PhD in Environmental Science

Volcanic islands are exciting real-world climate and landscape laboratories. When geologically young (<10Ma) they provide a simplified and spatially limited setting for testing landscape evolution theories and models. This project aims to develop new insights into how bedrock incision processes interact with geological and climatic factors (i.e. spatially variable uplift, shield building, mega-landslides, orographic rainfall effects and extremes), using the volcanic island of Tenerife as a case study. Some work has been done (e.g. on Hawaii), but knickpoint geometry and using state-of-the-art streampower modelling offer the opportunity of dramatic new insights. The findings will provide a window into the wider question of the impact of extremes (e.g. in rainfall) on ocean islands, itself reflective of how a changing climate shapes planet Earth. Our hypotheses, which you will refine and test are: 1. Bedrock channel incision in Tenerife is locally controlled by the climatic regime. 2. River profiles will yield spatially varying uplift information on timescales of ~1-10 ka, complementing the historical or archaeological (<1 ka) and geological (> 0.1 Ma) records. Pilot fieldwork has identified key sites (e.g. varying lithology, climate, catchment size), with sediment and laser scanning data offering a secure and rapid start to the work. This PhD has an international supervisory team providing expertise in volcanic island evolution, bedrock erosion and modelling.