Scientific & Management

The consortium’s scientific and management panel consists of senior academics form Durham University, Southampton University and Imperial College, London. Dr. Christine Peirce currently chairs the consortium.
Christine Peirce

Dr. Christine Peirce

Dr. Christine Peirce has 20 years of sea-going research experience applying marine geophysical methodologies to a wide range of geological targets. She has participated in 14 marine geophysical cruises, 6 as Principal or Co-principal Scientist. She has spent the majority of her post-PhD research career studying continental margins, mid-ocean ridges and oceanic islands, the latter from a flexural perspective.

Her research group in Durham is one of two remaining in the UK committed to the design, construction, development and use of seabed geophysical instrumentation and she is currently Chair of the Ocean Bottom Instrumentation Consortium that, initiated with JREI funds, aims to provide an extensive and broad range of seabed instrument platforms to the wider academic community.

Throughout her career she has served on many of the NERC’s peer review panels (Services and Facilities, Earth Sciences Peer Review Committee, Research Vessel Advisory Panel, Fellowships, ODP, Ocean Margins etc) and is currently a member of the NERC’s Peer Review College and reviews grant applications for NSF and articles for many leading journals. She is a member of American Geophysical Union and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Professor Tim Minshull

Professor Tim Minshull is a Professor of Geophysics at the University of Southampton, where he has worked since 1999. His research focuses on the application of marine geophysical techniques, and in particular controlled source seismology, the study of geological processes in the oceans and on their margins.

Lithospheric extension at rifted margins is his main area of research, with a particular focus on magmatic and tectonic processes occurring in the final stages of continental breakup. For many years he has worked on the West Iberia margin, where mantle rocks were exhumed to the seafloor during these final stages and the processes involved are documented by extensive geophysical datasets and drilling by the Ocean Drilling Program. Recent work on the Goban Spur continental margin southwest of the UK suggests that a similar process may have taken place there.

tim-minshull
tim-henstock

Dr. Tim Henstock

Dr. Tim Henstock is a Senior Lecturer in the Geology and Geophysics group of the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton University. Here he is part of a loose collaboration of researchers using acoustic/seismic imaging methods to solve a range of different classes of problem.

He has used a number of techniques varying from high-resolution normal incidence reflection seismology at scales of less than 1m, through dense onshore-offshore wide angle recording, conventional refraction methods, and large-offset refraction at a scale of 100’s of km, to teleseismic recording using a dense array of Reftek instruments. As well as seismic work, he does a certain amount of physical modelling and tectonic arm-waving. His research areas of interest extends from mid-ocean ridge processes to Archean tectonics via the structure of active continental regions such as the California margin.
Print This Page Print This Page