Geological processes and sediment properties of the Sørlige Nordsjø II offshore wind area, interpreted from TOPAS and vibrocore data
This Master's project was allocated to the students Tonje Sælensminde, Saad Ullah and Md Azim Uddin for the Autumn 2022 intake of the Master's program in Earth Sciences, UiB. The three students will work on slighty different aspects of the data from the study area.
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Project description
Offshore wind is set to become a major growth industry in Norway. As the world economy is decarbonizing, the demand for renewable green energy is very high and the NW European coast has excellent wind resources. Major parts of the NW European coast was recently glaciated, and glacial erosion and deposition has resulted in highly heterogeneous seabed soil conditions here. The NW European seas are therefore very challenging places to place anchors and foundations for offshore wind turbines. Improved geological and geotechnical understanding of these soil conditions can help bring costs down for future offshore wind.
This master project will use existing TOPAS sub-bottom echosounder data along with sediment cores (vibro-cores) sampled from the shallow sediments on the proposed Sørlige Nordsjø II (SN2) offshore wind area. The aim is to describe and interpret the geological and geotechnical properties and processes in the SN2 area as well as to identify potential hazards for sea-bed installations. Geotechnical testing and characterization of the sediments will be conducted at the NTNU geotechnical lab in Trondheim.
It will be possible to participate on marine geological cruises in 2023. This master project is part of the 4SWIND project funded by the Research Council of Norway, Equinor and Geoprovider and the Equinor Academia agreement - funded "Marine ground surveys for offshore wind"-project at the Univeristy of Bergen. The MSc will work in these projects and be exposed to industry sponsors and stakeholders through various project meetings and conferences.
Proposed course plan during the master's degree (60 ECTS):
1.semester: GEOV272 /10; GEOV205 /10
2.semester: GEOV231 /10; GEOV302 /10; GEOV360 /10
3.semester: AG-348 /10 (UNIS)
Field- lab- og analysis
EarthLab:
Multi sensor core logging
CT-Scanning
Grain size analysis by Mastersizer 3000
XRF-Core scanning
Sampling for radiocarbon dating
Geotechnical testing and characterization of the sediments will be conducted at the NTNU geotechnical lab in Trondheim.
