2025-LU4 Oceanic island insights into river-driven volcanic landscape evolution

Project highlights

Fieldwork (e.g. laser scanning) and numerical modelling of Tenerife

Training in cutting edge landscape evolution modelling

Use of satellite, Lidar and climate data in a GIS environment

Overview

Volcanic islands are exciting and useful 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.

Whilst the shape of submarine volcanic edifices have been studied (e.g., Abers et al., 1988; Mitchell, 2001), high-resolution lidar data of islands now offer an opportunity to study subaerial volcanic edifices as they have evolved in unprecedented detail. Some work has been done on Hawaii (Ferrier et al., 2013; Murphy et al., 2016), but knickpoint geometry and using state-of-the-art streampower modelling (e.g., Campforts et al., 2020; Hergarten, 2021) offer the opportunity of dramatic new insights into the competing interactions between landscape building (volcanic processes) and landscape denudation (river incision processes). The findings will provide a window into the wider question of the impact of extremes (e.g. in rainfall) on ocean island development across climate regimes, itself reflective of how a changing climate shapes planet Earth.

Our hypotheses, which you will refine and test are:

Bedrock channel incision in Tenerife is locally controlled by the climatic regime, with patterns of erosion in dry areas of the island (south coast) contrasting to wetter areas (north side) and between contrasting lithologies (younger volcanogenic deposits on south coast and basaltic basement in NW and NE corners).
River profiles (i.e. recent landscape evolution) 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 will be an international team effort. Expertise in volcanic island evolution, knickpoints and bedrock erosion at Loughborough University will be complemented by local knowledge Prof. Ruiz (Universidad de la Laguna, Tenerife) and modelling skills Prof. Schwanghart (Potsdam, Germany).

Figure 1: The island of Tenerife, the PhD’s study site. Top left – Satellite image, clearly showing heavy incision in deep valleys despite the island’s present climate being mainly dry. Top right – One of the study sites, near the top of a valley carving into the volcanic bedrock. Bottom left – One valley arriving at the coastline.

Host

Loughborough University

Theme

Climate and Environmental Sustainability
Dynamic Earth

Supervisors

Project investigator

John Hillier [Loughborough, [email protected]]

Co-investigators

Ed Baynes [Loughborough, [email protected]]
Wolfgang Schwanghart [Potsdam, Germany, [email protected]]
Ramón Casillas Ruiz [Universidad de la Laguna, Tenerife, [email protected]]

How to apply

Each host has a slightly different application process.
Find out how to apply for this studentship.
All applications must include the CENTA application form.
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Methodology

The project’s aim will be achieved through two main quantitative research methods,

Quantify, by forward inversion using a Shared Stream power model, the relative dominance of two modes of bedrock channel incision (i.e. sediment and supply limited) in different climate and geological regimes across Tenerife.
Invert river long-profiles from lidar data to reconstruct spatio-temporal uplift across Tenerife in the time-scale range 1-10s of 1000s of years bridging between the archaeological and geological timescales.

These will be supported by fieldwork at case study sites (e.g. to identify lithology, lithology changes, sediment transported, other geomorphological indicators of) and by investigations of the spatial distribution and geometry of knickpoints.

Training and skills

DRs will be awarded CENTA Training Credits (CTCs) for participation in CENTA-provided and ‘free choice’ external training. One CTC can be earned per 3 hours training, and DRs must accrue 100 CTCs across the three and a half years of their PhD.

The successful PhD candidate will receive training in GIS and computer skills to run specific modelling software (e.g. TopoToolbox in MATLAB, lidar manipulation tools) and more generic coding as required (e.g. R and/or python). In addition to this, training will be given in the theory of bedrock erosion, ocean island evolution, geomorphometry (e.g., Hillier, 2008) and the field work skills required (e.g. laser scanning).

Partners and collaboration

This PhD will be an international team effort. Expertise in volcanic island evolution, knickpoints and bedrock erosion at Loughborough University will be complemented by local knowledge Prof. Ruiz (Universidad de la Laguna, Tenerife) and modelling skills Prof. Wolfgang Schwanghart (Potsdam, Germany). We envisage that the possibility will exist for collaborative visits to both Tenerife and to the modelling group in Potsdam.

Further details

For more information about the project, please contact the lead supervisor Dr John Hillier: [email protected].

To apply to this project: 

You must include a CENTA studentship application form, downloadable from: CENTA Studentship Application Form 2025.

You must include a CV with the names of at least two referees (preferably three) who can comment on your academic abilities.

Please submit your application and complete the host institution application process via: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/research-applications/ The CENTA Studentship Application Form 2025 and CV, along with other supporting documents required by Loughborough University, can be uploaded at Section 10 “Supporting Documents” of the online portal. Under Section 4 “Programme Selection” the proposed study centre is Central England NERC Training Alliance. Please quote CENTA 2025-LU4 when completing the application form.

For further enquiries about the application process, please contact the School of Social Sciences & Humanities ([email protected]).

Applications must be submitted by 23:59 GMT on Wednesday 8th January 2025. 

Possible timeline

Year 1

Use pilot field study data to (i) identify key study areas and valleys, with variations to isolate factors driving bedrock erosion (e.g. rainfall, catchment size, lithology), (ii) collate lidar data in these sites and identify knickpoint (iii) understand grain size variations in selected valleys. Training in GIS and topographic analysis. Identification of critical test sites for numerical inversions.

Year 2

Numerical modelling work. Field work in Tenerife to ground-truth and refine numerical modelling work.

Year 3

Develop and synthesise numerical work, integrating grain size information to create an improved volcano-tectonic history of the island of Tenerife. Also, create geospatial map of the dominance of modes of bedrock channel incision across Tenerife, yielding improved understanding of these processes through comparison to geological and climatic regimes.