Project title: The marine gateway as a key factor in the sedimentary evolution of the Mediterranean basin: An ocean-model study linking tectonics and paleocirculation.
Marine gateways form a central element in the geological evolution of the sedimentary basins of the Mediterranean region. Gateways control the exchange of water, salt, heat and nutrients with the open ocean and between sub-basins.
This control is reflected in the sediments that accumulate. Our objective is to determine how exactly the evolving gateways controlled water properties and circulation of the Mediterranean basins by exploiting the constraints on gateway behaviour offered by the laws of physics. To this end we propose to construct a series of regional-scale implementations of an ocean general circulation model and to compare model results with the available data.
The primary thesis supervisor will be Dr. Paul Th. Meijer.
The project is financed through the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
