MARINEGEOLOGY & GLACIOLOGY
MARINE GEOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP, OVERVIEW

Research group Zyad Al-Hamdani - azk@geus.dk Jørn Bo Jensen - jbj@geus.dk Antoon Kuijpers - aku@geus.dk Jørgen Overgaard Leth - jol@geus.dk Steen Lomholt - slo@geus.dk Naja Mikkelsen - nm@geus.dk Niels Nørgaard-Pedersen - nnp@geus.dk Sara Borre - sbo@geus.dk Birger Larsen - (Emeritus) - bil@geus.dk Francisca Staines-Urias - fsu@geus.dk Laura Grete Addington - laad@geus.dk Louise Holm Christensen - lhcr@geus.dk Ingun Ziska Nielsen - izn@geus.dk Teknical personel Egon Hansen - egh@geus.dk Jacob Geltzer - jgel@geus.dk Lars-Georg Rödel - lagr@geus.dk Instruments liste of marine geological instruments

Maringeology in the fiords of west Greenland.

Marine Geology at GEUS includes both commercially funded offshore survey activities and scientific investigations of coastal and offshore areas, principally worldwide, but for obvious national reasons most focusing on Danish and Greenland territory with further activities concentrated in North Atlantic waters around the Faroe Islands. The main issues of study are the exploiration of seabed raw materials and mineral resources, the investigation of potential geohazards in deep-water areas of interest for offshore hydrocarbon exploitation, environmental quality, and more generally sedimentary processes relevant for various reasons (e.g. coastal defense) and subjects related to global climate change.

Tasks and goals

The Marine Geology Group at the GEUS Department of Quaternary Geology deals with studies of the (Quaternary) geology of coastal and shelf areas as well as deep-ocean sedimentary systems. Basic scientific information is critical to understanding environmental changes in these areas. By using knowledge of the fundamental geologic processes that create and modify the seabed, geological models and prediction scenario's are made. The models and scenario's are used by scientists, political planners, and managers to assess and predict future change, such as the possible risk of slope instability in deep-water areas, coastal erosion, various effects of (abrupt) climate change and sea level rise, long-term impact of various contaminants, potential effects of seabed sand extraction and trawling activity as well as submarine fluid and gas seepage.

• Marine geological research at GEUS contributes to a better understanding of coastal, shelf and deep-water geological processes, and is of basic national and international interest having fundamental economic and political (e.g. Law of the Sea § 76) implications. The study of sedimentary and seismic records provides information on natural changes in (marine) geologic systems, which is, amongst others, required in order to distinguish between anthropogenic and natural changes. Funding of this work at GEUS is both via national and international agencies (e.g. EU).
• Apart from more basic research, applied marine geological studies by GEUS have contributed in improving the knowledge of specific coastal and offshore areas, particularly in the Baltic Sea, Kattegat, Skagerrak and North Sea. Other work dealing with more applied topics (e.g. slope instability) focuses on deep-water areas offshore the Faroe Islands and Greenland where commercial interest in potential hydrocarbon exploitation recently has increased.
• A further issue of special interest at GEUS addresses the interaction between (late) Quaternary ocean circulation change and (large-scale) climate changes with most efforts concentrated in the Greenland and Faroe region. Other climate-related research projects deal with both the Arctic and low-latitude marine environment and the possible role of climate change in these areas forcing NW European climate.
• The Marine Geology Group at GEUS is equipped with a wide spectrum of shallow seismic and sediment sampling equipment both for shelf and deep-water investigations, which is also available for commercial purposes. This equipment includes, amongst others, (shallow) seismic instruments such as a boomer, sparker systems for both shelf and deep-sea (10 KJ system) survey as well as X-Star and CHIRP sub-botom profilers, and for sediment sampling a vibrocorer, gravity- and piston corer as well as a box corer . For seismic and sediment processing, supporting workstation and laboratory facilities are available.

• MARTA - Marin Seismisk Database
  • Maringeologiske akustiske datatyper beskrives, organiseres og lagres i en database (NJORD,) som en viderudvikling af den eksisterende Samba database, der i vidt omfang kan benyttes i sin nuværende form.
    Formålet med projektet er en digital registrering af de eksisterende GEUS maringeologiske data.
    Det har igennem længere tid været et stort problem for Kvartærgeologisk afdeling at der ikke findes en samlet database med registrering af de akustiske maringeologiske data som findes på GEUS.
    Desuden har By- og Landskabsstyrelsen (BLST) længe ytret ønske om at kunne få tilgang til de akustiske maringeologiske data i forbindelse med deres sagsbehandling.
    Endelig er der en stigende efterspørgsel fra sandpumper branchen og konsulentfirmaer, der i konkrete opgaver, ønsker at få oplysninger om eksisterende data med henblik på indkøb af disse.
    Projektet skal ses som et led i bestræbelserne på at synliggøre tilstedeværelsen af de geologiske data på GEUS, hvor boringerne på havbunden lagres i Jupiter boringsdatabasen.
    
    
• Sea-Change
  • See background site for extensive info
    
    
• Baltic Gas
  
  • BALTIC GAS aims to understand how climate change and long-term eutrophication affect the accumulation of shallow gas and the emission of methane and hydrogen sulfide from the seabed to the water column and atmosphere. The project will bring together a multidisciplinary team of scientists with the goal to:
    ¿ quantify and map the distribution and flux of methane in the Baltic Sea
    ¿ analyze the controls on the relevant key biogeochemical processes
    ¿ integrate seismo-acoustic mapping with geochemical profiling
    ¿ model the dynamics of Baltic Sea methane in the past (Holocene period), present
    (transport-reaction models), and future (with predictive scenarios)
    The project will apply modern advanced technology and novel combinations of
    
    
• Sedimentation history of Kangersuneq ice fjord
  • The project is planned as cooperation between GEUS, Denmark, and The Greenland Climate Research Centre. The project aims at the recovery of marine sediment cores from the innermost part of Godthåbsfjorden, Kangersuneq, which is characterised by high ice concentrations, even during summer. The cores shall be retrieved from the fjord ice by a special designed winch in late winter 2011, and the field work shall also include hydrographic measurements of the water column. A major goal is to throw light on longer term ocean-ice stream processes and sedimentation patterns in the difficult accessible, proximal part of Kangersuneq, characterised by tidewater glaciers.  Furthermore the project aims at improving the scientific cooperation and educational exchange between Greenland and Denmark.

• Department of Geochemistry
• Department of Geophysics
• Department of Stratigraphy

Edited by:
Jacob Geltzer, GEUS
Feel free to send e-mail for more information.