GEophysical Modelling of Shelf-to-Basin Processes

Shelf-to-basin sedimentary processes entail intricate interactions between the ocean sub-mesoscale and the near-seafloor sediments.

These processes hold significant multidisciplinary importance, given their ecological impact, relevance to marine geo-hazards, and role in shaping continental margins and global climate.

However, there's a gap in quantitative tools to model and characterize these processes simultaneously considering oceanographic and near-seafloor sediments properties.

In GEM-SBP I will use ultra-high-resolution seismic reflection data (UHRS) to create a set of modelling techniques able to couple both domains.

The Southeastern Levant Basin (SLB) will serve as a natural laboratory for studying the interaction between the sedimentological and oceanographic domains.

This semi-enclosed basin features a single sediment source and a multitude of morphologically complex features formed by sediment transport mechanisms.

I will first develop novel seismic processing workflows tailored for ocean and near-seafloor sediments imaging that will consistently yield a seismic image depicting both domains and their interaction.

I will then develop and implement an iterative geostatistical seismic inversion procedure able to invert the processed UHRS for high-resolution ocean (i.e., temperature and salinity) and near-seafloor geotechnical models.

I intend to leverage the most recent advances in deep learning to build a spatial regression model and predict these properties in 3-D by integrating spaceborne earth observation data.

Our models will provide insights into the sediment transport mechanisms dynamics and will pave the way for a new set of methodologies for studying these phenomena on a global scale.

I intend to raise society's awareness about the global impact of oceanographic and seafloor processes, through outreach, communication and dissemination activities aiming to foster a multi-stakeholder environment (i.e., industry, academia and public) within the project.