PhD defence: Andrea Tesoniero

Andrea Tesoniero defends his thesis,

Constraints on the thermal and compositional nature of the Earth's mantle inferred from joint inversion of compressional and shear seismic waves and mineral physics data

Supervisors:
Associate Professor Fabio Cammarano, IGN
Professor Lapo Boschi, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France

Assessment committee:
Reader Saskia Goes, Imperial College London, UK
Professor Andrea Morelli, Università di Bologna, Italy
Professor Lars Nielsen (chairman), IGN

Summary:
Seismology is by far the most powerful tool to explore the inner structure of our planet. However, the ability to retrieve the physical properties, i.e. density, temperature and composition, of the Earth’s constituent materials is limited by the inherent difficulty of separating each contribution and by uncertainties in the sensitivity of seismic velocities to these parameters. The combination of seismic observations and information from mineral physics can help overcoming the limited resolution of the seismic data and obtaining an insight into the physical state of the Earth. This Ph.D. project summarizes the results of a combined interdisciplinary study that includes seismology and mineral physics. The purpose is to augment our knowledge on the thermal and chemical nature of the inner Earth. A large global seismic database has been gathered and analyzed during the project and a new global joint compressional- and shear-velocity model has been delivered. The interpretation of the new model gives an insight into lateral compositional variations within the continental lithosphere and upper mantle, as well as a new interpretation of the thermo-chemical state of the lower mantle.

The thesis is available at the PhD administration office, 04.1.417