Module P8 - Guided Scientific Research
P8.1 Project Supervision, P8.2 Research Laboratory
ECTS: 6
180 hours of work, 172 of which are individual study (i.e. you work on your own on the project). The remaining 8 hours are the time you may spend getting advice from your project supervisor.
This is a short research project, which you carry out over the course of the summer semester.
Evaluation: based on both an oral presentation (15-20 minutes, plus questions), and a written report (~5000 words, i.e. without counting figures and other items).
As the grades are due at the Prüfungsamt before mid-September each year, your project must be finished early enough that the evaluation can be carried out in a timely fashion. Please discuss the timeline with your supervisor: not all potential supervisors may be aware of the deadline for the grades, so if you are given a deadline past September 15th and do not question it, you may end up failing the module on September 30th. For the same reason, avoid taking on projects that for example would require you to wait until July or August for field work or lab work, or where there are uncertainties concerning equipment or data coming from third party sources. The summer semester starts on April 1st, and 5 months is plenty of time to carry out the project, which is a regular module that should be carried out during the regular lecture period.
You should not wait until halfway into the summer semester to find yourself a topic. You are encouraged to identify a topic of interest before the end of your first semester, and approach the instructor you would like to work with well ahead of time. Ideally, you should find a topic before the end of February.
You may already work on research related to your future thesis for this project, but this is not required. In fact, this short research project can be also in a completely different field.
Some available projects are listed on this page, but you may find out about others only by being proactive and asking instructors you are interested in working with whether they have a project available for you.
| Project Supervisor | Project Topic |
| Abolghasem | Simulation of interseismic motions by models of elastic lithospheric plates deformation and rigid body rotation (Specific area and data will be defined at the time a project is assigned). Prerequisite: good computer skills and willingness to learn new software. Knowledge of a mapping tool will be helpful. |
| Carena |
Mapping the San Jacinto Fault Zone and the southern San Andreas Fault in 3D; Aftershock sequences of major southern California earthquakes; The 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake: 3D fault models and Coulomb stress modeling. Prerequisites: good computer skills (especially ability to learn how to use new software quickly and independently), proficiency in using a vector graphics editor and a spreadsheet editor, basics in tectonics and structural geology (especially brittle structures). Proficiency in any programming language would also be useful, but not required. These projects are best suited to students who also take the Geologic Computer Modeling (Gocad) course in the 2nd semester, and can all be developed into a master thesis. |
| Carena | Age and slip function of normal faults in the Basin and Range Province, USA. Prerequisites: good understanding of the basics of faulting and earthquakes, good skills in map reading, experience with Excel or similar software (or programming skills), and a lot of patience (work is repetitive, but it requires carefulness and precision). |
| Friedrich |
Geological, paleontological, geochronological and/or geochemical analysis of cuttings samples from the Brick-GT-01 geothermal well in the eastern Molasse basin - Several projects. |
| Friedrich | Active Tectonics and tectonic geomorphology of the Northern Alpine Foreland basin - Several projects. |
| Friedrich | Understanding of global tectonics through paleogeological surface mapping — selected regions - Several projects. |
| Trepmann | Topics: - Grain boundary properties in mantle rocks (peridotite xenoliths from the Eifel, Meerfelder Maar; WGC, Norway; Ivrea Zone, Alps, experimentally deformed peridotites) - Subduction zone processes: shear bands in HP-LT-metamorphic graphite schists, Crete, Greece and associated quartz veins - Shear zones - deep continuations of seismic active faults: quartz fabrics around rigid particles in mylonites - Impact geology: shock effects in Fe-Ti oxides - shock conditions and deformation/transformation mechanisms Field areas: - Crete, Greece - Alps (Austroalpine basement, Austria, Switzerland, N-Italy) - Ries (Nördlingen, Germany) Methods: - Field work - Polarized light microscopy - Electron microscopy (EMP, SEM/EDS/EBSD) - Raman spectroscopy (in cooperation with Melanie Kaliwoda) Requirements: - Interest in the rheological behavior of rocks at depths, tectonics - Knowledge of polarized light microscopy, electron microscopy |