NEPTUNE Canada

Martin Heesemann

Research Theme Integrator, Plate Tectonics and Earthquake Dynamics

Martin completed his Ph.D. theses in 2008 at the University of Bremen. His thesis focused on the acquisition, processing and interpretation of marine temperature and pressure data in the context of subduction zones.

Studying plate tectonic processes and earthquake dynamics using numerical models is one Martin's areas of scientific interest. He used heat-flux data, borehole temperatures and the gas hydrate stability field to constrain finite element models of the thermal state of subduction zones off Chile and Central America. In cooperation with colleagues from several German research institutions (MARUM Bremen, University of Bremen, IFM GEOMAR Kiel, GFZ Potsdam), the model results were used to shed some light on the rupture mechanisms of the 1960 Chile mega thrust earthquake and the 1992 Nicaragua tsunami earthquake. Recently, Earl Davis (Pacific Geoscience Centre, GSC) and Martin correlated transient pressure signals measured in boreholes at the deformation front off Costa Rica with aseismic slip across the seismogenic zone that follows episodic tremor events.

As scientist and consultant, Martin was also involved in several Engineering and computational research projects. In collaboration with Andrew Fisher (University of California Santa Cruz) and Heinrich Villinger (University of Bremen), he was involved in building and testing the APCT-3 tool that is currently used by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) to measure in-situ formation temperatures. Moreover, he used Matlab® to develop the current state-of-the-art software to process and analyze the data from IODP downhole temperature & pressure tools and heat-flux probes.

Martin began work for NEPTUNE Canada as a Borehole Instrument Research Associate at the Pacific Geoscience Centre in Sidney in August 2009. His role changed to Research Theme Integrator for the theme Plate tectonic processes and earthquake dynamics in July 2010.

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