Aisling Broderick, a graduate from the first cohort (2012-13) of the MSc in Applied and Petroleum Micropalaeontology, has just been selected to as a nannofossil biostratigrapher on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 348, Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment Stage 3, Plate Boundary Deep Riser.
She will join the ship-board science party aboard the Japanese drill-ship Chikyu for 8 weeks from late November 2013. The expedition aims to drill and recover sediment cores from 2-3km deep within the Nankai trough subduction zone to help understand the behaviour of the fault systems that generate potentially devastating earthquakes on the Japanese continental margin. On board she will have responsibility for dating the sediments recovered by analysing the nannofossil assemblages contained within them. Accurate dating of the rocks within this fault zone will play an important part in understanding the structure and evolution of this subduction zone.