The Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences is the national centre for research into the geosphere. With around 1,650 employees, we develop a sound understanding of systems and processes of the solid Earth as well as strategies and options for action to counter global change, understand natural hazards and sustainably secure energy and raw material requirements.

The Andes are an area of active deformation hosting at present the greatest seismic and volcanic hazard. Over the past two decades time series of observations have been collected as part of the IPOC plate observatory and several generations of models have been developed to foster our current understanding of the geodynamics of the region. Efforts are now required to integrate all these observations and models into a coherent Digital Twin of the region describing both the geometry and the physical state of the main geological units, from the sedimentary sequence down to the upper mantle. The goal of the PhD position is to integrate existing 3D geological models of individual segments of the Andes in a consistent manner with respect to gravity field data, newly available seismic observations and tomography data into a unified regional scale model of the larger Andean region integrating the subduction system, the orogen and its adjacent foreland basins. Complementary simulations of the coupled thermal and rheological state of the lithosphere will be carried out to quantitatively predict the 3D distribution of temperature and stress as beneficial to improve the current understanding of the geodynamic set-up of the region and related seismic hazard.

Your responsibilities:

• Integration of existing 3D geological models of the different segments of the Andean region into a coherent 3D structural model 
• Improving existing models based on newly available geological, geophysical and geodetic data
• Numerical simulations of the thermal and rheological state at present-day conditions and considering the above-described heterogeneities
• Validation of the simulation results against available observations (e.g., from IPOC)
• Interpretation and publication of the results in peer reviewed journals

Your qualifications:

• Master degree or diploma in Physics, Mathematics or Geosciences is mandatory 
• Knowledge of the thermal and rheological configuration of the lithosphere in a subduction setting
• Knowledge of geophysics and deformation mechanisms
• Knowledge in 3D structural modeling and numerical methods
• Programming skills are an advantage 
• Good English language skills