Arcangela Bollino, PhD student in Earth Sciences at Università degli Studi di Milano, is visiting Geosciences Barcelona (GEO3BCN-CSIC) to study the thermo-mechanical evolution of the crust-mantle system in the Alboran Sea by means of 2D numerical models. In particular, the researcher is going to compare pressure and temperature (P-T) conditions predicted by numerical model with natural P-T estimates to constrain numerical results which in turn aim to validate the geodynamic evolution theory proposed by GEO3BCN-CSIC researchers in this area.
To do so, Bollino is working with Ivone Jiménez Munt, her supervisor at GEO3BCN-CSIC and also with the collaboration of Jaume Vergés and Marc Viaplana. “I would like to challenge myself working at Geosciences Barcelona Institute. I believe that this experience and the collaboration with the GEO3BCN-CSIC researchers would contribute significantly to my training as a doctoral student”, she says. In this sense, Arcangela Bollino considers that it is very important to spend some time abroad during a PhD to work with other people, know how other colleagues do their research, and also to acquire knowledge.
The main aim of her research activity is to investigate the gravitational signatures of the mechanisms that regulate slow rate tectonic deformation in areas where the earthquakes enucleate by using 2D thermo-mechanical numerical model. In particular, she investigates how complexities such as compositional stratification of crust-lithosphere system, mantle hydration, phase changes and degree of plate coupling affect the gravity field and its rate of change at different tectonic environments. Another key point of the research activity is the integration between modeling and gravitational (GOCE, GRACE, GRACE Follow-on) and GNSS data to provide valuable constraints to her analysis.
“Numerical models offer an important opportunity to understand dynamic processes not observable with the naked eye so surely. With this work I hope to offer an opportunity to confirm what we have observed through geological surveys and other methods”, points out Bollino.
According to the researcher, “the use of numerical modelling in geosciences has transformed our understanding of the planet Earth, providing a powerful tool to investigate processes in the Earth’s crust, mantle and core that are not directly observable”.
Bollino started her PhD in 2019 and It is expected to finish in September 2022. “Six months after I started my PhD, the pandemic began and it was a heavy blow for my research activity and for the research activity of all PhD students”, remembers the researcher. “Fortunately, thanks to the support and the remotely constant cooperation with my tutor and my co-tutor I continued working during the lockdown period”.