UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN

 

BMBF DESMEX - Deep Electromagnetic Sounding for Mineral Exploration (DESMEX II / DESMEX-REAL)

DESMEX stands for Deep Electromagnetic Sounding for Mineral Exploration. The overarching goal of DESMEX is the development and application of novel geophysical technologies for improved multidimensional imaging of deep mineral resources. Within DESMEX a semi-airborne controlled source electromagnetic system and geophysical modeling tools are developed. High power ground-based sources together with helicopter towed and/or drone mounted sensors allow for fast and dense data acquisition on local to prospective scale. Ground-based geophysical techniques are applied to improve the resolution of subsurface physical properties. A total of 13 partners from science and industry are currently represented within the DESMEX project.

Pritam Yogeshwar’s research topics within the programme:

Pritam Yogeshwar coordinates the research activities within subproject 5. His research focus is on the development and application of ground-based geophysical methods and their interpretation schemes for deep subsurface exploration using active electromagnetic (EM) methods. Besides high-resolution ground-based EM techniques in time and frequency domain on local scales, a major focus is on deep Long Offset Transient EM (LOTEM). Within DESMEX, multidimensional (Joint) Inversion strategies are further developed and applied to allow for a combined interpretation of ground-based and semi-airborne EM data. Systematic modeling of induced polarization effects and integration into derived 3D conductivity models is targeted to better assess mineral deposits.

CRC 1211 Earth-Evolution at the Dry Limit

The objective of CRC 1211 is research on the mutual evolutionary relationships between Earth surface processes and biota. The target areas are arid to hyper-arid systems, where both biota and Earth surface process are severely and predominantly limited by the availability of water. We aim to characterize thresholds for biological colonization and concurrent fluvial transformation of landscapes and establish detailed long-term terrestrial climatic records of the oldest and most arid zones on Earth.

Tibor Dunai’s research topics within the programme:

Establishing chronologies of fluvial landscape transformation require novel dating approaches, which involve dating supergene minerals formed during these transformations. My research aims to develop tools to date supergene minerals and apply them to reconstruct the climate- and landscape evolution in the hyperarid section of the Chilean Coastal Cordillera.

SPP 2238 - Dynamics of Ore Metals Enrichment – DOME

The over-riding goal of the DOME SPP is to find solutions to fundamental questions of element transport and mineralization in heterogeneous chemical systems that are complex, dynamic and highly transient. The topic of ore genesis has been studied for a long time from a combined field/laboratory perspective and also experimentally in simplified systems, but rarely have these techniques been integrated in a coordinated way with the third perspective from numerical process modeling. The originality and innovation potential of this SPP lies in the coordination of empirical field-related studies that define the geological/mineralogical framework of natural ore systems with experimental work and numerical models that provide a quantitative understanding of the processes involved.

Sandro Jahn’s research group...

... uses both experimental and computational approaches to study the molecular structure as well as the physical and thermodynamic properties of hydrothermal fluids. In the context of the DOME SPP activities are focussed on metal speciation and transport in ore-forming fluids and on theoretical predictions of stable isotope fractionation between fluids, melts and minerals. Model systems are studied by a combination of molecular dynamics simulations and in situ spectroscopic methods, e.g. by using micro Raman spectroscopy.

Transregional Collaborative Research Centre TRR 228 Future Rural Africa: Future-making and social-ecological transformation

NOTE: the participation of this programme in the current GSGS-GSSP call (2022) is subject to the funding of its second phase (from 01/04/2022) by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). UPDATE 02/12/2021: The programme participates in the current GSGS-GSSP call (2022); we are delighted that TRR228 received the confirmation for four more years of programme funding. Congratulations.

The Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) aims at understanding African futures and how they are “made” in rural areas by investigating land-use change and social-ecological transformation. “Future-making” refers to physical changes as well as social practices that shape future conditions by making the future an issue in the present. The first funding phase of the CRC focused on agricultural intensification and conservation. This focus will be widened in the next phase to include infrastructuring as a third essential process. Empirical research continues to focus on the Kenyan Rift Valley, southern Tanzania, and the multi-state Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area of southern Africa.

Javier Revilla Diez’s and Peter Dannenberg’s research topics within the programme:

Future in chains: Socio-economic impacts of growth corridors. In the first phase of our project, we observed uneven spatial developments along the two growth corridors in focus (the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) and the Walvis Bay – Ndola –Lubumbashi Development Corridor (WBNLDC)). Our results indicated that rural–urban and cross-border relations play a special role. Therefore, in the second phase our guiding research questions are: How do cross-border growth corridors affect the territorial configuration of value chains? How do these territorial configurations impact the evolution of existing and emerging value chains? To what extent can local value-chain actors appropriate growth-corridor dynamics and turn these into desirable futures?