Earlier this month, Newcastle University PhD
student Rose headed to Denmark to attend the tenth elite PhD training course at
the University of Copenhagen, on using Seismology and Geodynamics to quantify
earth's internal processes. Rose tells us all about it...
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| Nyhavn, the beautiful 17th century waterfront of Copenhagen |
Although the topic of my
PhD concerns the development of a landslide monitoring system using electrical
imaging, I wanted to learn more about seismic imaging methods, and was lucky
enough to win a place on this course!
I was initially concerned
that my research being heavily civil engineering-based I might have some
trouble finding my feet, but the first day kicked off with a fantastic
introduction to Geodynamics from Prof. Greg Houseman of Leeds University, and I
found everything flooding back from my Geophysics undergraduate degree. The
Seismology component of the course was taught by Prof. Rob van der Hilst from
MIT, and began with the basic principles of elastic wave propagation. These
were then used as the physical basis for seismic tomography applications.
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| Elastic wave equation - back to undergraduate maths! |
Although the course
itself was based around lectures, these were incredibly dynamic and flexible,
involving a lot of discussion depending on which topics were raised.
Additionally, all of the attendees gave a very brief presentation on their own
research, which was fascinating as it helped to showcase the application of
what we were all there to learn more about.
The last afternoon was
spent engaged in a debate, in which each of two teams had to defend a theory
chosen at the start of the course, as well as to present a counter-argument for
the other team's point of view. Having presented the evidence for "the lower
crust is the strongest part of the continental lithosphere", we then had to
witness the other team tear our poor theory to pieces, and then had half an
hour in which to come up with a response. I'm not entirely sure who won in the
end, but it was fantastic to see everyone come together in the final debate,
and the fact of having various different perspectives was key in the
development of a coherent argument.
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| The stunning interior of the Copenhagen Geological Museum |
Although the University's
Geophysics department is housed within the iconic Geocenter, we were delighted
over the course of the week to be hosted in several amazing locations,
including the Geological Museum, with the most stunning interior design and
breathtaking collections, as well as the Agpalilik meteorite in the museum
courtyard – a real treat for a bunch of geophysicists!
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| The Agpalilik meteorite in the sunshine |
The course did indeed
keep me very busy during my week in Copenhagen, but we did have some spare
time, so I headed to Nyhavn on what happened luckily to be the most beautiful
day – all in all not a bad way to spend a week!
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