Research
Department of Earth Sciences
Department of Earth Sciences
The Department of Earth Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) focuses on interdisciplinary Earth Sciences trainings and researches. In this department, we aim to study all aspects of the Earth Sciences, encompassing the Earth evolution through geologic time, its internal dynamics and structure, distribution of mineral and energy resources, the evolution of Earth crust in response to tectonic, magmatic and sedimentary processes, as well as climate changes, hydrogeology and water resources. This department hosts four main research groups including Geophysics, Tectonics, Sedimentology, Hydrogeology and Geological Remote Sensing which are in close collaborations for resolving main issues in Earth Sciences.
The goal of this branch of science is studying the Earth structure by employing different physical principles. Activities include practical and theoretical studies supported by field experiments. The variety of researches in Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences, Zanjan, covers pure and applied geophysical researches including geophysical data processing, seismology (earthquake studies), seismic exploration, geodynamics, magnetic exploration, Geodesy and gravity exploration. Our research mainly focused on two branches: (1) the tectonic evolution and the present-day geodynamics of the Arabia – Eurasia collision / subduction zones developed around the Turkish - Iranian plateaus. It is investigated by different data sets (seismological data, gravity data, and magnetic data) and different methodologies calculating different Earth interior physical parameters (e.g., velocity, attenuation, anisotropy, density, etc.). (2) Near surface explorations by different techniques of applied geophysics including seismic exploration (reflection and refraction methods), gravity and geomagnetic exploration, geoelectric investigation, etc. Investigation areas of near-surface geophysics include engineering, environmental, groundwater, mining, geohazards and infrastructure applications.
The Sedimentology Group of the Department of Earth Sciences, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), focuses on theoretical, experimental, laboratory, and field-based studies of modern and ancient sediments in various their physical, chemical and biological aspects. The sedimentologist team’s researches are concentrated in sedimentology and stratigraphy, paleoenvironmental changes, provenance of sediments, paleoclimate records in sediments, sedimentation and tectonics, as well as sedimentary basin analysis.
The group of Structural Geology and Tectonics involves experts in Petrology and Tectonics. Our research mainly focuses on the tectonic evolution and the present-day geodynamics of the Arabia – Eurasia collision/subduction zones developed around the Turkish-Iranian plateaus. Tectono-magmatic processes, seismotectonics, variations in crustal stress states as well as continental deformation and tectonic geomorphology are among our main interests. In this way, we benefit from different modern techniques such as InSAR, GPS, drone-based VHR aerial photomosaics, and DEMs as well as magnetostratigraphy, thermo-chronometry, geochemistry, and radiometric/cosmogenic dating (from Paleozoic to Holocene). We also collaborate in multidisciplinary teams for investigating fundamental issues in geo-hazard, geodynamics, water and mine resources.
The group of Hydrogeology focus on water resource management, land subsidence, water and soil pollution, physical characteristics of groundwater systems, large-scale climate variability and possible impact of future climate changes on water resources, and hydrogeology of karstic aquifers. To cover these topics, we use the modern techniques such as InSAR, machine learning, and near surface geophysical surveying as well as the outputs from the common climate models such as CMIP5, CMIP6, and GeoMIP, in collaboration with remote-sensing, geophysics, and information technology specialists. The group further benefits from a hydrochemistry lab established in the department to measure the physicochemical constituents of water.
The Geological Remote Sensing group was formed with the cooperation of experts in remote sensing, geophysics, tectonics and hydrogeology and is the youngest group of the faculty. The scientific goals of this group are to study topics such as active tectonics and earthquake (urban or regional scale), water resources management including identification, monitoring, analysis of ground movements in areas affected by subsidence, landslides and salt domes, investigating the risk of earthquake, flood and fire crises and environmental studies include the evaluation of landfills and water and soil pollution using satellite images and remote sensing techniques. This group is equipped with several high power computing servers as well as a drone for related studies. In the education part, the mentioned members have valuable experiences in teaching and guiding senior geology and PhD students in geophysics in the field of using remote sensing to solve geological and geophysical problems.
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