Wade Van Zyl

PhD candidate

Project title:  Ambient Seismic Interferometry of the Okavango Delta and Machine Learning for Seismic Event Detection in Stable Continental Regions

Research interests: Geophysics, Structural Geology, Seismology, Computational Earth Science Models, Machine Learning, Metamorphic Petrology, Thermodynamic Equilibrium Modelling, Mantle Petrology, Large Low Shear Velocity Provinces (LLSVPs), Seismic Hazard, Ambient Seismic Interferometry, Hydrological Velocity Variations.

 

Wade is a PhD student at the University of Cape Town specialising in computational models to explain geological observations. During his honours, he focused on thermodynamic modelling to constrain petrogenetic processes involved in Archean Subcontinental Lithospheric Mantle formation, investigating melting calculations and comparing residuum compositions with current observations.

For his master's, he transitioned to Seismology and Machine Learning, where he successfully demonstrated the transferability of benchmark datasets across different tectonic environments by applying tectonically active datasets to stable continental regions. This research culminated in developing the first operational machine learning workflow for earthquake event identification within the UCT Geophysics research group, which has since been adopted by multiple students for their own research projects.

His PhD research focuses on two main areas: creating the first machine learning benchmark dataset for stable continental regions using local seismic waveform data, and applying seismic interferometry to constrain local hydrological conditions through apparent seismic velocity changes, with particular emphasis on the Okavango River Delta region.

Supervisors:   A/Prof Alastair Sloan and  Dr Diego Quiros

Science Engagement:  Seismologist On A Rock (SOAR) 

Degrees

  1. MSc in Geological Sciences (UCT), 2024

  2. BSc (Hons)  in Geological Sciences (UCT), 2022

  3. BSc  in Geological Sciences, Pure Mathematics, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, (UCT), 2021

Awards

  1. University of Cape Town Plus Gold Award (2019)

  2. Class medal for GEO3001S (2019)

  3. Dean's Merit List (2021)

  4. Academic Transformation of the Academic Program (ATAP) Fellowship (2023)

Departments