Pedro J. M. Costa

I am currently working as a Post-Doc Research Fellow in a UK Natural Environment Research Council project (a four–year investigation to assess the hazard that landslide-tsunamis in the Arctic could pose to the UK over the next 100 to 200 years). My work is supervised by Dr. Sue Dawson and focus in the sedimentological quest for palaeotsunami deposits in the coasts of N Scotland, Shetland, Hebrides, Norway, Canada and Iceland.

Academic achievements

2001 - BSc (Licenciatura – 5 year degree) in Geology (University of Coimbra, Portugal).

2006 – Master degree - “Recognizing tsunami deposits in two coastal areas of Portugal” (Brunel University, London, United Kingdom). Supervisors: Profs. Suzanne Leroy and Steve Kershaw (Brunel University, London, UK) and Prof. Jorge Dinis (Univ. of Coimbra, Portugal).

2012 - PhD in Geology (Univ. Lisbon, Portugal) - "Sedimentological signatures of extreme marine inundations". Supervisors: Prof. César Andrade (Univ. Lisbon, Portugal) and Prof. Alastair Dawson (Univ. Aberdeen, Scotland).

Research Interests

At the moment, my research focus in the identification and differentiation of tsunami (and storm) deposits in the Holocene. This involves the use of basic sedimentological techniques as well as the use of other proxies (e.g. microtextural analysis of quartz grains; heavy minerals; textural analysis, depositional sedimentary features, etc.). I have applied this methodology to tsunami deposits from Portugal, Scotland, Indonesia, Chile and Japan.

I also worked in paleoseismological studies and Holocene reconstruction of Lakes Ulubat, Sapanga and Hersek (Turkey) and Banc d’Arguin (Mauritania). Furthermore I also participated in paleoseismological studies in the Lower Tagus Valley Fault (Portugal), in the study of Antarctic soils and aspects of Mars geology.

Since 2001 I participated in half dozen European and Portuguese funded projects dedicated to natural hazards and their sedimentological signatures.

Papers

Costa, P.J.M., Andrade, C., Dawson, A.G., Mahaney, W.C., Paris, R., Freitas, M.C. and Taborda, R., 2012. Microtextural characteristics of quartz grains transported and deposited by tsunamis and storms. Sedimentary Geology, 275-276: 55-69. 

Costa, P.J.M., Andrade, C., Mahaney, W.C., Marques da Silva, F., Freire, P., Freitas, M.C., Janardo, C., Oliveira, M.A., Silva, T. and Lopes, V., 2013. Aeolian Microtextures in Silica Spheres Induced in Wind Tunnel Experiment: Comparison with Aeolian Quartz. Geomorphology, 180-181: 120-129.

Costa, P.J.M., Andrade, C., Freitas, M.C., Oliveira, M.A., Lopes, V., Dawson, A.G., Moreno, J., Fatela, F. and Jouanneau, J.-M., 2012. A tsunami record in the sedimentary archive of the central Algarve coast, Portugal: characterizing sediment, reconstructing sources and inundation paths. The Holocene, 22(8): 899-914.

Costa, P.J.M., Leroy, S., Dinis, J., Dawson, A. and Kortekaas, S., 2012. Recent high-energy marine events in the sediments of Lagoa de Obidos and Martinhal (Portugal): recognition, age and likely causes. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 12: 1367-1380.

Costa, P.J.M., Andrade, C., Freitas, M.C., Oliveira, M.A., Silva, C.M.d., Omira, R., Taborda, R., Baptista, M.A. and Dawson, A.G., 2011. Boulder deposition during major tsunami events. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 36: 2054–2068.

Costa, P.J.M., Andrade, C., Freitas, M.C., Oliveira, M.A. and Jouanneau, J.M., 2009. Preliminary Results of Exoscopic Analysis of Quartz Grains Deposited by a Palaeotsunami in Salgados Lowland (Algarve, Portugal). Journal of Coastal Research: 39-43.

St-Onge, G., Chapron, E., Salas, M., Viel, M., Mulsow, S., Debret, M., Foucher, A., Mulder, T., Desmet, M., Costa, P., Ghaleb, B., Jaouen, A. and Locat, J., 2012. Comparison of earthquake-triggered turbidites from the Saguenay (Eastern Canada) and Reloncavi (Chilean margin) Fjords: implications for paleoseismicity and sedimentology. Sedimentary Geology, 243–244: 89-107.

Dohm, J.M., Miyamoto, H., Ori, G.G., Fairén, A.G., Davila, A.F., Komatsu, G., Mahaney, W.C., Williams, J.-P., Joye, S.B., Di Achille, G., Oehler, D., Marzo, G.A., Schulze-Makuch, D., Acocella, V., Glamoclija, M., Pondrelli, M., Boston, P., Allen, C.R., Anderson, R.C., Baker, V.R., Fink, W., Frazer, A.R., Furfaro, R., Gross, C.H., Hare, T.M., Kris, M., Hart, F., Ip, F., Kelleher, B.P., Kim, K.J., Maruyama, S., McGuire, P.C., Netoff, D., Parnell, J., Wendt, L., Wheelock, S., Steele, A., Hancock, R.G.V., Havics, R.A., Costa, P. and Krinsley, D., 2011. An Inventory of Potentially Habitable Environments on Mars: Geological and Biological Perspectives. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 483, Garry, W.B., and Bleacher, J.E., eds. Analogs for Planetary Exploration: 317-347.

Mahaney, W.C., Hart, K.M., Dohm, J.M., Hancock, R.G.V., Costa, P., O'Reilly, S.S., Kelleher, B.P., Schwartz, S. and Lanson, B., 2011. Aluminum extracts in Antarctic paleosols: Proxy data for organic compounds and bacteria and implications for Martian paleosols. Sedimentary Geology, 237(1-2): 84-94.

Oliveira, M.A., Andrade, C., Freitas, M.C., Costa, P., Taborda, R., Janardo, C. and Neves, R., 2011. Transport of large boulders quarried from shore platforms of the Portuguese west coast. Journal of Coastal Research (SI 64): 1871 - 1875.

Leroy, S.A.G., Schwab, M.J. and Costa, P.J.M., 2010. Seismic influence on the last 1500-year infill history of Lake Sapanca (North Anatolian Fault, NW Turkey). Tectonophysics, 486(1-4): 15-27.