cardiff.ac.uk) and Professor Joe Cartwright

Geoenvironmental

• Professional training and higher education needs to support emerging UKmarine and coastal policy developments
  Supervisors: Dr Rhoda Ballinger (BallingerRC@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Hance Smith
• The origin of floodplains and the controls on the development of point barsalong meandering rivers
  Supervisors: Dr José Constantine (ConstantineJA@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Catherine Wilson (School of Engineering)
• The impacts of relative changes in sea level on the evolution of the tidalmarshes of Great Britain
  Dr José Constantine (ConstantineJA@cardiff.ac.uk), Dr Rupert Perkins and Dr Simon Mudd (Geosciences, University of Edinburgh)
• Quantifying soil mechanical controls on landslide movement
  Supervisors: Dr T.C. Hales ( HalesT@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Sérgio Lourenço
• Role of hydrophobicity in soil behaviour
  Supervisors: Dr Sérgio Lourenço (LourencoSD@cardiff.ac.uk), Dr Christopher Morley (School of Chemistry) and Professor Ian Hall
• Stochastic finite element modelling for contaminant transport: an improvedsolution for reduced uncertainty
  Supervisors: Dr Yuesuo Yang ( YangY6@cardiff.ac.uk ) and Professor Tim Phillips (School of Mathematics)
• Environmental management and planning of marine renewable resources
  Supervisors: Dr Hance Smith (SmithHD@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Rhoda Ballinger
• Regional fisheries management in the United Kingdom
  Supervisors: Dr Hance Smith (SmithHD@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Rupert Perkins
• The regional development of maritime heritage in the United Kingdom
  Supervisors: Dr Hance Smith (SmithHD@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr David Jenkins (National Waterfront Museum, Swansea)

Magmatic and Hydrothermal Processes

• Mantle sources and magmatic processes during oceanic plateau formation: Acase study of the Curaçao lava succession, southern Caribbean
  Supervisors: Dr Andrew Kerr ( KerrA@cardiff.ac.uk), Dr Iain McDonald, Dr Dima Kamenetsky (Hobart, Tasmania) and Dr Fin Stuart (SUERC, East Kilbride)
• Crystallization and economic potential of a Mafic-Ultramafic Sill Complex, Victoria Island (Arctic Canada)
  Supervisors: Dr Johan Lissenberg (LissenbergCJ@cardiff.ac.uk), Professor Julian Pearce and Professor Chris MacLeod
• Melt-rock reaction and the evolution of mid-ocean ridge basalt
  Supervisors: Dr Johan Lissenberg (LissenbergCJ@cardiff.ac.uk), Professor Chris MacLeod and Dr H.J.B. Dick (Woods Hole Oceanopgraphic Institution, USA)
• Geochemistry of impact spherule layers and the origin of impacting projectilesthrough Precambrian Earth history
  Supervisors: Iain McDonald (McDonaldI1@cardiff.ac.uk), Dr Andrew Kerr and Dr Sara Russell (Natural History Museum)
• Magmatic concentration and secondary redistribution of platinum-groupelements in Ni-Cu-deposits
  Supervisors: Dr Hazel Prichard ( Prichard@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Iain McDonald
• Lithospheric accretion at the initiation of subduction
  Supervisors: Professor Chris MacLeod (MacLeod@cardiff.ac.uk), Dr Johan Lissenberg and Professor Julian Pearce
• Volcanology of the Troodos ophiolite and mechanisms of accretion of the upper ocean crust
  Supervisors: Professor Chris MacLeod (MacLeod@cardiff.ac.uk), Dr Johan Lissenberg and Professor Julian Pearce
• Concentration of gold by subduction processes
  Supervisors: Professor Julian Pearce (PearceJA@cardiff.ac.uk ) and Dr Iain McDonald

Palaeoclimate

• Role of the Southern Ocean in abrupt climate change and glacial termination
  Supervisors: Dr Stephen Barker (BarkerS3@cardiff.ac.uk), Professor Ian Hall and Dr Tina van de Flierdt (Imperial College, London)
• Ocean circulation and the global carbon cycle
  Supervisors: Dr Stephen Barker (BarkerS3@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Philip Sexton
• Marine carbon fluxes and atmospheric CO2
  Supervisors: Dr Stephen Barker (BarkerS3@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr Andy Ridgwell (University of Bristol)
• The early Cenozoic greenhouse – icehouse climatic transition in the northernhemisphere Tethys-Paratethys region
  Supervisors: Dr Helen Coxall (CoxallH@cardiff.ac.uk), Professor Paul Pearson and Dr Carrie Lear
• Ocean-cryosphere interactions during abrupt climate change
  Supervisors: Professor Ian Hall (Hall@cardiff.ac.uk), Dr Stephen Barker, and Professor Sidney Hemming (Columbia University, New York)
• Quantification of past ice sheet stability during global warming events
  Supervisors: Dr Carrie Lear (LearC@cardiff.ac.uk) and Professor Paul Pearson
• The Miocene carbon cycle: investigating the link between volcanism andclimate change
  Supervisors: Dr Carrie Lear (LearC@cardiff.ac.uk), Professor Kristine Faul (Mills College, California) and Dr Andrew Kerr
• Trace metal geochemistry of brachiopods: A new window to the past
  Supervisors: Dr Carrie Lear (LearC@cardiff.ac.uk), Dr Trevor Bailey (National Museum of Wales) and Dr Lesley Cherns
• Ecologic controls on slope stability
  Supervisors: Dr T.C. Hales ( HalesT@cardiff.ac.uk) and Dr José Constantine

For further details of the above topics and information on how to apply, please see http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/earth/ or contact: Liesbeth Diaz (Diaz@cardiff.ac.uk), School of Earth & Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3YE. Tel: 029 2087 5772. Fax: 029 2087 4326. www.earth.cf.ac.uk.

The closing date for applications is 3 February 2010 and it is anticipated that interviews for these PhD positions will take place on Tuesday, 23 February and Wednesday, 24 February 2010