Former Prof. Dr. Tobias Mörz

Marine engineering geology is an interdisciplinary field with a practical orientation. It comprises parts of soil mechanics, geotechnics, sedimentology, and geophysics.

Fundamental Research:
In fundamental research the focus is on coastal- and shelf geology and on sediment mechanics. Research foci are:
(1) The complex quaternary evolution of the current North Sea. Here, classic methods of geophysical and sedimentological seabed surveys are combined with geotechnical methods as the cone penetration test (CPT) and element tests.
(2) Different soil properties such as the liquefaction potential during cyclic stress, e.g. earth quakes or pile drivings as well as the influence of weathering of volcanic ashes on the slope stability.

Applied research:
(1) Development of innovative methods for the geotechnical offshore exploration in field study including e.g. the Geotechnical Offshore Seabed Tool (GOST) and a land-based mobile Vibro-CPT unit.
(2) Development of geotechnical test chambers for the characterization of sediment samples in the laboratory. These devices include a CPTu test chamber and a cyclic triaxial chamber.
(3) Use and further development of numerical models to simulate complex soil-structure interactions.

Working areas:
Paleolandscape of the North Sea, volcanic sediments in New Zealand, applied geotechnical onshore and offshore field studies in Germany and Europe.