Call for applications to attend seismic workshop on Blake Plateau, January 12-16, 2026

[Van Avendonk, Harm]

Blake Plateau / Carolina trough active-source seismic investigation workshop

We invite students and early-career scientists to participate in a five-day workshop to explore the deep crustal structure and tectonics of the Blake Plateau and southern Carolina Trough, offshore the southeastern United States. This workshop will be hosted at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) in Austin from January 12 until January 16, 2026.

The Carolina Trough and Blake Plateau are two rifted margin segments offshore the southeastern US that formed in early Jurassic time after the breakup of Pangea. The two segments differ in width, with the Blake Plateau being wider than the Carolina Trough. In 2023 we gathered marine seismic reflection and refraction data aboard the R/V Marcus Langseth on a grid of 2-D lines to characterize the crust and sediments of these continental margins. With the new seismic images we can investigate how basement faulting, intrusive and extrusive magmatism differently shaped the rifted margins of the Carolina Trough and Blake Plateau.

The goals of the workshop include:

• A review of marine seismic reflection and refraction methods.
• Basic seismic processing training on marine seismic reflection and refraction data from the R/V Marcus Langseth cruises.
•  Analysis of 2-D seismic images.
•  Interpretation of the data from the Blake plateau and the southern Carolina Trough.

We can cover travel expenses and lodging for a limited number of participants affiliated with a US academic institution. Students and early-career scientists who wish to apply should send a CV and a one- or two-page application letter to Harm Van Avendonk (ha...@ig.utexas.edu) by October 31.

 

Workshop conveners: Harm Van Avendonk (UTIG), Nathan Bangs (UTIG), Anne Bécel (LDEO) and Collin Brandl (LDEO).