Prof. Dr. Michaela Spiske
- Research group: Sedimentology
- Professor for Sedimentology; Chair Sedimentary Geology; Head of Sedimentology Group
- Main focus: natural hazards (e.g. tsunamis, storm surges); coastal processes; eventstratigraphy (reconstruction of events); post-event surveys in the wake of events; facies analyses (reconstruction of depositional settings); processes of erosion, transport and deposition
Cox, R., Bourke, M.C., Engel, M., Kennedy, A.B., Lau, A., Suanez, S., Boulton, S.J., Oliveira, M.A., Paris, R., Salmanidou, D., Spiske, M., Stephenson, W., Roberts, S., Switzer, A.D., Mhammdi, N., Cullen, N.D., Watanabe, M., 2025: Understanding extreme-wave hazards on high-energy coasts requires a standardised approach to field data collection: Analysis and recommendations. EGUsphere, pdf.
Spiske, M., Strasser, A., 2023: Typisierung, Genese und Korrelierbarkeit der “Harten Bänke” in den Rahmengesteinen der potentiellen geologischen Standortgebiete in der Nordwest Schweiz. Expertengruppe Geologische Tiefenlagerung, Positionspapier, pdf.
Rasser, M., Spiske, M., Battenstein, M., Lehmkuhl, A., Ambrosius, R., Hanewinkel, A., Müller, J., 2023: Neues von der Fossillagerstätte Öhninger Maar (Mittel-Miozän, Hegau). Jahresberichte und Mitteilungen des Oberrheinischen Geologischen Vereins, 105, 285-302.
Spiske, M., Pilarczyk, J., Mitchell, S., Halley, R.E., Otai, T., 2022: Coastal erosion and sediment reworking caused by Hurricane Irma – implications for storm impact on low-lying tropical islands. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 47, 891–907, pdf.
Mitchell, S., Pilarczyk, J., Spiske, M., Jaffe, B.E., 2022: Nearshore microfossil assemblages in a Caribbean reef environment show variable rates of recovery following Hurricane Irma. Sedimentology, 69, 1209–1230.
Goff, J., Witter, R., Terry, J., Spiske, M., 2020: Palaeotsunamis in the Sino-Pacific region. Earth-Science Reviews, 210, 103352.
Lopéz, A.M., Aliaga, B., Arcos, N., Chacon-Barrantes, S., Calais, E., Clouard, N., Feuillet, N., Fuentes, N., Hough, S., Lemoine, A., Okal, E., Paris, R., Philibosian, B., Sánchez, J.M., Spiske, M., Weber, J., 2020: Credible tsunami sources in the Lesser Antilles. UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Report Series, pdf.
Spiske, M., 2020: The sedimentology and geometry of fine-grained tsunami deposits in onshore environments. In: Engel, M., Pilarczyk, J., May, S.M., Brill, D., Garrett, E. Eds., Geological Records of Tsunamis and Other Extreme Waves. Elsevier, Chapter 11, pp. 213–238, ISBN 9780128156865.
Spiske, M., Tang, H., Bahlburg, H., 2020: Post-depositional alteration of onshore tsunami deposits – Implications for the reconstruction of past events. Earth-Science Reviews, 202, 103068.
Spiske, M., Garcia Garcia, A.-M., Tsukamoto, S., Schmidt, V., 2020. High-energy inundation events versus long-term coastal processes – room for misinterpretation. Sedimentology, 67, 1460–1480.
Atwater, B.F., ten Brink, U.S., Cescon, A.L., Feuillet, N., Fuentes, Z., Halley, R.B., Nuñez, C., Reinhardt, E.G., Roger, J.H., Sawai, Y., Spiske, M., Tuttle, M.P., Wei, Y., Weil-Accardo, J., 2017: Extreme waves in the British Virgin Islands during the last centuries before 1500 CE. Geosphere, 13, 301–368, pdf.
Wiese, B.U., Görres, C.M., Jurasinski, G., Neidhardt, H., Noack, L., Sasgen, I., Soja, B., Spiske, M., Stähler, S., Beeskow-Strauch, B., Weihmann, S.A., 2017: Think global, research local - Netzwerken in den Geowissenschaften. Geowissenschaftliche Mitteilungen (GMIT), 67, 23–24.
Bellanova, P., Bahlburg, H., Nentwig, V., Spiske, M., 2016: Microtextural analysis of quartz grains of tsunami and non-tsunami deposits – a case study from Tirúa (Chile). Sedimentary Geology, 343, 72–84.
Spiske, M., 2016: Coral-rubble ridges as dynamic coastal features – short-term reworking and weathering processes. Advances in Geosciences, 38, 55–61, pdf.
Benavente, C., Spiske, M., Delgado, F., Bahlburg, H., 2016: Depósitos de paleotsunamis en la costa central y sur del Perú. INGEMMET. Boletín, Serie C: Geodinámica e Ingeniería Geológica, 62, 185 p, pdf.
Bahlburg, H. and Spiske, M., 2015: Styles of early diagenesis and the preservation potential of onshore tsunami deposits – a resurvey of Isla Mocha, Central Chile, two years after the February 27, 2010 Maule tsunami. Sedimentary Geology, 326, 33–44.
Spiske, M., Bahlburg, H., Weiss, R., 2014: Pliocene mass failure deposits mistaken as submarine tsunami backwash sediments – an example from Hornitos, Northern Chile. Sedimentary Geology, 305, 69–82.
Spiske, M. and Halley, R.B., 2014: A coral rubble ridge as evidence for hurricane overwash, Anegada (British Virgin Islands). Advances in Geosciences, 38, 9–20, pdf.
Spiske, M., Piepenbreier, J., Benavente, C., Bahlburg, H., 2013: Preservation potential of tsunami deposits on arid siliciclastic coasts. Earth-Science Reviews, 126, 58–73.
Spiske, M., Piepenbreier, J., Benavente, C., Kunz, A., Bahlburg, H., Steffahn, J., 2013: Historical tsunami deposits in Peru: Sedimentology, inverse modeling and optically stimulated luminescence dating. Quaternary International, 305, 31–44.
Bahlburg, H. and Spiske, M., 2012: Sedimentology of tsunami inflow and backflow deposits: key differences revealed in a modern example. Sedimentology, 59, 1063–1086.
Benavente, C., Fabrizio, D., Spiske, M., Laurence, A. 2012: Seismites and paleotsunamis deposits, assessing for paleoseismicity in Peru. In: Péréz-Lopez, R., Silva, P.G., Rodriguez Pascua, M.A., Garduño Monroy, V.H., Suarez, G. & Reicherter (eds.) Proceedings 3rd INQUA-IGPC 567 International Workshop on Earthquake Geology and Archaeology: Science, Society and Seismic hazard, 3, 21–24.
Spiske, M. and Bahlburg, H., 2011: A quasi-experimental setting of coarse clast transport by the 2010 Chile tsunami (Bucalemu, Central Chile). Marine Geology, 289, 72–85.
Arp, G., Back, S., Bahlburg, H., Betzler, C., Breitkreuz, C., Fischer, C., Gaupp, R., Heimhofer, U., Heubeck, C., Hinderer, M., Immenhauser, A., Mösle, B., Reichenbacher, B., Reicherter, K., Reuning, L., Spiske, M., Stollhofen, H., Voigt, S., von Eynatten, H., 2011: Sedimentäre Geologie – Status, Signifikanz, Perspektiven. Geowissenschaftliche Mit-teilungen (GMIT), 44, 6–17.
Bahlburg, H., Spiske, M., Weiss, R., 2010: Discussion of „Sedimentary features of tsunami backwash deposits in a shallow marine Miocene setting, Mejillones Peninsula, northern Chile, Sedimentary Geology, 178(3/4), 259-273" by Cantalamessa and Di Celma (2005). Sedimentary Geology, 228, 77–80.
Spiske, M., Weiss, R., Bahlburg, H., Roskosch, J., Amijaya, H., 2010: The application of the TsuSedMod inversion model for the estimation of flow depth and speed of the 2004 Sumatra and 2006 Java tsunamis and implications for paleo-tsunami research. Sedimentary Geology, 224, 29–37.
Spiske, M. and Jaffe, B., 2009: Sedimentology and hydrodynamic implications of a coarse grained hurricane sequence in a carbonate reef setting. Geology, 37, 839–842.
Maletz, J., Reimann, C., Spiske, M., Bahlburg, H., Brussa, E.D., 2009: Darriwilian (Middle Ordovician) graptolite faunas of the Sandia region, southern Peru. Geological Journal, 45, 397–411.
Spiske, M., Böröcz, Z., Bahlburg, H., 2008: The role of porosity in discriminating between tsunami and hurricane emplacement of boulders - a case study from the Lesser Antilles, southern Caribbean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 268, 384–396.
Spiske, M., Reimann, C., Bahlburg, H., Carlotto, V., 2006: Sedimentology and facies analysis of the Ordovician San José and Sandia Formations in the Sandia region, Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru. Boletin de la Sociedad Geologica del Peru, 101, 121–138.
in progress
Summary
My research interests include short-term and long-term geological processes, most of all the event-stratigraphy of natural hazards, such as tsunamis, storm surges and mass wasting events, both in terrestrial and marine environments and on different time scales (recent, historical, fossil). I am interested in sediment-climate interactions, as well as the effects of sea level rise, and the preservation potential of sediments in different depositional settings. Furthermore, I aim to reconstruct ancient depositional environments and climate conditions.
I conduct field campaigns in different parts of the world to learn about processes acting during sediment entrainment, transport and deposition. I aim for a detailed understanding of related hydrodynamics by using field data, sediment characteristics, numerical modelling and flume experiments. My projects aim to understand the involved processes, to quantify frequencies and intensities/magnitudes of natural hazards, as well as to find new proxies for their distinction within the geological record. The combination of studying recent sedimentary processes and applying the obtained knowledge on deposits from comparable depositional environments within the geological record helps to understand basic processes, to learn from the past and to be better prepared for the future.
Projects are realized in close collaboration, amongst others, with the UNESCO, Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver (Canada), United States Geological Survey (USGS), INGEMMET (Peru), etc.
I am member of the IOC-UNESCO expert panel for earthquake and tsunami hazard in the Lesser Antilles, and in Southern Peru and Northern Chile. Furthermore, I am adjunct professor for the geology of natural hazards at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and external reviewer for stratigraphy related to the Swiss prospection for a deep geological repository (Eidgenössisches Nuklearsicherheitsinspektorat ENSI). Moreover, I represent the discipline sedimentology as spokesman of the German "Section Sedimentology" within the DGGV, including the position as member of the DGGV´s advisory committee.
Contact
Prof. Dr. Michaela Spiske
4.012a
Kirschallee 1 - 3
53115 Bonn