SPP 2497:  Plate Deformation and Geohazards: The Eastern Margin of the Adriatic Plate (DEFORM)

• Subject Area: Geosciences
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 540895436

The densely populated area around the Adriatic Sea is prone to a multitude of geohazards. In particular the active eastern margin of the Adriatic Plate, which regularly generates earthquakes up to magnitude 7 and that is much less studied than its western counterpart, is well suited to study geodynamic drivers of geohazards. The main overarching goal of DEFORM is to model plate deformation and associated geohazards quantitatively. Plate-scale geodynamic processes will be linked with fault-scale studies based on new technologies of digital data acquisition, imaging, seismotectonic analysis and numerical modelling to develop quantitative geohazard scenarios. In the first phase, we will focus on ‘Geophysical Imaging’ (Activity Field A), ‘Seismotectonics’ (Activity Field B), and the development of ‘Advanced modelling tools to simulate plate deformation and geohazards’ (Activity Field C). Communication between the individual projects, organization of annual meetings, workshops, field trips, mentoring and outreach activities, as well as co-operation with international partners and initiatives like EPOS and AdriaArray require substantial coordination. Essential for the goals of DEFORM is further to develop and coordinate a workflow for the creation and evaluation of numerical lithospheric models for the region based on observables of Activity Fields A and B. Observations of the slab geometry and the crust will be converted into 3D models that can be used as input for numerical simulations (Activity Field C). Additionally, these input models are evaluated by directly comparing predictions of surface wave phase velocities, local body wave travel times, receiver functions and the gravity field to observations. These scientific coordination tasks are essential to achieve the overall goals of DEFORM. They will be performed by the requested PostDoc position.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Albania, France, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA

Projects

• ADRICRUST - Crustal structure and deformation of the Adriatic Plate at the Dinarides-Hellenides Transition (Applicants Dannowski, Anke ;  Thorwart, Martin )
• CASPAR, Comprehensive collection and Analysis of Source Parameters in the eastern Adria plate Region (Applicant Cesca, Simone )
• Collision to Subduction: from the Dinarides-Hellenides Junction to the ocean-continent transition at the Kefalonia Transform Fault System - a rolling Large-N experiment (Applicants Kahle, Beth ;  Rietbrock, Andreas ;  Schurr, Bernd ;  Tilmann, Frederik )
• Constraining Neogene to Quaternary exhumation rates in contractional vs. extensional segments of the Dinarides-Hellenides transition using calcite/dolomite thermoluminescence thermochronology (Applicants Tsukamoto, Sumiko ;  Ustaszewski, Ph.D., Kamil Marek )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Meier, Thomas )
• Crustal vertical motions, relief and drainage development at the Dinarides-Hellenides transition (Applicant van der Beek, Pieter )
• CYBERSHAKE - CyberShake and SeisSol for physics-based fault-rupture and ground-motion simulations at the Eastern Margin of the Adriatic Plate using Supercomputing (Applicant Abril, Claudia )
• Data2Model: Building the knowledge to convert observations to models (Applicants Cacace, Mauro ;  Thielmann, Marcel )
• Establishing a multi-disciplinary active tectonic framework at the transition between Adria collision and Aegean extension (Applicants Faccenna, Claudio ;  Schurr, Bernd )
• Integrative Multiscale Seismic Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) for the Adria Plate (IMFWI-Adria) (Applicants Friederich, Wolfgang ;  Gao, Ph.D., Yajian ;  Rietbrock, Andreas )
• KAROS: Investigation of the Kefalonia Transform Fault Zone using seismic wavefield analyses: seismicity, Amphibious array measurements, local gradients, and ROtationS (Applicants Bernauer, Felix ;  Grevemeyer, Ingo ;  Meier, Thomas ;  Wassermann, Joachim )
• KYMA - A Multi-scale, Self-consistent Framework for Tsunami and Earthquake Modeling of the Kefalonia Transform Fault SYstem Using Supercomputing and Machine Learning: Toward Physics-based Tsunami Hazard Assessment, Urgent Response, and New Instrumentation (Applicant Ulrich, Ph.D., Thomas )
• MOSAIC - A modular, parallel, 3D seismo-thermo-mechanical approach to simulate the feedback between geodynamic and seismic processes (Applicants Duretz, Thibault ;  Gabriel, Alice-Agnes ;  Kaus, Boris J.P. )
• Pattern of vertical motion across time-scales and convergence styles (OCT yo-yo) (Applicant Veliz Borel, Violeta Paz )
• Plate deformation, slab gaps, and mantle flow along the eastern margin of the Adriatic Plate from joint inversion of surface waves and shear-wave splitting (Applicants Meier, Thomas ;  Rümpker, Georg )
• Reconnaissance of sedimentary tsunami archives in Albania (Applicants Bellanova, Piero ;  Brill, Dominik ;  Reicherter, Klaus )
• Seismic Attenuation and Texture of the Eastern Margin of the Adriatic Plate (A-MAP) (Applicants Sens-Schönfelder, Christoph ;  Wegler, Ulrich )
• Seismic twister: Crustal deformation along the Dinarides-Hellenides Transition in 4D (Applicants Koehn, Daniel ;  Kufner, Sofia-Katerina )
• Submarine Hazard Assessment for the Right-lateral Kefalonia Transform Fault System (SHARK) (Applicants Bernhardt, Anne ;  Crutchley, Gareth ;  Gross, Felix ;  Karstens, Jens )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Thomas Meier