With apologies for cross posting.

An opportunity for a  NERC industrial CASE funded PhD project is
available at the University of Liverpool. The project is entitled
"Determining relative source parameters of acoustic emissions recorded
in field or laboratory experiments". The industrial partner is Applied
Seismology Consultants (ASC, Shrewsbury). 

The study will be carried out in the Earth and Ocean Sciences Department
at the University of Liverpool. The PhD project will be jointly
supervised by Dr. A. Rietbrock (Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences,
Liverpool University) and Dr. W. Pettitt (Applied Seismology Consultants
Ltd, Shrewsbury).
 
The PhD project will aim to improve significantly the location accuracy
of micro-seismicity (MS) and acoustic emissions (AE), by adapting and
developing relative relocation algorithms, and to use these data
together with relative moment estimates and fault plane solutions to
develop high-quality, time-sequence data-sets of crack propagation.
In local and regional seismic studies, relative location algorithms have
improved the location accuracy by up to two orders of magnitude and have
shown great potential in revealing fine-scale structures of active,
crustal faults and imaged stress redistribution in the oceanic
lithosphere during subduction. Due to the development of new AE
recorders, high quality data-sets are now available and the application
of relative relocation algorithms to these data-sets is now feasible.
 
The results of this PhD will improve our understanding of crack
propagation and the development of more evolved fault systems. 

The student will work on a variety of data sets ranging from laboratory
experiments of rock brittle failure using a unique true-triaxial loading
apparatus to monitoring the damage zone development during underground
excavations. The algorithms developed will be applied to a number of
case-studies including feasibility studies for storing nuclear waste,
hydraulic fracturing in oil exploration, and lab experiments to
understand rupture front propagation effects and the failure of rock
mass.

Please pass this information on to any current graduates potentially
interested in this project.

For further information and informal discussion contact Dr. Andreas
Rietbrock at [log in to unmask] or Dr. Juan Reyes at
[log in to unmask] .

Further details of the PhD project are available at:
http://www.liv.ac.uk/earth_sciences/dept/PG/PhD.html 

Further information about Applied Seismology Consultants can be found
at:
http://www.seismology.org



|____________________________________
     Juan M Reyes-Montes, Ph.D.
     Applied Seismology Consultants                  
     5 Swan Hill Court                                         
     Shrewsbury SY1 1NP                                  
     UK                                                            
   ____________________________________      
 
     Tel:   +44 (0)1743 271440
     Fax:  +44 (0)1743 242286
     Mob: +44 (0)7748 746 500
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