Funded PhD project:
Humankind's imprint on the seabed and its permanent record,
the Anthropogene

Humankind’s imprint on the seabed and its permanent record, the Anthropogene

Main supervisor: Dr N. C. Mitchell, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, the University of Manchester, UK (neil.mitchell@manchester.ac.uk) Throughout the inhabited history of the Earth, organisms have strongly influenced geomorphological and geochemical processes and ultimately left their imprints in the Earth’s geology. Now mankind is causing some of the most remarkable changes to Earth’s surface environment. The term “Anthropogene” has been coined to describe this new period. In this project, the influence of mankind on the marine part of the Anthropogene will be quantified. Geophysical and geological data as well as government and other agency records of installations in the oceans will be used to develop a quantitative assessment of volume and intensity of mankind’s various influences around the UK.

The project will be carried out in collaboration with the British Geological Survey, the Scottish Marine Institute, Oban, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, and the Universities of Liverpool and Ulster, who will supply datasets and relevant expertise. It will provide training in marine geological and geophysical techniques, computer-based numerical analysis of data, such as using GISs, and experience of collecting marine geophysical data at sea (to help expand the database, the successful candidate will participate in one or more cruises of the consortium around the UK).

Information on the application procedure can be found:
http://www.sci.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/applications-2012

Deadline 31 January 2012