Specialized PhD courses

This course is addressed to geologists, geomorphologists, biologists and other specialists who are interested in ecology. The course emphasizes understanding the interrelation organism/environment in the geologic past: living conditions in past geological periods; interrelations between organisms and their environment (biotic and abiotic factors); variation in the organisms during the processes of life evolution on the Earth. Particular interest is the methods applied in paleoecological studies: morphofunctional, actualistic, taphonomic, quantitative, experimental and biogeochemical (paleotemperature, paleohalometry). Other aspects in the applying palaeoecology are also discussed: the trends in the climatic changes; the using of different index organisms for the palaeoecological reconstructions in paleobasins; determinations the trends of acidification, eutrophication, etc. in modern basins.

The course is targeted on PhD students in Mineralogy, but can also be useful for all kinds of researchers from the solid state branch of the geological sciences: petrology, geochemistry, geo-ecology, lithology, coal geology, as well as for some engineering branches, dealing with natural or synthetic materials with macromolecular structure.

Mineral identification is based on a complementary set of methods for determination of both chemical composition and crystal structure. Since the term Mineral refers to solid state compounds with specific chemical composition and crystal structure, special attention will be paid to inherent inhomogeneity phenomena which need to be respected during identification. Taxonomic difficulties related to sector zoning, isomorphism, polytypism will be considered in respect to mineral identification methodology.

The course will include a critical review of the classical mineral identification methods and will focus on modern analytical tools like EPMA, XRD, software for processing of row analytical data and databases for mineral identification. The applicability field of each component method will be outlined, using proper examples.
 

The descritpion is available only in Bulgarian language. Please switch to the bulgarian version of the site to read the annotation of the course.

The descritpion is available only in Bulgarian language. Please switch to the bulgarian version of the site to read the annotation of the course.

Thе present educational course is envisaged primarily PhD students in the field of engineering geology and environmental geotechnics, but could be useful for professionals as well whose professional activity is directly related to the geological environment as ground base for construction of buildings and facilities.

The course aims to introduce PhD students in the theoretical basis and implementation of one of the most versatile and widely applied geotechnical laboratory tests – the triaxial test. The course includes a study of the main types of the triaxial test: Consolidated Drained (CD), Consolidated Undrained (CU) and Unconsolidated Undrained (UU).
 

The present educational course is envisaged primarily PhD students in the field of engineering geology and environmental geotechnics, but could be useful for professionals as well whose professional activity is directly related to design and construction of facilities for long-tem waste disposal.

The course aims to introduce PhD students in the measurements of hydraulic parameters of engineering barriers constructed by stabilized soils. The course focuses especially on the test for measurement of hydraulic conductivity of natural and improved soils using a flexible wall permeameter under steady state regime of filtration. This measurement technique allows most correct determination of the coefficient of filtration of low permeable materials (in the range of 10-6  ̶  10-11 m/s) what are used in the construction of engineering barriers in disposal facilities.
 

The aim of the ISOTOPE GEOLOGY course is to give PhD students in Earth Sciences basic knowledge of isotope methods and their applications in geology. The decay of natural radioactive isotopes makes the basis of the absolute methods (U-Pb, K-Ar, Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, etc.) for measuring the geologic time since the Earth planet was created 4.5 billion years ago. They significantly changed the knowledge about its history, evolution of the crust and mantle and the main processes that took place in the earth's interior: magmatism, volcanism, ore formation, etc. The radiogenic isotopes give information about the origin of rocks from different reservoirs (crustal, mantle or mixed) and about the origin and evolution of magmatic-hydrothermal systems, sediment and metamorphic rocks.

The elements with a small atomic mass (H, C, N, O, S) are characterized by fractionation (separation) of the isotopes. It depends on the environmental conditions at their formation: temperature, acidity, redox processes, biogenic processes, etc. They help the study of physicochemical parameters of geological processes that took place millions of years ago, such as the temperature of ancient seas and its seasonal fluctuations, biogenic processes and the occurrence of living organisms, energy resources, the origin and evolution of hydrothermal fluids and ore deposits, etc.