Installed monitoring system at Langoren Island, Finland

Installed monitoring system at Langoren Island, Finland

Candidate: Open
Supervisors: Kerry Leith, Matthew Perras
Institution: ETH Zurich, York University
Activity: Beginning Fall 2018

Exceptionally warm summer temperatures in northern Europe during the summer of 2014 were accompanied by active fracturing and small rockbursts from flat-lying postglacial bedrock surfaces on a small Finnish Island. Employing a new portable acoustic emission detection system, this project will investigate the correspondence between key environmental variables (air and rock temperature, humidity, wind, and precipitation), variations in bedrock stress, and active fracture development. Results are expected to be directly applicable to fields ranging from nuclear waste disposal, to rockfall hazard assessment, and paleoclimate research. Tasks for this project will include maintenance of the monitoring system in Finland, geomorphological and engineering geological mapping fractures on the island, processing of acoustic emission, in situ stress, and environmental data, and development of a simple numerical model to explain observations.

Extended abstract (PDF)